Innovations for Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Supplies in Intensively Cultivated Regions

To keep pace with the demands of a growing global population, innovations will be needed to meet the unprecedented challenge of producing more food in intensively cultivated regions with less net energy and lowered environmental impacts. In this project, researchers from the biophysical, socioeconomic, and computational sciences will investigate two types of innovations using data from the northern U.S. Corn Belt. First, a novel oilseed crop, winter camelina, will be studied for its potential incorporation into existing corn-soybean rotations to produce a new stream of biodiesel energy while mitigating water resource impacts and generating ecological benefits. Second, emerging systems of sustainability certification will be studied for their potential to induce broad-scale adoption of new cropping systems. Detailed computational models will be applied for systems-level assessments of both innovations, developing innovative approaches to examine land use dynamics, and accounting for energy and environmental impacts within food supply chains. Because of the importance of the project results on the local economy, outreach activities will engage the rural community, policy makers, the general public, and local watershed planners.