This initiative brings together educators from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont for intensive training in two emerging issues faced by farmers in Northern New England: local grain production and energy conservation and alternatives.

Energy costs have skyrocketed in recent years and few economists predict that these costs will decrease in the near future. As a result, agriculture will need to adapt to this new environment, and Extension and other farmer educators will need to build their capacity to help growers understand their options for coping with energy costs.

To help farmers make choices appropriate for their operation, farmer educators need detailed knowledge about where to get the latest current and reliable information, how to assess a farm's energy needs and resources, and where to learn about individual states' programs and incentives.

There is also a growing interest in grain production in Northern New England. Preliminary research indicates that organic winter grain production is both feasible and cost-effective. However, there is still much to learn about producing grain crops in this region, including appropriate variety selection and breeding, weed and pest management, and plant spacing and rotations.

This initiative will train farmer educators in energy issues and local grain production using a participatory approach. The training will be grounded in on-farm experience and farmer experts will be among the trainers. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont will pool their resources to conduct high quality training, which will serve to establish communities of regional expertise around these critical agricultural issues.

The targets for this initiative are as follows:

• 9 educators will work with two growers each to implement energy conservation activities and assist with alternative energy decisions for their farm operations.
• 9 educators will work with two growers to implement new grain production strategies on their farms.
• 20 farmers and 10 non-profit and agency staff increase their knowledge of SARE resources and sustainable agriculture practices through attending workshops and on-farm events.
• Maine producers, educators and others submit 10 Farmer, 5 Partnership and 2 Sustainable Community grant applications for each of the next 3 years.

SARE Grant: $24,854

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

Energy costs have skyrocketed in recent years and few economists predict that these costs will decrease in the near future. As a result, agriculture will need to adapt to this new environment, and Extension and other farmer educators will need to build their capacity to help growers understand their options for coping with energy costs.

To help farmers make choices appropriate for their operation, farmer educators need detailed knowledge about where to get the latest current and reliable information, how to assess a farm's energy needs and resources, and where to learn about individual states' programs and incentives.

There is also a growing interest in grain production in Northern New England. Preliminary research indicates that organic winter grain production is both feasible and cost-effective. However, there is still much to learn about producing grain crops in this region, including appropriate variety selection and breeding, weed and pest management, and plant spacing and rotations.

This initiative will train farmer educators in energy issues and local grain production using a participatory approach. The training will be grounded in on-farm experience and farmer experts will be among the trainers. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont will pool their resources to conduct high quality training, which will serve to establish communities of regional expertise around these critical agricultural issues.

The targets for this initiative are as follows:

• 9 farmer educators (3 from each state) will work with two growers each to implement energy conservation activities and assist with alternative energy decisions for their farm operations.
• 9 farmer educators (3 from each state) will work with two growers to implement new grain production strategies on their farms.
• 15 agricultural professionals submit or assist another person in submitting a SARE mini-grant application; Vermont farmers, educators and others submit 16 Farmer, 8 Partnership and 6 Sustainable Community grant applications for each of the next 3 years.

SARE Grant: $25,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

The Cultivating Connections newsletter informs 1600 stakeholders about research, educational events, and training opportunities that promote sustainable agriculture. Each issue contains sections that highlight an educational program, a research endeavor, a farm profile, and an information resource, and lists sustainable agriculture training opportunities and educational events.

To build capacity in farm management, the University of Vermont will collaborate with the University of New Hampshire to hold in-depth workshops in farm management for Extension staff and other farm service providers in the legal and financial fields. This area has been identified by a New Hampshire Farm Viability Committee as being critical for New England farm sustainability and being an area in need of greater human resources that farmers can access.

The sustainable farm management workshops will educate service providers in methods of assessing the health of farm operations, alternative tenure and business arrangements, and estate and business transition planning.

The target of the initiative is as follows:

• Of the 30 service providers attending trainings, 10 service providers will increase their knowledge and skills in farm business management techniques for small diversified farmers and will use this information in their work with farmers.

SARE Grant: $15,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

A team made up of Extension faculty, farmers, and the executive directors of PASA and Pennsylvania Certified Organic (PCO) will work together to identify training priorities for this initiative. The purpose of this team will be to create a network of individuals and organizations with common values and objectives related to improving the sustainability of agriculture in Pennsylvania; this team will amplify individual efforts through the use of shared resources.

The target of this initiative is as follows:

• At least 50 county-based educators, NRCS personnel, and other agricultural professionals will attend sustainable agriculture training programs.
• Of these 50 professionals, 30 will gain new knowledge from the training.
• 20 of them will indicate that they have used new information on sustainable agriculture in their work with farmers.

SARE Grant: $15,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

By definition, all New Jersey agriculture is conducted on the urban fringe. This brings a complex set of farming sustainability problems and opportunities for agricultural professionals, which many were not prepared to address during their traditional academic training.

This initiative educates agricultural professionals and the public about such issues through developing a website and two newsletters: "Sustaining Farming on New Jersey's Urban Fringe" and "What's in Season from the Garden State."

"Sustaining Farming on New Jersey's Urban Fringe" is a monthly newsletter distributed to over 350 agricultural professionals, policy makers, farmers, and others in the agricultural community. The newsletter highlights agricultural innovations of NJ Extension personnel to improve agricultural sustainability on the urban fringe.

"What's in Season from the Garden State" is a two-page communication published eleven times each year from June to October; it targets a diverse audience including consumers and the media, educating them about farming, local food systems, and using local farm products.

This initiative also supports the development of a website to make educational resources on sustainable farming more widely available. This website will also contain interactive web discussion forums to facilitate even broader sharing of information on farming alternatives.

The targets of this initiative include:

• Enable NJ Extension educators to more easily reach traditional and non-farm audiences with updates on local food, agriculture and alternative practices, and expand the readership of both newsletters to include new audiences like media food editors, farmland preservation service providers and NRCS personnel.
• 3 to 5 agricultural service providers will agree to become discussion forum moderators, and at least 6 to 12 additional Extension professionals will participate regularly in the forums, reaching many farmers, NGO personnel, input suppliers and others.

SARE Grant: $15,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

This initiative will expand demonstration and training opportunities at the Rutgers research farm. A 10 acre parcel at the Rutgers research farm has been transitioned to certified organic status. It is unique among such sites because it includes conventionally managed "carve-out" parcels of land in the midst of organic fields to support rigorous comparative demonstrations of organic and conventional methods. Due to a lack of dedicated staffing funds, the full potential of this site in promoting the adoption of sustainable farming practices has been unrealized.

This initiative will provide the staff time necessary to launch the "Sustainable, Organic, and Alternative Research (SOAR) Project" at this site, using the site to conduct a series of on-farm demonstrations, research projects extension meetings and field days. These training events will educate a diverse audience about sustainable farming methods, including state and county farmland preservation staff, Extension personnel, high school vocational agriculture teachers, farm input suppliers, and master gardeners.

The targets of this initiative are as follows:

• 7 to 9 state IPM program staff will be trained in practices to improve soil health and will use this training to promote soil health practices to farmers.
• 10 Extension personnel will learn how to design, conduct and evaluate on-farm experiments, and will use knowledge gained during the training to teach 20 farmers about these topics.
• 6 farmland preservation staff, 6 growers, and 3 vocational agriculture teachers will be trained in the benefits of cover crops and crop rotations; farmland preservation staff and teachers will use information from the training to educate farmers or students about these topics, and farmers will plant a cover crop on at least one of their fields as a result of the training.
• At least 4 industry participants in the training will recommend soil testing and scouting of fields before applying fertilizer or pesticides to 20 farmers they work with.

SARE Grant: $25,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

Energy costs have skyrocketed in recent years and few economists predict that these costs will decrease in the near future. As a result, agriculture will need to adapt to this new environment, and Extension and other farmer educators will need to build their capacity to help growers understand their options for coping with energy costs.

To help farmers make choices appropriate for their operation, farmer educators need detailed knowledge about where to get the latest current and reliable information, how to assess a farm's energy needs and resources, and where to learn about individual states' programs and incentives.

There is also a growing interest in grain production in Northern New England. Preliminary research indicates that organic winter grain production is both feasible and cost-effective. However, there is still much to learn about producing grain crops in this region, including appropriate variety selection and breeding, weed and pest management, and plant spacing and rotations.

This initiative will train farmer educators in energy issues and local grain production using a participatory approach. The training will be grounded in on-farm experience and farmer experts will be among the trainers. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont will pool their resources to conduct high quality training, which will serve to establish communities of regional expertise around these critical agricultural issues.

The targets for this initiative are as follows:

• 9 farmer educators (3 from each state) will work with two growers each to implement energy conservation activities and assist with alternative energy decisions for their farm operations.
• 9 farmer educators (3 from each state) will work with two growers to implement new grain production strategies on their farms.
• 15 agricultural professionals submit or assist another person in submitting a SARE mini-grant application; Vermont farmers, educators and others submit 16 Farmer, 8 Partnership and 6 Sustainable Community grant applications for each of the next 3 years.

SARE Grant: $25,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

To build capacity in sustainable agriculture production, a conference on sustainable agriculture research will be held to provide an opportunity for university faculty from around New England to gather together to share their research results. Related conferences have been held in New Hampshire in the past, and Extension specialists have recently identified the need to resurrect such conferences to provide a forum for learning about the work of their colleagues.

To build capacity in farm management, the University of New Hampshire will collaborate with the University of Vermont to hold in-depth workshops in farm management for Extension staff and other farm service providers in the legal and financial fields. This area has been identified by a New Hampshire Farm Viability Committee as being critical for New England farm sustainability and being an area in need of greater human resources that farmers can access.

The third tier of this initiative will support on-farm demonstrations; two mini-grants will be offered to University of New Hampshire faculty to help them conduct on-farm projects on sustainable agriculture topics. The sustainable farm management workshops will educate service providers in methods of assessing the health of farm operations, alternative tenure and business arrangements, and estate and business transition planning.

The targets of this initiative include:

• As a result of the sustainable agriculture research conference, 15 Extension educators will better understand sustainable agriculture practices and resources, and will forge or enhance relationships with farmers and farmer educators around New England.
• As a result of farm management workshops, 6 Extension educators and 10 agricultural service providers will build their knowledge and skills in farm management topics and use this new information in their work with farmers.
• 2 Extension educators will participate in sustainable agriculture demonstration projects conducted on farms or at university research stations, and will host an event to share the results of the project with farmers and other agricultural service providers.

SARE Grant: $15,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

The goal of the training is to enable professionals to improve their communication skills and their ability to make practical recommendations that will lead to greater sustainability of the farm operations they work with. Maine currently has a farm viability program called "Farms for Maine's Future," coordinated by the non-profit group Coastal Enterprises, in which teams of experts work with selected farms to provide technical assistance and to develop investment grade business plans.

This project has assembled a core group of business planners (many with little agricultural background) and technical advisors from Extension, NRCS and farms. Many of these will be participants in Maine's version of "Reading the Farm." The Maine state program also provides support for educators initiating on-farm research projects.

The targets for this initiative are as follows:

• Eighteen agricultural service providers will participate in a "Reading the Farm" training opportunity, and will document increased knowledge of whole farm sustainability, the factors that influence farmer decisions-making, and using a team approach to problem-solving.
• Eight Maine professionals will begin on-farm or participatory research projects with four of those applying for SARE Partnership grants, or will serve as advisors for SARE Farmer grants.

SARE Grant: $15,000

See the full project proposal full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

The University of Maryland has committed to expanding research on organic systems by certifying land at each of seven university-owned farms. A SARE mini-grant program is offered to encourage University of Maryland faculty to collaborate with farmers to pursue research at these organically certified sites.

This initiative also provides support to help agricultural service providers attend a two day conference dedicated to sustainable agriculture, organized by Future Harvest-CASA (Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture). Future Harvest-CASA is a non-profit organization that promotes profitable, environmentally sound and socially acceptable food and farming systems that work to sustain communities.

The targets of this initiative include:

• 10 Extension faculty and five professionals from NRCS and the Soil Conservation Districts who attend the Future Harvest-CASA conference will be better able to identify speakers with expertise in sustainable agriculture and to teach themselves about these topics.
• 10 applied sustainable agriculture research projects will be continued at the University of Maryland research facilities, to enable us to better understand how to grow agricultural products in a sustainable fashion, how to grow in urban environments, problems associated with the transition into organic production, and how to develop budgets to determine profitability.

SARE Grant: $15,000

See the full project proposal full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

This project is geared to show gardeners how they can use low-input sustainable methods to increase productivity in their gardens. Such methods include using composted waste to supply plant nutrients, and using resistant plant varieties in place of toxic chemicals to reduce pest pressure.

Sustainable agriculture training in the form of field days, seminars, and written technical materials will be available not only to gardeners, but also to Extension agents, school teachers and other residents of the District of Columbia. Most of the Extension agents at the University of D.C. do not have a farm background and will benefit from gaining basic knowledge on soil fertility, planting techniques, seed bed establishment and maintenance, pest control and agronomic and horticultural practices that can be used to enhance crop production.

The target of this initiative is as follows:

• At least 20 professionals will be trained in sustainable agricultural methods
• These professionals will be able to assist at least 60 gardeners, increasing the number of urban gardeners who understand the value of using low-input sustainable methods to grow vegetable, and the amount of composted waste being used as a soil amendment in urban gardens.

SARE Grant: $15,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

The goal of this initiative is to improve communication and increase the level of productive collaboration between organizations and agricultural professionals conducting sustainable agriculture programs. To do this, the Pennsylvania state program will collaborate with sustainable agriculture partners across the state on a number of activities to help synergize sustainable agriculture education efforts across the region.

A new sustainable agriculture Extension Associate will be hired as part of this initiative, to help facilitate these collaborations. A new "Sustainable Ag Seminar Series" will be developed for university faculty, staff and students, agricultural professionals, farmers and the general public.

The seminar series will bring in institutional and farmer leaders in sustainable agriculture fields to present on their areas of expertise. A week-long "Reading the Farm" workshop will also be held to enable participants to gain a more holistic understanding of the "farm system" and how to produce food and fiber sustainably. During this workshop, a diverse team of faculty, educators and specialists will visit and "read" two farms, discussing the many factors that influence farmer decision-making and overall farm sustainability.

The targets for this initiative are as follows:

• 100 university faculty, staff and students, agricultural professionals, farmers and others will attend one or more sustainable ag seminars each year; speakers will meet with Penn State University faculty, students and administrators to discuss critical issues in sustainable agriculture and strategies for developing a successful coordinated sustainable ag program at Penn State.
• Of 30 Extension educators and other agricultural professionals attending sustainable agriculture education activities each year, 15 will report improved attitude, skill, competency in training topics; 10 will develop new or transform current programs to incorporate sustainable agriculture concepts; and 5 will report developing a positive working relationship with organizations promoting sustainable agriculture outside of Penn State.
• Of 20 "Reading the Farm" participants, 15 will have a more holistic understanding of how to produce food more sustainably, which will help them in their work with farms and students; 10 will report improved communication and analytical skills related to conducting educational programming in sustainable agriculture; and 10 will incorporate sustainable agriculture concepts into their programming.

SARE Grant: $25,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.

The University of Connecticut will lead the effort to bring together diverse food system professionals to develop a plan to increase access to meat processing facilities.  To address the increasing demand for sustainably produced "grass-fed" meat, the University of Massachusetts will coordinate a program to educate producers about cutting edge research on rotational grazing methods. The University of Rhode Island will complement these efforts by implementing an initiative to identify successful local meat marketing strategies in the southern New England region.

This collaborative effort between Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island has three targets:

• 150 agricultural professionals and farmers will use knowledge gained from SARE training about the benefits of appropriate grazing techniques to educate others, with 75 farmers initiating appropriate techniques.
• 150 agricultural professionals and farmers will use knowledge gained from SARE workshops about a locally produced meat system to address consideration of alternative methods for slaughter and processing of locally-produced meats.
• 150 agricultural professionals and farmers will use knowledge gained about marketing techniques in the education of others about the benefits of locally-produced meats.

SARE Grant: $57,000

See the full project proposal for more details on this initiative.