Preparing Traditional Providers for Delivery of Sustainable Agriculture Information

This was a planning project. A team of stakeholders (CES & NRCS agents, farmers, Land Grant (both 1890 and 1862), University researchers, and personnel from agricultural non-profits and the Farm Bureau) was identified and convened for this planning process. The original purpose (later modified by the stakeholders present) of the planning meeting was to examine the resistance by traditional information providers to the distribution of sustainable agriculture information. The planning proposal authors felt that this resistance could be at least partly ameliorated through three actions:

1) increasing interaction and collaboration among traditional information providers and non-traditional sources of information,
2) increasing familiarization with the breadth and depth of sustainable agriculture information from both traditional and non-traditional sources,
3) improving access to prepared sustainable agriculture information.

As originally conceived in the planning proposal, discussions during the meeting were to focus on: 1) Assessing the potential of the electronic media¾especially the World Wide Web¾as a means to increase field agent access to prepared sustainable agriculture materials, and, 2) Examining training options for field agents in the use of electronic media. In order to provide background information needed for this meeting, a survey was sent to participants asking for the following information: where CES/NRCS agents go to find sustainable agriculture information and, the current and anticipated state of computer resources and web access for CES/NRCS agents. The survey results were sent out to all participants prior to the meeting and then again discussed again during a "Review Feedback" session during the meeting.

Initial stakeholder discussions changed the course, and outcome, of the meeting. The participants, who have a long and diverse experience within and outside the agricultural extension system, examined the resistance by traditional information providers to the distribution of sustainable agriculture information. They concluded that the PDP focus on providing training to those that work directly with farmers was flawed in that it did not address CES and NRCS administrators' lack of understanding or support¾of sustainable agriculture practices and of the role of small-scale producers in the food system. As a result of this administrative culture, the participants felt that SARE and other grant-funded projects in sustainable agriculture are typically implemented at the periphery of CES's and NRCS's other work, rather than becoming an integral component of their activities. As a result, these activities are not institutionalized with CES and NRCS, and require continued infusion of outside (i.e. SARE) funding.

The participants identified possible interventions and prioritized two concept areas that needed further action: administrator training, and collaboration between agricultural and consumer science educators. They then divided into two groups and further refined these concepts in preparation for proposal development.

As an action step on the first item, the group decided to write a letter to the PDP to strongly encourage the leadership committee to include administrators as a target audience for PDP grants in the next call for proposals. Within this letter (attached) a concept for a CES/NRCS administrator training was outlined.

The second concept proposes to re-establish collaborative working interactions between agricultural and Food and Consumer Science educators. This collaboration could strengthen their current programs while allowing them to address critical concerns (i.e, dependable and fair agricultural markets, and access to healthy, nutritious food, respectively) that their clientele have in common.