ANKENY — The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) has been awarded nearly $100 million for creation of the Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program administered by the Soil & Water Outcomes Fund (SWOF). The grant was awarded through the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s (USDA) Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities.

The five-year program will provide direct financial incentives for farmers operating in Iowa and 11 other states to implement on-farm practices resulting in positive environmental outcomes.

“It’s a unique and historic grant that will accelerate public and private partnerships necessary to achieve sustained improvements in air and water quality,” says Kirk Leeds, ISA CEO. “We’ve long touted this model, with farmers leading the way and being rewarded for implementing practices that have far-reaching benefits.”

AgOutcomes, an ISA wholly owned subsidiary, and ReHarvest Partners, joined in 2020 to launch the SWOF. The SWOF provides financial incentives directly to farmers who transition to on-farm conservation practices verified to have multiple environmental benefits.

Adam Kiel, SWOF Managing Director, says the USDA grant will build upon its successes in connecting farmers with market opportunities and revenue streams resulting from the transaction of environmental outcomes to public and private partners. These outcomes are essential to meeting regulatory and voluntary goals, including scope 3 greenhouse gas emission insets and water quality improvements.

“By stacking together the many positive environmental outcomes of on-farm conservation practices, we deliver outcome-based payments to our farmer partners and extremely competitive environmental outcome pricing to our partners,” Kiel said. “This innovative approach, connection to farmers across a large geographical area, and proven track record of results were a perfect match for a USDA Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities investment.”

Leeds, who also serves as President and CEO of AgOutcomes, said USDA funding combined with $66.1 million in corporate commitments for outcome-based payments to farmers will significantly enhance work with farmers to incorporate climate smart practices on millions of acres of farmland in 12 states.

“Iowa’s soybean farmers were key in launching SWOF and we appreciate the opportunity we have been given to leverage these early investments with the dollars being provided by USDA and our other partners,” he added.

In addition to supporting farmers, funding will also be used for farmer enrollment and technical assistance, as well as outcome quantification, measurement, reporting and verification. The project will produce real world data on the costs and benefits of implementation to farmers and the environment and support the development of markets for climate-smart commodities.

ISA affiliate organizations, including Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance, were also announced as partner recipients on two additional grants through the USDA program. These projects will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve carbon sequestration for corn, soybean, pork and beef commodities, while creating transformational opportunities for small and historically underserved producers.

To learn more, visit iasoybeans.com or theoutcomesfund.com.

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

Iowa Workforce Development launched a new Business Engagement Division Monday.

IWD director, Beth Townsend, says they’re hoping it will make it easier for employers to access state resources. “The idea is that we want to provide a one stop shop for Iowa’s employers to help meet all of their workforce needs,” she says. Townsend says the workforce system can be a little complex, and it is scattered over several different areas.

“We’ve never had anything like this in Iowa….workforce programs are scattered across a number of different agencies, and we’re trying to bring some of those to the workforce, and then the others will just help you navigate the system. But we’ve never had a business engagement team in the agency that was focused entirely upon helping businesses,” she says. She says they have had business marketing specialists in the past who have met with employers and worked with them.

Townsend says they hope this is a more strategic and more concentrated effort as they head out across the state to meet with business owners. “To introduce ourselves, if we don’t already know you, to remind you of the resources we have available to help with employers’ workforce needs, to help them navigate the workforce system in Iowa, because it can be a little complex,” according to Townsend.

She says the new division will be led by administrator Tim Goodwin and deputy administrator Kathy Anderson. Both have previous business experience and come from outside the agency.”If you’re not in the system and you’re looking at it from the outside, sometimes you have a better view of things that we could be doing to improve services,” Townsend says. “And they certainly brought that to the table.”

Townsend says they will listen and adapt as they visit more businesses. “We plan to every, you know, two or three weeks in this period of time, where we’re going out meeting with employers getting back together and, and digesting the feedback that we’re getting,” she says.

Townsend says they have a new customer service number for employers to call. That number is 1-833-469-2967.

The Iowa Departments of Education and Health and Human Services yesterday awarded 10 competitive grants, up to $100,000 each, to public school districts for training and coaching school health care workers on COVID response-and-recovery initiatives focused on social-emotional-behavioral health.

The COVID-19 Public Health Workforce Supplement Funding grants will help school districts enhance mental health literacy, implement evidence-based practices and expand capacity for addressing the social-emotional-behavioral health needs of students resulting from or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants can be used to cover costs associated with planning, training and coaching, including travel expenses for up to 12 professional development opportunities.

“The COVID-19 crisis shined a bright light on an already growing children’s mental health crisis nationwide. These grants will help support the complex needs that Iowa’s families are facing. Expanding opportunities to skill build in coping and resiliency, learning a common language to talk about mental health, I see these as foundational for the health of our kids,” shared Kelly Garcia, director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

“The emotional health and academic growth of students are closely connected,” said Ann Lebo, director of the Iowa Department of Education. “These additional resources will help schools expand their capacity for addressing the social-emotional-behavioral health needs of students, break down barriers to learning and improve outcomes as we move forward.”

The following 10 districts were awarded a one-time COVID-19 Public Health Workforce Supplemental Funding grant.

• Chariton Community School District $9,524.60
• Dubuque Community School District $64,354.20
• East Buchanan Community School District $54,974
• Harlan Community School District $42,550
• Iowa City Community School District $94,837
• Logan Magnolia Community School District $30,300
• Mount Pleasant Community School District $50,000
• North Mahaska Community School District $51,000
• Muscatine Community School District $100,000
• Storm Lake Community School District $95,525

The Iowa Departments of Education and Health and Human Services received $4.5 million from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention for the grants, which were awarded to school districts through a competitive process. Award amounts were based on the funding requested by each district to support their professional development plan, not to exceed $100,000. Priority consideration was given to applicants that have not received additional federal funding to cover the costs of professional learning and coaching beyond what they have available through three rounds of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) and Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) school improvement funds.

This is the third and final round of funding. All professional development and associated expenses funded through the grant must be completed by June 30, 2023. A total of 17 districts were awarded over $1.3 million through the first two rounds of funding.

More information is available on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.