Quality control and management systems are becoming a big part of Iowa farming industry as technology begins to expand. The Iowa Agriculture Quality Initiative is holding its second meeting this year at Iowa State to answer questions and discuss what implications these topics will have for Iowa farmers and businesses. The meeting will be held Wednesday at the Scheman Building from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The meeting is free and open to the public, but registration is required. The meeting brings together leaders from Iowa to share information about International Organization of Standards (ISO 9000), which is a universal quality management system endorsed by more than 110 countries. “It is a self-created checklist of functions, policies and rules considered necessary to assure the quality of a company’s product and services,” said Reg Clause, field specialist for the ISU Center for Industrial Research (CIRAS). Because of stricter guidelines, government regulators such as the Environmental Protection Agency are moving to require more stringent controls for environmental and food safety issues. “Manufacturing and many service industries now recognize that quality as a goal improves business,” Clause said. “ISO 9000 offers a ready-made framework for any business structure to apply, communicate, understand and document quality.” Verl Anders, industrial specialist for CIRAS, said the ISO 9000 is a worldwide program. In the United States, it is mainly used as a quality system for manufacturing in trucking firms. “ISO stands for the International Organization of Standards, and it means equal and standard, applied equally around the world,” Anders said. Clause said that Pioneer has already implemented the ISO 9000 series. Dan Hoy from Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. in Des Moines, will speak on how ISO 9000 has worked for them and why they are happy with this system. “Iowa State is the forefront of educating people in the why of it,” Clause said. “The market is becoming more and more demanding of the types of systems.” The sponsors for the meeting are the ISU College of Agriculture, ISU extension and CIRAS.