In an effort to better address the environmental issues related to Pennsylvania’s agriculture, an Agriculture and Environment Science and Policy Center has been created in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences as a Cooperative Extension program.

The new center, housed under the college's Environment and Natural Resources Institute (ENRI), will be a focal point for outreach that draws from Penn State’s extensive cross-disciplinary research on air and water quality, soil conservation, invasive species, climate change, and other environmental issues of consequence to agriculture.

But the most critical issue and highest priority facing the new agricultural and environmental policy center is Pennsylvania's nutrient imbalance challenge, as it relates to the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, according to Jim Shortle, ENRI director and distinguished professor of agricultural and environmental economics. "Agriculture is increasingly an important target of environmental-protection policies in Pennsylvania. At the same time, environmental goals are increasingly important in agricultural policies in this state,” he says. “This evolution is occurring for many reasons, but chief among them is recognition that agriculture has enormous impacts on the environment, both positive and negative.”