For the second year, the Iowa State Farm Economy Team will be working to provide farm families and rural communities with help during stressful times.

This year the team will take a more active role in counseling and giving advice to farmers, said ISU President Martin Jischke.

Jischke highlighted the ISU Farm Economy Team in his fall convocation as one of the university’s roles in agriculture. He appointed the first economy team, which was made up of 15 people, last September.

The 1999 Farm Economy Team should be appointed by the end of next week.

“The College of Agriculture had their own team, but I wanted a team made up of representatives from all the colleges — a more diverse group of people,” he said.

Stanley Johnson, vice provost for Cooperative Extension Service, led the team last year.

“The team works at both the national and state level with farm issues,” he said. “I believe this group is a good way for the university to serve the rural communities.”

The university is trying to organize ISU’s resources in order to be helpful and supportive during these difficult times.

For example, the team set up a Web site to make agricultural information more accessible to farmers and agricultural businesses, Jischke said.

“The Web site is widely used by a variety of people,” he said. “It keeps people informed of government policies and research being done. We are looking to expand the Web site this year.”

Another team goal is to teach farmers about their options in similar financial situations.

“ISU can help people understand value-added products, specialty markets, competition in commodities and alternative sources for income,” Jischke said.

The team works with Extension and other programs, along with the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), to get information in the hands of producers.

“The team plans to take a pro-active role for farmers that won’t fix the troubles but instead find a path to solutions,” Johnson said. “We want to provide training so we don’t find ourselves in these problems every three years.”

The Farm Economy Team also organizes conferences for private, public and volunteer service providers to farmers.

“The first conference we had in January focused on how to deal in these hard times,” Johnson said.

The team is planning to hold a similar conference on campus this fall.

Recently, the Farm Economy Team had an ICN program that reached 150 different sites, providing farmers with information about genetically modified organisms.

“It was the largest-ever program held on the ICN,” said Johnson, adding that the program included information on segregated markets and Europe’s and Japan’s concerns with the products.