Building Sustainable Families through a Celebration of Low-Impact and Organic Community-Supported Agriculture

Building Sustainable Families through a Celebration of Low-Impact and Organic Community-Supported Agriculture

Summary

Wilson County, Tennessee’s The On the Road Again Educational Tours have been very successful in linking producers and consumers to innovative and sustainable methods. Various tours have been planned and taken that highlights a plethora of sustainable practices on and off the farm. The best received have been the following: Lannom’s Pumpkin Patch, Tojo Creek Gourd Ranch, and Chris and Rhonda’s TreeLand. By taking advantage of what Wilson County, TN has to offer, these educational tours have taught producers and consumers alike that sustainable practices are currently being implemented and are easy to adapt to right here at home!

Objectives/Performance Targets

• * To provide valuable sustainable experiences for producers and consumers

  * To link producers and consumers together

  * To set the stage for local producers to teach others and give back to their community

  * To spark the interest of the local public on sustainable practices and local producers

Accomplishments/Milestones

• * Attendance at each of the tours has been consistent.

  * Local media have promoted the tours for free. As a result of this, new consumers and producers have expressed an interest in future tours.

  * Sustainable practices such as the gravity fed drip irrigation system has been implemented in consumers gardens as well as local producers businesses.

  * Extension agents have seen an increase of SARE participants in other classes and activities not related to SARE.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

• * Meetings and tours have increased the knowledge level of producers and consumers about sustainable agriculture.

  * Project has stimulated networking between producers and has allowed for greater resource and knowledge sharing of innovative ideas and practices.

  * Tours have been successful in marketing local producers to consumers and to other producers, increasing their overall exposure and influence within the local community.

  * One participant took the knowledge he learned from a tour and utilized it on his farm immediately. He purchased 500 Christmas Trees and planted them on his farm. This participant has benefitted greatly from this project and will begin to see return when the trees are mature and ready for sale.

  * Overall consumer confidence of locally produced products has been increased based on the face to face interactions with producers and site visits to their operations.

  * Project efforts have been instrumental in increasing the number of local producers who have started operations due to their increased knowledge as a result of their participation in grant project.

Collaborators: