Final report for NCWI22-002
Project Information
Initiative 1. Adapting to a changing climate and other food system disruptions
Initiative 2. Beginning Farmer Programming
Initiative 3. Supporting Diversity in Sustainable Agriculture
Initiative 4. Extending Sustainable Agriculture Knowledge and Practice
Initiative 1. Adapting to a changing climate and other food system disruptions
In order to participate in the NCR-SARE regional initiative for 2023-24, one of our state initiative focus areas will be “Adapting to a changing climate and other food system disruptions.” Activities under this topic may include workshops, study tours, webinars, or other educational programming. During the two-year plan of work period, we will also offer additional SARE-funded travel scholarships, and where appropriate, mini-grant support to further educational programming that provides professional development for educators working with farmers and ranchers on programs related to climate change and other major food system disruptions, such as the COVID pandemic.
Expected Climate Change outcomes
Short term
- 25 or more agriculturea educators in Extension, Soil and Water Conservation, and other organizations will increase understanding of climate change impacts on agriculture in Wisconsin, the north central region, and the world.
- 10 or more agriculture educators will increase understanding of the science behind adaptation and mitigation strategies for agriculture.
- 5 or more agriculture educators will learn about the Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu and the role of traditional ecological knowledge in addressing climate change.
Medium term
- 10 or more agriculture educators will integrate climate adaptation and mitigation context into relevant programming, including nutrient management, manure management, soil health, and grazing.
Expected Food System Disruption outcomes
Short term
- Agricultural educators will increase awareness of concepts and strategies to assess business feasibility for making a decision about a business change in response to food system disruption.
- Agricultural educators will Increase ability to help farms assess their skills, assets, personalities and networks to facilitate decision making about a business opportunity in the face of food system disruption.
Medium term
- Agricultural educators will help farmers utilize tools and strategies to determine options for their farm
Activities
- Scholarships for 4 to 8 educators to attend professional development, including regional training if a regional event is provided
- Support in-state professional development webinars and workshops related to climate change and food system resilience
- Web and media articles related to climate change and food system resilience
- Priority topic for mini-grants
- As appropriate provide technical and financial support for educator outreach related to climate change and food system resilience
Evaluation
- The number of agricultural educators who increase their knowledge of climate change and food system resilience
- The number of outreach materials produced related to climate change and food system resilience
- The number of educators who start or increase programming related to climate change and food system resilience, and the approximate number of farmers and others reached by that programming
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Initiative 2. Beginning Farmer Programming
Wisconsin SARE will continue to support professional development on working with beginning farmers, with particular emphasis on reaching audiences that don’t already have good connections to Extension and other agencies and organizations supporting farmers.
Expected outcomes
Short term:
- Agricultural educators will have access to a variety of resources for beginning farmers
Medium term:
- Agricultural educators will provide support and information to beginning farmers and new landowners interested in farming
- Agricultural educators will coordinate beginning farmer programming
Activities
- Coordinate with interagency group to develop and share a list of resources for beginning farmers that educators can access
- As necessary help with transitioning CIAS schools for beginning growers to Extension and other partners
- Update or develop selected sustainable management resources for beginning farmers and new landowners
Evaluation
- Number of organizations coordinating beginning farmer outreach efforts
- Number of information resources developed and if possible data on use of resources
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Initiative 3. Supporting Diversity in Sustainable Agriculture
Wisconsin agriculture has been largely culturally and ethnically homogenous for most of the past 120 years. There are also historical injustices related to the colonization of agricultural lands, as well as the establishment of land-grant universities such as UW itself. With our increasingly diverse population more equitable and diverse food systems will further the social and financial aspects of sustainability, while also diversifying sustainable agriculture practices by including practices from historically marginalized communities.
Outcomes:
Short term
- 20 or more agriculture educators will learn about educational resources and the history of equity issues within agriculture.
- 20 or more educators will learn about inclusive practices to make agriculture education and programming accessible to diverse audiences.
Medium term
- 10 or more educators will incorporate materials from the equity training into their own teaching.
- 10 or more agriculture educators will initiate programming to reach BIPOC, women, and other diverse farmers.
- Hiring and retention of more diverse agriculture education staff within the state, purposely addressing diversity in recruitment and continuously improving the climate of inclusion for the retention of a diverse workforce.
Activities:
- Owl Vision curriculum for inclusive and equitable agriculture will be offered to Wisconsin technical college agriculture instructors and other agriculture educators across the state.
- Review of current policies and practices regarding hiring and recruitment and update document changes as necessary. Groups to work within are DATCP Ag Education Council, UW-Madison Division of Extension, Wisconsin Technical College System, Wisconsin Association of Ag Educators.
- Look at ways to improve mentoring, including peer mentoring
- Workshops for agricultural educators on how to address unconscious bias and equity within agriculture
Evaluation:
Short term
- The number of agriculture education staff who participate in education on bias and equity issues in agriculture.
Medium term
- The number of agriculture educators who adapt their programming to better reach diverse audiences.
- The number of agriculture instructors who adapt their curriculum to include issues of equity in agriculture.
- The ways in which agricultural education positions hear about the positions will become more diverse (as tracked through application survey data).
- Relationships will be developed with two new community organizations representing marginalized groups.
- Diversity in applicant pool and/or agriculture education staff.
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Initiative 4. Extending Sustainable Agriculture Knowledge and Practice
SARE will continue to support professional development and educator action for a wide range of sustainable agriculture practices and approaches that SARE helped initiate in Wisconsin, including organic agriculture, perennial cropping systems, and local foods. In addition, the state SARE professional development program needs to be able to respond to emerging opportunities in sustainable agriculture.
Outcomes
Short-term
- 20 educators will increase their knowledge of sustainable practices and approaches such as local food systems, organic agriculture, and grazing.
Medium term
- 8 educators will provide information and programming on topics such as organic agriculture, local food systems, and grazing to 80 farmers and others involved in agriculture.
Activities
- Administer SARE mini-grant program.
- Assist agricultural educators, including NGOs, with organizing, providing, and funding professional development in sustainable agriculture (co-sponsorships).
- Offer SARE scholarships to conferences, workshops, and other professional development opportunities in sustainable agriculture (pre-approved events include Organic Farming Conf. (Marbleseed), O-Grain Conf., GrassWorks Grazing Conf., Savanna Institute Perennial Gathering, Organic Vegetable Growers Conf., Cover Crops Conf., Emerging Farmers Conf. (Minneapolis - St. Paul), Women in Agriculture Conf. (Minnesota), Great Lakes Indigenous Farming Conference (White Earth, MN)).
Evaluation
- Number of educators involved in mini-grants, and number of farmers and others reached with information from mini-grants. Mini-grant recipients will submit reports on their projects.
- Number of agricultural educators participating in events co-sponsored by SARE.
- Number of SARE scholarship recipients and types of outreach resulting from SARE scholarships. Scholarship recipients will be sent a questionnaire 6 to 12 months after the event asking them how the scholarship influenced their work.
Advisors
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Education
Wisconsin's SARE state coordinator and SARE advisory committee members support agricultural educators by offering scholarships and a mini-grant program for professional development in sustainable agriculture. The state coordinator also works directly with Extension colleagues and other partners to build capacity and develop and offer professional development and/or programming in sustainable agriculture. In addition, Wisconsin's SARE state coordinator and SARE advisory committee members promote SARE at conferences and other events and help publicize SARE grant programs and information resources.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
Give educators information and resources to help farmers adapt to a changing climate and other food system disruptions
Activities under this topic may include workshops, study tours, webinars, or other educational programming. During the two-year plan of work period, we will also offer additional SARE-funded travel scholarships, and where appropriate, minigrant support to further educational programming that provides professional development for educators working with farmers and ranchers on programs related to climate change and other major food system disruptions, such as the COVID pandemic.
Learning outcomes: reached approximately 720 people, including an estimated 130 educators, through 11 in-person presentations and 7 virtual presentations on climate change and agriculture in Wisconsin.
Action outcomes: educators involved in the agriculture climate change working groups published articles, produced podcasts, and integrated climate change into programming and research, from explicit presentations on climate-smart agriculture to outreach on responding to weather extremes and building soil health. This outreach reached at least 400 farmers. Educators have also created videos on dealing with heat stress in dairy cattle that will be released shortly. Publications and programming on climate-resilient farming are continuing to be developed.
Wisconsin SARE works with partners to support professional development on working with beginning farmers, with particular emphasis on reaching audiences that don’t already have good connections to Extension and other agencies and organizations supporting farmers.
Wisconsin SARE worked with an interagency group to develop and share a list of resources for beginning farmers that educators and farmers can access.
Wisconsin SARE is working with Extension and other partners to update, develop, and disseminate selected sustainable management resources for beginning farmers and new landowners.
More than 20 agricultural educators and conservation professionals came together to develop a resource guide for beginning farmers: FSA-WI_BeginFarmGuide-PRINT VERSION-0623 and a webinar series and website to help landowners get started with stewardship. Extension continues to work with farmers on how to start farming and develop new enterprises through articles, on-line curriculum, and other outreach. At least 21 agricultural educators and 160 farmers / landowners increased their knowledge of resources to support beginning farmers.
Increase the ability of Extension and other agricultural educators to provide sustainable agriculture and other support to diverse farmers, including Hmong/HMoob and Native American farmers.
Provided 4 mini-grants, 7 professional development scholarships, training for agricultural educators, and assisted with a long-term project to improve support for Hmong farmers in Wisconsin. Conducted a workshop for 28 technical college instructors on the historical context of Wisconsin agriculture with a lens of justice and equity.
More than 70 agricultural educators increased their knowledge of working with diverse farm audiences, including Hmong farmers and immigrant farm workers, through mini-grants.
Extension educators and partners are producing linguistically accessible and relevant materials for Hmong farmers, including information on leasing land, soil testing, and working with federal agencies.
Selected mini-grant outcomes:
Supporting culturally relevant education for HMoob growers mini grant
Provided scholarships for Hmong farmers to attend the Organic Vegetable Production Conference; for educators to design more inclusive programming, including sessions presented in both HMoob and English; logistical as well as financial support for underserved farmers to attend; and an in-depth debrief on how to continue to better include Hmong farmers and other farmers of color in planning, delivering, and attending agricultural outreach.
- 9 educators increased understanding of including HMoob farmers in programming
- 2 Hmong and 1 Black farmer gained experience as presenters
- 16 Hmong farmers attended
- 45 other farmers attended
Indigenous Foodways and Farming Demonstrations mini grant
- 8 presenters representing Indigenous foodways supported through the mini grant
- 200+ attendees
- Videos in preparation
Scholarship outcomes
Educators received scholarships to attend the Emerging Farmers Conference in 2023 and 2024, Black Urban Growers Conference, Intertribal Agriculture Council annual conference, and Great Lakes Indigenous Farming Conference. The educator who attended the Great Lakes Indigenous Farming Conference incorporated information from the conference into a class of 160 students.
Provide support to agricultural educators to meet the sustainable agriculture needs of their communities.
SARE provided 42 professional development scholarships for educators to improve their knowledge in grazing, food systems, and organic agriculture.
Wisconsin SARE awarded three mini-grants for extending sustainable agriculture knowledge and practice:
- North Crawford Community Pastures Program
- Conservation Finance Ag Educator Training
- Dairy Goats and Agricultural Sustainability: Livestock With a Lower Environmental Impact? A Proposed Track of Educational Programming in Conjunction with the American Dairy Goat Association’s Annual National Convention
Mini-grant outcomes:
Conservation Finance Ag Educator Training
- 55 agricultural educators from 7 states attended (39 from Wisconsin)
- 40% of respondents expect to use the information and knowledge gained a ‘great’ or ‘large’ extent in their work moving forward and 50% of respondents expect to use the information ‘some’ extent moving forward. 44% of respondents intend to change how they present/discuss financial information to producers as a result of attending the training. Attendees estimated they would share the information with 2,600 individuals through 120 events.
North Crawford Community Pastures Program
- 9 educators attended the field day
- Many individual and organizational partners
- Estimated 200 teachers, volunteers, students, community members directly reached by the project
- Neighboring school district interested in copying the model
Dairy Goats and Agricultural Sustainability: Livestock With a Lower Environmental Impact? A Proposed Track of Educational Programming in Conjunction with the American Dairy Goat Association’s Annual National Convention
- 37 people attended the session, but only 6 were educators
- Plans to initiate climate sustainability research based in part on session
Scholarship outcomes:
The 5 educators who received scholarships for events early in 2023 reported using the information they learned to answer client questions, add to existing programming, develop new programming, develop new contacts, and produce information resources such as articles. They directly reached the following numbers of people through programming based on the scholarships:
Cooperative Extension staff: 35
Other University / College: 13
Non-Governmental Organizations: 35
Agriculture Consultants / For-Profit: 19
Farmers / Ranchers: 306
State / Federal / Tribal Agencies: 3
NRCS: 13
Eleven of the scholarships were for a food systems and entrepreneurship conference in the fall of 2023. Those educators used information from the fall 2023 FEED Summit to answer client questions, help with farm and business plans, incorporate new ideas into regular programming, newsletters, and develop new programming. They estimate this information directly reached at least 63 farmers, 35 educators, 20 farmers market board members, and 88 food system entrepreneurs.
In 2024 Wisconsin SARE provided 15 scholarships to GrassWorks, Marbleseed Organic Conf, WI Organic Vegetable Production Conference, and Midwest Farmland Summit (late 2023)
Educators used information from these conferences to answer client questions, help with farm and business plans, incorporate new ideas into regular programming and newsletters/media, and develop new programming. They estimate this information directly reached at least 670 farmers, 85 Extension educators, 65 NGO and university educators, 94 agency/Tribal staff, and 14 for profit agricultural educators.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
Sample comments from SARE scholarship recipients:
"I truly appreciate the opportunity to attend Grassworks. It was a game changing educational event that I simply would not have been able to attend without this grant. Thank you."
"The grant was instrumental in developing professional connections and building on knowledge about land justice work. The conference was the only conference in the midwest focusing solely on farmland access and impactful in a professional development sense since farmland conservation and equitable economic development is integral in my plan of work. Outputs and activities that have emerged out of this conference: 1) working with the Center for Cooperatives on a "Guide to Farmland Co-operatives" with Kelly Maynard; inspired to learn about so many alternative land access models at the conference and in learning and working groups I participated in thereafter. 2) Building more intentional relationships with underserved growers in the Fox Valley area while building on Extension colleagues' expertise: including with the NEW Hmong Professionals nonprofit, where I helped organize a lunch gathering and recordkeeping workshop spearheaded by Gaonou Thao. 3) Presented to Community Food Systems colleagues on "What's Land Gotta Do With It?" with Catie DeMets from Renewing the Countryside, addressing the importance of addressing land access when addressing community food systems issues. 4) Continued to serve on the WI Farmland Access Hub Steering Committee and am leading in new ways: including being a co-facilitator in the annual Farmland Access Hub meeting in Madison in August 2024 along with Lori Stern from Renewing the Countryside. I helped collect and analyze the data and feedback from that meeting so we now have concrete work areas identified moving forward; I volunteered to help move the Welcoming Rural Communities and Allyship Network forward."
Face of SARE
Wisconsin SARE had exhibits and sponsorships at the following events in 2023: GrassWorks Grazing Conference, Organic Vegetable Producers Conference, Wisconsin Women in Conservation educators conference, Wisconsin Water and Soil Health (WWASH) Conference, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Convention, Savanna Institute Perennial Gathering virtual conference. Attendance at these conferences totaled over 2,000 farmers and educators.
SARE worked with partners to offer grant webinars and a grant workshop in the fall of 2023. 430 people registered for the grant webinars, 150 attended the webinars, and the recordings of the two webinars have had 100 views and 70 views to date. The in-person grant workshop had 19 attendees.
Wisconsin SARE had exhibits and sponsorships at the following events in 2024: GrassWorks Grazing Conference, Organic Vegetable Producers Conference, Wisconsin Water and Soil Health (WWASH) Conference, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Convention, Savanna Institute Perennial Gathering, and Farmers Union Convention . Attendance at these conferences totaled over 2,000 farmers and educators.
SARE worked with partners to offer grant webinars and a grant workshop in the fall of 2024. 160 people registered for the grant webinars, 39 and 30 attended the webinars, and the recordings of the two webinars have had 100 views and 69 views to date. The in-person grant workshop had 19 attendees for the first part and 16 for the second part.