Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: corn, potatoes, rice, grass (misc. perennial), hay
- Fruits: apples, berries (other), berries (blueberries), cherries, grapes, plums, berries (strawberries)
- Nuts: hazelnuts
- Vegetables: beans, carrots, peas (culinary), peppers, cucurbits, tomatoes
- Additional Plants: tobacco, native plants, trees
- Animals: bovine, poultry, goats, swine, fish
Practices
- Animal Production: feed/forage
- Crop Production: food product quality/safety
- Education and Training: demonstration, display, extension, farmer to farmer, focus group, mentoring, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, workshop, youth education, technical assistance
- Energy: bioenergy and biofuels, energy conservation/efficiency, energy use
- Farm Business Management: whole farm planning, new enterprise development, budgets/cost and returns, community-supported agriculture, cooperatives, marketing management, e-commerce, farm-to-institution, feasibility study, agricultural finance, market study, risk management, value added, agritourism
- Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, riparian buffers, wetlands
- Pest Management: biological control, integrated pest management, prevention
- Production Systems: agroecosystems, holistic management, organic agriculture, permaculture, transitioning to organic
- Soil Management: organic matter, soil analysis, soil quality/health
- Sustainable Communities: community planning, ethnic differences/cultural and demographic change, infrastructure analysis, leadership development, local and regional food systems, partnerships, public participation, public policy, urban agriculture, urban/rural integration, analysis of personal/family life, community services, employment opportunities, social capital, social networks, social psychological indicators, sustainability measures
Proposal abstract:
The Sustainable Agriculture Workshop Series for Tribal Educators is designed to promote knowledge development and sharing among educators working with directly with American Indian farmers, ranchers, and other food producers. It will also help these tribal educators build stronger connections with each other, among their respective institutions, and with staff from relevant assistance programs and agencies. Moreover, in creating a productive forum for collaborative discussion and action, it will lay the foundations for enhanced tribal college and broader community agricultural education. Each workshop will contain a varied composition of topics, but all would be structured to carry through various seasonal themes in participatory and engaging manner. These themes will also seek to connect and progress over the three year period. Workshops, whose exact topics would ultimately be determined in large part by those engaged in the project, would be led by a combination state extension agents, academic experts, and local tribal staff and food producers. The primary target audience is regional tribal agricultural educators, with a secondary target audience of professional assistance staff who work closely with tribal food producers. Workshop locations will rotate among various tribal food and agriculture locations in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota.
Project objectives from proposal:
- Hosting regional events and local workshops
- Expanded educational opportunities and technical skill development for Tribal agricultural educators
- Enhanced connections among Tribal educators and stronger relationships between Tribal and non-Tribal educators, producers, and professional support staff
- Development and refinement of distance learning opportunities
- Greater utilization of Tribal agricultural resources from better knowledge and technical skill development
- Knowledge transfer throughout the region, especially among communities that have been underserved by traditional agricultural support networks