Sustainable Agriculture for Food, the Environment, and Economic opportunities (SAFE)

View the project report

Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: forest farming
• Education and Training: demonstration, workshop
• Production Systems: permaculture
• Sustainable Communities: food access and security, sustainability measures, urban agriculture

The purpose of the Sustainable Agriculture for Food, the Environment, and Economic opportunities (SAFE) program is to improve access to quality education related to sustainable agriculture and soil regeneration for economically disadvantaged communities and to increase food security by providing the hands-on skills, materials and support necessary for program participants to design and plant their own community food forest. Three online modules, four recorded in-person day-long workshops, and two site visits to sustainable farms (recorded, with farmers’ permission) will allow participants to obtain considerable knowledge and skill in this topic. The existing KSU Food Forest (KSUFoodForestImages) will provide a training space and allow for the propagation of most of the plant material to aid in the creation of a new community food forest in Southwest Atlanta and other future food forests in USDA food desert designated communities. Lessons learned from this project will be presented at an annual conference hosted by leading farmer organizations. Specifically, we will provide a stipend to 20 community participants to engage in instruction and hands-on training in which they learn about soil regeneration, food forest design, and propagation. On farm visits with Georgia farmers who practice regenerative agriculture, using cutting edge techniques, will provide participants with inspiration and knowledge for their own designs and plantings. Additionally, the participants will receive hands-on training in food forest design and planting from Co-PIs and our project farmer cooperators, including two sustainable Georgia farmers (Walter Davis of Davis & Daughter Farms; and EliYahu Ben Asa of Atlanta Harvest) and other farmer collaborators (Michael Blackwell, Operations Manager of the KSU Field Station, and Mike McCord, owner of Community Foodscapes). By linking the learning and results of the participants to other rural and urban food production projects, we will put participants on the cutting edge of efforts to demonstrate the potential of this form of sustainable agriculture to promote food and water security and mitigate climate change. The learning will culminate in participants and Co-PIs planting a food forest during the second year of the project in an approved space in a food insecure community in Atlanta. Deliverables in this project include: (1) freely accessible online modules and recorded workshop content on sustainable agriculture, soil building, and propagation that will extend beyond the timeframe of the project to educate the program participants, farmers and communities. Educational content availability on the KSU website will ensure ongoing public access to these resources, (2) the creation of four in-person recorded workshops that feature hands-on learning on soil health and propagation, (3) the propagation of fruit and nut plant material from the KSU Food Forest within the project time frame to allow for one community food forest to be planted by participants in a USDA designated food desert community and additional (post project) food forests in economically disadvantaged communities, and (4) dissemination of learning from the project to the greater farming community via presentations at a farmers’ conference/training as a place to share the model, impact, successes, and challenges to a wider audience.

1. Provide public education on sustainable farming techniques by creating three open-access, free online education modules with a long shelf life that teach sustainable agriculture principles.
2. Create, deliver and record four in-person day-long workshops and provide two field trips to give participants and the extended farming community hands-on training and engagement with local farmers who are doing sustainable agriculture as a demonstration of cutting-edge practices. 
3. Strengthen Atlanta’s food system by establishing a food forest, using material propagated at the KSU Food Forest, within a food insecure neighborhood that will provide food and plant material for other food forests in the future.
4. Present the project model and lessons learned to the wider agricultural community at an annual conference or training hosted by a leading farmer organization.