Project Number: 3625-12000-012-03
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 25, 2007
End Date: Dec 31, 2009

Objective:
1. Quantify the impact of producing agricultural crops for biofuels or establishing a CAFO within the South Fork Watershed of the Iowa River. 2. Determine who pays the costs and who benefits from the capital investments that support such changes. 3. Assess how rural communities will respond to these shifts in agricultural production systems.

Approach:
Using multiple social indicators of poverty and human migration, an index and/or surrogate indicator that best reflects changes in poverty at the County level within the South Fork Watershed will be developed and correlated to physical indicators of landscape change. Potential social indicators of poverty may include: (1) change in the number of children receiving free or reduced cost school lunches, (2) change in the number of food stamp recipients, (3) change in the amount (value) of food stamps issued, or (4) change in the number of requests for energy assistance within the county. Potential indicators of human migration may include: (1) net migration of persons between (a) 25 and 45 years of age or (b) 20 and 25 years of age, (2) gross migration of persons between (a) 25 and 45 years of age or (b) 20 and 25 years of age, (3) total net migration, (4) total gross migration, or (5) changes in the number of drivers licenses issued within the county during the past three decades. The poverty and migration indices will be correlated to changes in cropping systems, soil quality, and water quality being measured by ARS scientists participating in the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP).