Building Vibrant Support Organizations for Beginning Farmers in the Northeast

Building Vibrant Support Organizations for Beginning Farmers in the Northeast

Summary

When the phone rings at the Cornell Small Farms Program, it’s most often the inquiring voice of a beginning farmer. The voices in this rapidly growing audience are increasingly diverse- young, mature, recently graduated or retired- wanting to farm on city plots, the urban fringes, or in rural areas. Emerging among them are voices seeking role models and representation: minorities, veterans, and urban growers. As beginning farmer support organizations (BFSOs), we help transform the dreams of these diverse callers into successful businesses that contribute to a vibrant farm and food economy. Over the past several years, BFSOs have sprouted up across the Northeast, aiming to meet the need of beginning farmers (BFs) for quality resources, training and mentoring. It is no less critical that these organizations receive similar mentoring and access to the growing wealth of quality resources produced research and extension programs around the Northeast as well as the curricula and proven approaches of the entire collective of BFSOs. We created this collaborative learning platform in 2009, through the Northeast BF Learning Network.

While the Network is now pulsing with interactivity and has bolstered support and services to many BF audiences, BFSO’s continue to need advanced training and program development support to improve services to those farms operating for 2 to 7 years. Many BFSOs are not part of traditional extension ‘train the trainer’ programs, yet they provide critical support and education to new farmers. This NESARE PDP project will advance BFSO skills and abilities by: 1) providing advanced training in several critical BF knowledge gaps (business and financial management, organic farming, whole farm planning and soil health) as well as new BF resources and improved curriculum, and 2) provide unique learning opportunities that address BFSO priorities for enhancing service to underserved populations (e.g. minorities, women, youth and military veterans). This vibrant Learning Network of BFSOs will foster peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, resource sharing, and long term sustainability of efforts and improve skills and strategies for delivering effective training to all BFs.

Our educational approach will include two, 3 day conference workshops (fall of 2013 and 2014), follow-up training webinars, collection and dissemination of resources, and networking activities among BFSO conference participants. This approach will focus participants on developing and implementing a plan that outlines changes in training services and tracks change in farmer knowledge and/or behavior.

Objectives/Performance Targets

After incorporating new curricula, resources and information gained through this PDP training, 45 BFSO participants report that 600 beginning farmers made changes to farm plans or management to improve sustainability.

As a result improved cultural competencies and engagement strategies learned through this PDP training, BFSOs report 100 new BF clients of diverse race, gender, age and ethnicity or military veterans are actively participating in their training programs.

Accomplishments/Milestones

The Cornell Small Farms Program a 3-day professional development training for BFSOs, October 28^th – 30^th,2013 in Albany, NY. Over 50 beginning farmer service providers representing extension services, non-profit organizations, and government agencies from nine Northeast states in joined invited speakers to focus on improving training skills in two tracks: Advanced Organic Vegetable Production and Farm Financial and Business Management. Conference workshops within each track combined technical presentations from invited speakers with facilitated discussion and teaching methods sharing. BF service providers shared specific teaching activities within each track to foster discussion on the most effective training tools and delivery methods. This content will translate into new BFSO programming and knowledge and skills for beginning farmers as they build their farm enterprise. Attendees also participated in a cultural competency workshop on strategies to reach out to under-served BF audiences. Service providers developed action plans to outline planned changes in their training services, monitor BF changes as a result their training, and guide them towards more inclusive outreach strategies and communication style. Based on this conference, we are facilitating resource sharing and evaluation follow-up among participants while also building a winter webinar series for further training opportunities to be offered through the Network.

1. 250 service providers from 120 NE organizations, including BFSOs and those that work in food justice, urban agriculture, and supporting returning military veterans, learn about this new training program of the BF Learning Network. (Oct ‘13)

We announced the BFSO conference training in August of 2013 to over 250 BFSO contacts via the NE Beginning Farmer Learning Network Listserve, Cornell Small Farm Program extension contacts, regional BF trainer contacts, and non-traditional BF organizations such as the Farmer Veteran Coalition. The announcement outlined the structure of the 2013 training program and also included details on the 2014 conference (Document 1, Conference Announcement).

2. 130 service providers submit applications to the training program, that include statements of learning goals, current clients from underserved communities, and letters of support from supervisors guaranteeing release time and commitment to the full three year program. (Nov ’13)

By Oct’13, 61 BF service providers submitted pre-registration materials for the 2013 conference. In registration, service providers shared specific skills or knowledge that they would like to develop as part of the training. Registrants also outlined teaching activities that they were willing to share within the conference. These responses were shared with instructors and facilitators prior to the conference to create a highly participatory training framework. Based on these applications, select participants were included in the agenda and prepared short presentations that demonstrated their teaching activity.

Feedback from service providers suggested that a 3 yr commitment (attending both yr 1 and yr 2 conferences) was not the best structure to foster participation. The interests and training programs of service providers in yr 1 were not necessarily aligned with the training topics in yr 2. Instead, a separate announcement, registration, and commitment process will be initiated in the summer of 2014 for yr 2 conference training and follow up.

3. 80 participants (50 accepted with partial travel support plus 30 able to cover their own travel, meals and lodging) sign commitment letters outlining requirements for the training. (Dec ’13)

By Oct’13, 49 participants submitted commitment letters with supervisor signature outlining their role as an active participant in our training program through 2014. Participants committed to attending the 2013 in-person conference training, participating in follow up webinars through 2014, assisting with the development of new evaluation tools, and gathering data to help document progress toward performance targets. The training was pushed up to late October 2013 to foster new program development and delivery over the 2013-14 winter (Document 2, Conference Commitment Letter).

4. 80 service providers attend Year 1 3-day training and begin revising their BF curricula focused on organic vegetable production or business planning, as well as start developing new outreach strategies to more effectively engage underserved BFs (Jan ‘14)

The 2013 conference was held from Oct 28-30^th, 2013 in Latham, NY. We hosted 69 participants, including 49 service providers and 20 invited presenters/facilitators that support BF audiences. Participants represented cooperative extension, non-profits, farm incubators, USDA-FSA, and others from NY, RI, PA, NJ, MA, VT, ME, CT, and NH. Two educational tracks ran concurrently over the 3-day conference, offering an intensive training opportunity for service providers, while bringing all participants together around a cultural competency agenda.

The Advanced Organic Vegetable Production track brought together 15 registered participants and 8 presenters/facilitators over 5 workshop sessions (Document 3, AOVP Agenda). This workshop engaged service providers to create rigorous curriculum that integrates recent NE organic agriculture research on crop rotations, weed management, soils and organic nutrients sources, and insect and disease management. Teaching tools, lesson plans, and resources were shared and distributed among attendees. Based on evaluations, over 90% of participants indicated that training in crop rotation planning, weed management, soils, insects, and disease had good or excellent potential to impact their own beginning farmer curriculum (Document 4, Evaluation Table). Service providers shared planned changes to their training program based on the knowledge gained at the conference. Future training provided to BF’s will include more interactive winter meetings, new tools to guide compost applications, and one-on-one consultation on soil test results (Document 5, AOVP Example Actions).

The Farm Financial and Business Management track brought together 34 registered participants and 7 presenters/facilitators over 5 workshop sessions (Document 6, FFBM Agenda). This workshop offered service providers opportunities to strengthen curriculum with financial planning and record keeping tools to assist in more complex business planning. Over 90% of attendees indicated that training in enterprise budgeting and market channel selection had good or excellent potential to impact their own curriculum. Over 70% stated that training in record keeping and creative farm financing had a similar effect. Based on service provider action plans, new training for BF’s will include enterprise budgeting exercises, better access to financial planning resources, and improved record keeping templates (Document 7, FFBM Example Actions).

All participants and instructors attended the cultural competency training led by 5 invited facilitators representing a diversity of under-served groups (Document 8, Cultural Competency Agenda). Attendees participated in a workshop that focused on new strategies to reach out to under-served beginning farmer audiences, engaging in discussions on how to effectively serve veterans, African Americans, Latinos, recent immigrants, and women farmers in their community. Service providers outlined changes in outreach strategy, communication, and ways to improve self-awareness around inclusivity (Document 9, Cultural Competency Example Actions).

5. 60 service providers attend the 4 follow-up webinars expanding resources or sharing curricula on the year 1 training topics (Feb ’14, Mar ’14)

Our first follow-up webinar, AgSquared for Beginning Farmer Trainers, was offered on Nov 18^th, 2013, in collaboration with AgSquared. Webinar attendees (31) received a walk-through training of how to use the AgSquared software to develop initial crop plans, keep better farm records, and learn about the resources that AgSquared can provide to BF training programs. The webinar has been archived and made widely available to the BF Learning Network: http://help.agsquared.com/customer/portal/articles/1375617-agsquared-for-beginning-farmer-trainers-webinar

Post-webinar evaluations (completed by 26% of participants) showed that their knowledge of how AgSquared works and the tools it provides for BF’s increased sharply (1.5 to 3.3; scale 1-4) and their understanding of how it can be included in BF training services also increased (1.4 to 2.4). These service providers also indicated an increased likelihood of adapting their curriculum to include AgSquared based on this training (1 to 2.5).

6. 30 educators report that they have connected with and are delivering programs to 30 BFs of underserved populations (June ’14)

7. 40 educators report that program evaluations indicate that 150 BFs have made changes to farm plans. (Dec ‘14)

8. 80 service providers attend Year 2 3-day training and begin revising their BF curricula focused on whole farm planning or soil health, report on challenges with engaging underserved BFs, and receive peer mentoring on alternative approaches (Oct ‘14)

9. 60 service providers attend the 4 follow-up webinars expanding resources or sharing curricula on the year 1 training topics (Nov ’14, Dec ’14)

10. 30 educators report that they have connected with and are delivering programs to another 40 BFs of underserved populations (June ’15)

11. 40 educators report that program evaluations indicate that another 150 BFs have made changes to farm plans. (July ‘15)

12. Through year 3 evaluations, surveys and interviews, performance targets are verified. (July ’15)

• Document 9
• Document 2
• Document 3
• Document 4
• Document 5
• Document 6
• Document 7
• Document 8
• Document 1

Collaborators: