Iowa State University Research

Big step for bio-based innovation in Iowa: BioMADE + Iowa State will add a multi-use fermentation facility at the BioCentury Research Farm—helping ideas like biopesticides, feed ingredients & bioplastics grow from lab to market. More: https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/isu-infrastructure-industry-partnerships-support-new-scale-facility

Iowa farmers are no strangers to hardship—but how does that hardship shape the way they farm today?

A new study from Iowa State's sociologists Chris Morris and J. Arbuckle takes a closer look at the long-term effects of collective trauma—from the 1980s farm crisis to climate disasters and volatile markets—on farmer decision-making.

The findings are both sobering and hopeful:

🧠 Trauma can lead to risk-avoidance and stress-driven choices
🌾 But it can also inspire conservation, innovation, and stewardship
❤️ Most importantly, it shows that supporting farmers’ mental and emotional health is key to building sustainable agriculture

This research highlights the power of land-grant institutions to listen, learn, and lead change—grounded in real lives and rural experiences.

➡️ Read the full study here:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-024-10596-x

Thanks to the 2025 Bridging the Divide awards, new interdisciplinary research is just getting underway at Iowa State—and it could change lives.

Two teams of Iowa State researchers have received 2025 Bridging the Divide grants to launch innovative, cross-disciplinary projects:

SmartStep is a wearable device designed to help people walk better by monitoring their gait in real time.

A second team is combining mathematics and political science to better understand how communities respond during public health crises. By integrating insights from multiple disciplines, their work could help public health leaders and policymakers make smarter, more people-centered decisions in future pandemics.

Both projects are at the beginning stages—and both are proof that when disciplines collaborate, powerful ideas emerge.

Read the full story: https://research.iastate.edu/2025/05/12/two-research-teams-receive-2025-bridging-the-divide-grants/

Why We Need More Seed Industry Professionals — and the People to Teach Them - Seed World Walk into any ag-focused classroom, seed testing lab, or production field, and you're likely to hear the same thing: We’re losing people faster than we