Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science (SAFES)
An interdisciplinary, science-to-practice platform to study landscape-level challenges
The Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science (SAFES) establishes a novel environment for accelerating solutions to persistently "wicked" landscape-level challenges centered on agriculture, food, and the environment. The science of agricultural sustainability underpins the mission of SAFES and provides a comprehensive approach to the complexity of challenges which integrates natural and social sciences with technological advancements, human behavior, economics, and policy.
SAFES integrates agriculturally- and environmentally-related disciplines to allow for holistically approaches for tackling "wicked" challenges.
SAFES trains the next generation of researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers in integrating information from across domains and using science-based data for decision making.
SAFES shortens the distance between science and practice by actively connecting biophysical scientists with sociologists, communication scientists and educators. This work is led by the Agriculture and Environment Center through a shared discovery engagement process.
Latest News
November 17, 2020
Spring symposium, seed grants to promote transdisciplinary biodiversity research
The Sustainability Institute at Penn State is hosting transdisciplinary symposia on biodiversity throughout the spring 2021 semester. The virtual series, "Mainstreaming Biodiversity in the Decade of Action," aims to expand collaborative networks and to inspire creative strategies to promote biodiversity in urban, agricultural and natural areas in order to improve human and ecological health and well-being.
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October 15, 2020
More precise nitrogen recommendations for corn to help farmers, cut pollution
Researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have developed an important component of a new system that corn growers can use to adjust nitrogen fertilizer applications based on site-specific measurements of cover crops and soil organic matter.
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October 2, 2020
Harvesting vegetation on riparian buffers barely reduces water-quality benefits
Allowing farmers to harvest vegetation from their riparian buffers will not significantly impede the ability of those streamside tracts to protect water quality by capturing nutrients and sediment — and it will boost farmers’ willingness to establish buffers. That is the conclusion of Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences researchers, who compared the impacts of six riparian buffer design scenarios over two, four-year crop rotations in two small central and southeastern Pennsylvania watersheds.
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September 9, 2020
SAFES is Hiring!
SAFES is currently hiring three new positions: Research Initiatives Associate, Administrative Support Coordinator, and Program Financial Assistant. Read more about these exciting new roles in the institute and follow links to apply.
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