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MSU joins Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network
Michigan State University is joining a network of research sites to develop national strategies for long term, sustainable ag production.
Agricultural ecologist Phil Robertson tells Brownfield research on the impacts of long-term practices has been underway for more than 30 years at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station, but as a funded member of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network, projects will be more stakeholder-driven.
“To find what experiments we should be undertaking, how those experiments should look, and what kind of outcomes would be most relevant for most producers,” he says.
Robertson says the new program can take fundamental knowledge from current work at KBS and direct it toward farm management practices, “To meet the food demand of the future as well as lessen the environmental footprint.”
He says the research varies throughout the country, but all are testing a business as usual scenario compared to aspirational systems.
