Iowa’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) is celebrating 40 years of lending a helping hand to farmers.

Over the years, CARD has advised farmers concerning agriculture, food, the environment and rural development issues.

“One hundred faculty, staff and post-doctoral students are currently involved in CARD,” said Judith Pim, the manager of communications for CARD. “CARD is funded 85 percent by soft money or by organizations like the USDA,” Pim said.

A lot of the funding has to be raised by the people involved in the program, Pim said.

According to an informational pamphlet, CARD is divided into three major research divisions, including Trade and Agricultural Policy Division, which examines the impacts of domestic and international trade policies.

The second division is the Food and Nutrition Policy Division, which analyzes food consumption patterns, food assistance programs and food policy in the United States and selected developing nations.

The Resource and Environmental Policy Division assesses regional, national and international policies affecting the environment.

In the 1950s, because farm income was down, 15 prominent Iowa businessmen and farm leaders wrote Iowa State President James Hilton and Agricultural Dean Floyd Andre requesting a university program that worked to find solutions to their common farm problems.

The Center of Agricultural Adjustment began on July 1, 1958, with Earl O. Heady as the first director.

After several name changes, the center’s program also changed. It began to focus more on technology and economic changes in farming.

Heady left an extensive impression on the farming community. Before this, farming choices were based on experience and observations, but Heady developed a more scientific approach.

Stan Johnson, vice provost for extension, said CARD has influenced farm legislature over the years.

“Most through the supply of timely and balanced analysis of the outcomes of legislation that has been proposed, nationally for the United States and other countries,” Johnson said.

“Examples include the past farm bills, the Conservation reserve, the Gatt Negotiations, Expert Enhancement, changes in European community policy, Food Stamp policy, environmental regulation and many others,” Johnson said.

Johnson said it is difficult to anticipate what the future holds for CARD. Johnson said possible areas of future exploration include agricultural science, both global and local farm markets, property rights and environmental management in agriculture and food safety.

“We all as well have a continuing set of issues related to rural development,” Johnson said.

One of the reasons CARD has continued to grow is because “it uniquely brings together researchers from other sources beyond agriculture including economics, engineering and most recently, environmental researchers,” Pim said.