Progress report for EDS22-40
Project Information
Roughly two million non-operating landowners (retired farmers, farm widows, and family members who have inherited farms) own ~38% of America’s farmland. Women compose 37% of this non-operating landowners’ group. Based on the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture, 35% of farmers in KY and 33% in NC are women. This project will engage and educate women non-operating landowners and farmers who have been overlooked by conservation practice and land access programs. Additionally, Black and other farmers of color have been explicitly and implicitly disenfranchised by U.S. farm programs. Racial discrimination, coupled with gender discrimination, can lead women of color to feel left out of conversations and initiatives regarding farmland preservation, stewardship, and land access.
American Farmland Trust (AFT) utilizes an innovative approach to greater conservation practice adoption focused on peer-to-peer networking gatherings: Learning Circles. Women landowners (both operators and non-operators) and farmers share their experiences, network, and learn from each other and agricultural technical service providers about conservation practice adoption. Additionally, agricultural technical service providers are trained to serve women landowner and farmers’ unique needs. The Learning Circle model, which is successfully used nationwide, is gathering momentum in both NC and KY. By educating partners, women farmers, and landowners in these states, including historically underserved women, tailoring our approach to the regions’ needs and sharing our learnings, we will advance access to conservation resources and greater adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.
We have three ambitious objectives:
- Engage women landowners and farmers in Learning Circles on conservation practice adoption, soil health, and climate resilience, topics previously identified through scoping. We will implement 4 Learning Circles, 2 each in KY and NC, focused primarily on Black women farmers and landowners. Since around 18-24 women and agricultural service providers participate in Learning Circles, we aim to reach ~75-100 women farmers and landowners.
- Support women landowners and farmers in KY and NC in accessing resources and information on conservation practices, soil health, climate resilience, and farmland preservation strategies via the deployment of 4 virtual Learning Circle trainings, 2 per state. These will focus on agricultural service providers who want to develop strategies for effectively reaching women landowners and farmers, especially the socially disadvantaged. Partners include NRCS, SWCD, Land Grant University Extensions, and local non-profits. The key partner in NC will be the Black Family Land Trust, and in KY, KY State University. We aim to reach 20 practitioners in each training and ~ 80 service providers.
- Provide resources to foster ongoing success with outreach and engagement of KY and NC women farmers and landowners. We will produce a curriculum and toolkit of resources that will extend the value of our events and promote sustainable agriculture practice adoption among women in the region beyond the scope of this project by enabling our partners to deploy their own Learning Circles. We will also develop an online forum for continued networking and engagement among women and technical service providers in each state to help regional partners maintain these connections after the grant’s duration.
Project objectives include:
- Conduct 4 Learning Circles in KY and NC (2 in each state) to engage 75-100 women landowners and farmers, primarily those that are African American, on conservation practice adoption, soil health, and climate resilience.
- Conduct 4 virtual Learning Circle trainings in KY and NC (2 in each state) for 80 agricultural service providers on how to effectively reach women landowners and farmers and help them access technical resources and information on conservation practices, soil health, climate resilience, and farmland preservation strategies.
- Position partners for ongoing success in engaging women farmers and landowners in KY and NC through developing a curriculum and a toolkit of resources to conduct Learning Circles and an online forum to foster the continued connections of women and technical service providers in each state.
Cooperators
Education
We are using two primary modes of education for this project. The first is being deployed in support of our first objective of providing 4 Learning Circles. Our Learning Circles are built on peer-to-peer educational models that foster learning and sharing, focused on a less hierarchical and expert-based model for adult education. Our work focuses an asset-based model for engaging historically underserved producers, in this case women and predominantly women of color. We design the circles to emphasize learning goals that have been identified as critical and priority among the communities we seek to serve by connecting with partners and local producers/hosts to design experiential learning opportunities that will best serve the needs of the participants. The Learning Circles typically last 6-7 hours, centering the day with lengthy introductions, creating space for technical information on the topic of the day, team building, farm tours with experiential learning followed by reflection and evaluation.
The second approach we are developing for this project is our Learning Circle trainings. We are hosting 4 training courses for TA providers, predominantly extension educators as an introduction to Learning Circle approaches. Our training program starts with why we serve historically underserved producers/women and why they need different learning/outreach approaches, followed by deepening participant’s understanding of the challenges women/historically underserved producers face in navigating resources. This is then followed with beginner tools which are focused on creating peer to peer educational learning experiences that meet this audience where they are at.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
First Learning Circle (LC) in Kentucky: We hosted 1 LC in Need more Acres Farm" in Scottsville, KY. The topic was focused on Climate Resiliency and Soil Health. We also wove in resources on helping women negotiate in their business dealings, focusing on them tooling up their approach to navigating tricky situations with TA providers, USDA officials, tenants, farm partners, etc. with more confidence.
- Farmer/Rancher Participation: 11 registered, 6 attended. All identified as women of color between ages of 20-59. All had BA degrees. A synthesis of all demographic data collected from events will be shared at the culmination of this project.
- Agricultural Professional Participation: 4 service providers attended from American Farmland Trust, Kentucky State University and USDA NRCS.
Second LC in Kentucky: We hosted 1 LC at Susan Miller's Farm in Lincoln County KY. The focus was on promoting soil health as a climate resilience tool. We helped women think about soil health as a climate resilience tool and engaged them in ideas on how to do urban agriculture on smaller acreage farms.
- Farmer/Rancher Participation: 25 registered, 10 attended. The majority of which were women of color. Based on some demographic data collected for most participants, we know that the majority were 59 years and younger, majority have some college, or a BA and 2 women identified as white, 1 as Native American and the rest as African American.
- Agricultural Professional Participation: 13 service providers attended from 7 different agencies, including American Farmland Trust, Kentucky State University, USDA NRCS and USDA FSA as well as Organic Association of Kentucky, State Conservation Office and Community Farm Alliance.
First LC in North Carolina: Hosted at Old 30 Dirty Family Farm in Jacksonville, NC. The topic was focused on the basics of soil health, but we also included a number of partner organizations to help participants think about how to get cost share and savings from federal and state resources to support their soil health goals.
- Farmer/Rancher Participation: 27 registered and 15 attended. The majority of which were women of color. Based on some demographic data collected, we know that ages varied between 30-79 years old, the majority have some college or a BA and all identified as African American.
- Agricultural Professional Participation: 9 service providers attended from 5 agencies, including American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, USDA FSA, and USDA NRCS.
We hosted one of our 2.5-hour trainings predominantly focused on Kentucky State University Extension professional staff, entitled: "Facilitating Peer to Peer Education with Women and Historically Underserved Producers."
- Farmer/Rancher Participation: We had a total of 9 attend, with a total of 17 register. All were given follow-up resources from the training, including a recording of the session. All were university extension staff from University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University.
- Agricultural Professional Participation: All were extension professionals, 7 were extension staff and 2 were administrators. We did have another 8 register for the event and received follow-up resources.
We are planning our first Learning Circle training for North Carolina TA professionals for August 2023.
Our final Learning Circle in North Carolina will be scheduled for fall of 2023.
Our final Learning Circle trainings will also be hosted virtually in the fall of 2023 or early 2024.
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
Each of our Learning Circles, are focused on providing hands-on experiential learning from and between women farmers on the topic of managing for soil health in a time of climate disruption. These will give participants tools on how to improve the sustainability and climate resilience of their operations. It will also help them foster new social networks and connections to other women, particularly other women of color to build their community, enhancing their social and community resilience. We hope to have some more data on impacts in the future.
It is too early in the application of this project for us to provide this level of reflection. We hope to be able to in the future.