2008 Annual Report for ENC06-088
The New Agriculture Network: an organic farming forum for education and research
Summary
2008 was a busy year for the project. Since this is a multi-state project, most of our communications has been through conference calls. On August 12-14, 2008, we had a face-to-face meeting at Purdue University to finalize plans for Extension educator’s fact sheets on organic farming topics. In addition to our core group, each state invited an Extension educator for input into the fact sheets. Drafts of the fact sheets have been developed and are being reviewed. We also had an e-Organic training session during the Purdue meeting. We hope in the future to use e-Organic to promote our work.
Objectives/Performance Targets
This project would:
1) engage Extension educators from three states to participate in organic farming educational programs led by organic farmers and researchers;
2) create communication channels using NAN between organic growers, Extension educators and researchers to address the needs of organic farmers; and
3) build on-farm research results into an established listserv for and by organic growers and Extension educators.
Accomplishments/Milestones
- We conducted 12 conference calls in 2008.
Three Extension educators participated in the three-day retreat at Purdue University with the Co-PIs and organic farmers: Jim True (Indiana), Dan Hudson (Michigan), Ellen Phillips (Illinois).
Input from educators improved design and content of fact sheets, which will distributed from Extension offices.
Educators helped address budget constraints and clientele issues at the county level that we needed to be concerned about in the fact sheet development.
Educators helped identify Extension specialists review teams for the fact sheet development.
Key farmers took the lead in several components of the fact sheet development to make the fact sheets real and authentic.
We worked with a graphic designer to layout the fact sheets for review.
We promoted the fact sheets at the Indiana/Illinois Organic Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Fact sheets are currently under review and should be available for Michigan, Indiana and Illinois this summer.
Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes
There has been an increased knowledge gained between Extension specialists, Extension educators and organic farmers. The work being done on this project, where everybody is given an equal voice, has enhanced the quality of the fact sheets being developed.
Being inclusive on this project has provided an avenue for conventional farmers and Extension specialists/educators to understand a different farming system (organic) without it being a threat to them. They are looking at the organic system in new and different ways.