A Training and Educational Program to Ensure the South's Future

A Training and Educational Program to Ensure the South's Future

Summary

The main goal of this project is to provide USDA, NRCS, Extension and FSA personnel, state farm and forestry leaders, and other key team leaders the opportunity to acquire training in the guiding principles of farmland and forestland preservation. Equipped with this knowledge, these teams of agriculture and natural resource leaders within each Southern Region State and protectorate can become central resource personnel and contact persons on the issues vital to preserving the Southern Region’s farmland and forestland for future generations. Through the project, agricultural leaders and educators can help communities face the challenges of sustaining agriculture in a rapidly changing Southern region.

In the past year, curriculum was completed, three workshops were held, evaluation ensued, and additional information was distributed to all participants.

Objectives/Performance Targets

We had created an advisory committee consisting of representatives from each of the thirteen states and two protectorates in the southern region. The committee met on October 27, 2002 following the National S.A.R.E. meeting in Durham, North Carolina. Advisory Committee members present included: Zona Beaty, NRCS, Alabama; Bo Beaulieu, Southern Rural Development Center, Mississippi; Victoria Bhavsar, University of Kentucky Department of Agronomy and Soil Sciences; Ben Boozer, Clemson University, South Carolina; David Brauer, ARS, Arkansas; Adell Brown, Southern University, Louisiana; Alex Hitt, Farmer, North Carolina; Savi Horne, Land Loss Prevention, North Carolina; William Hubbard, Warnell School of Forest Resources, Georgia; Jim Joyner, Farmer, Tennessee; Martha Monroe, University of Florida School of Forest Resources and Conservation; Mariette Hiu Newcomb, Farmer, Virginia; Jerry Pennick, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Georgia; La Rhea Pepper, Farmer, Texas; Rebecca Perez, Farmer, Puerto Rico; Carlos Robles, University of the Virgin Islands; Larry Sanders, Oklahoma State University; and Tom Trantham, Farmer, South Carolina. Others in attendance were: Jack Blair, Trust for Public Lands Oklahoma office; Jim Horne, Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture; Anita Poole, Kerr Center; Barbara Chester, Kerr Center; Matthew Scheidt, Trust for Public Lands Oklahoma office; Kevin Schmidt, American Farmland Trust; and Gerry Cohn, American Farmland Trust. Not in attendance were: Sherman Lewis, Langston University, Oklahoma; and Steve Carmichael, NRCS, Louisiana.

The first goal in this project was to build upon South Carolina’s SARE project from 2002. South Carolina’s project was led by Ben Boozer, and we asked Mr. Boozer to serve on our advisory committee to lend his guidance in putting together our training programs. He made a presentation to his fellow committee members to assist in building on the strong components of his farmland protection project, while hopefully avoiding and thing that did not work as well. Gerry Cohn from American Farmland Trust had worked closely with Mr. Boozer on the South Carolina project and was able to incorporate the experiences learned from that project into this regional program.

The second goal was to develop curriculum for the training sessions. The advisory committee addressed this objective. From April 1, 2003 until the first workshop was held in July, 2003, the advisory committee members continued to assist in the development of the workbooks to be distributed at the meeting, and in procuring speakers along with agenda development. Gerry Cohn, Kevin Schmidt, and Andrew Brannen spoke with Anita Poole on numerous occasions by phone to finalize all details of the workbook and speaker line up. Committee meetings were held via telephone conferencing to plan special topic sessions including: farm tax and estate planning; minority land loss; and forest land loss. Anita Poole, Gerry Cohn, Kevin Schmidt, and Andrew Brannen enjoyed input from advisory committee members Martha Monroe, Bill Hubbard, Jerry Pennick, Bo Beaulieu, and Adell Brown on such issues as formatting curriculum, forestry issues and recommendations of potential workshop participants.

The third goal was to publicize the workshops to ensure that attendance was satisfactory. Press releases were sent to newspapers, universities, and organizations including through SARE contacts coordinated by Gwen Rowland. A brochure was mailed out to the target audience and was also posted on the Kerr Center website. Participants were even able to register online from the Kerr Center website and to pay the modest registration fee of $25.00 the proceeds of which were used to cover expenses that this grant could not cover.

The fourth goal was to hold three workshops. Originally, the workshops were planned for one day, but after considerable advise from the advisory committee, the workshops were lengthened to a day and a half.

The fifth goal was to evaluate the program and to provide additional information to workshop participants to assist them in future planning activities.

Accomplishments/Milestones

The workbooks were completed in early July 2003 and were mailed to each of the workshop sites prior to each workshop. A complete workbook and resource guide will be included with the final report which is due in August 2004. Copies of the workbook are available immediately by contacting Anita Poole at 918-647-9123 or by email at apoole@kerrcenter.com.

Publicity for the workshops went out through newsletters, brochures, emails and the Kerr Center’s website at www.kerrcenter.com. Advisory Committee members also helped to distribute brochures, and fliers and to direct people interested in registering for the conference to the website.

The first workshop was held on July 24-25, 2003 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Presenters were Andrew Brannen and Kevin Schmidt from American Farmland Trust, Jack Blair and Robert Gregory from Land Legacy, Michael Meinders who is an Oklahoma Attorney specializing in estate planning, and Jim Horne and Anita Poole from the Kerr Center.

The second workshop was held on August 5-6, 2003 in Memphis, Tennessee. Presenters were Gerry Cohn and Kevin Schmidt from American Farmland Trust, Miesha Thomas and Jerry Pennick from the Southern Federation of Cooperative, the Holland family and Jim Horne and Anita Poole from the Kerr Center.

The third workshop was held on August 12-13, 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia. Presenters were Gerry Cohn and Kevin Schmidt from American Farmland Trust, Dr. William Hubbard from Cooperative Extension, Athens, Georgia; Liz Crane of the USDA’s Forest Legacy Program, in Atlanta, Georgia, Richard Manning of the Farm Service Agency of Dekalb County, Alabama and Jim Horne and Anita Poole from the Kerr Center.

A complete list of attendees for all workshops will be included in the final report to be submitted in August, 2004.

The Kerr Center has maintained contact with workshop participants through both the postal service and email. The Kerr Center developed compact disks which were mailed to all conference participants in the early part of 2004. Included on the disks was the power point presentations utilized by the workshop speakers, the contact lists of all conference participants, and other materials requested by participants during the workshop meetings.

The Kerr Center also surveyed each participant regarding the planning, content and delivery for each workshop. The Kerr Center has compiled all of those research results and will provide the same in the grant final report to be submitted in August 2004.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We gathered a significant amount of information from advisory committee members regarding issues that need to be discussed at each of the meetings to ensure the relevancy of the trainings. For example, discussion of issues that need to be included were:
∙ how to identify barriers to accessing land trusts
∙ intergenerational transfer and limited resource farming
∙ estate planning, property rights and heir property
∙ federal law vs. state law in territories because land ownership is different
∙ how to get university “buy in,” and methodology
∙ units to be viable farms
∙ census of minority farms
∙ agriculture zoning, and tax incentives
∙ legislation, and population growth
∙ rural/urban interface
∙ new farmer programs and aging farmer income
∙ better understanding of agriculture issues by state governments
∙ strategic training with strong curriculum
∙ forestry/urban interface
∙ ability of landowner to continue in business
∙ PDR programs and other economic opportunities
∙ encourage land trusts to invest in small land holdings

The advisory committee suggested that the trainings be held in a one and one half day format to encourage networking between the participants. Following that advice, all training were scheduled over a two day period each. The dates set were July 24-25, 2003 in Oklahoma City, August 5-6, 2003 in Memphis, TN, and August 12-13, 2003 in Atlanta, GA.

The resource notebook/curriculum was developed by AFT with the assistant of three subcommittees specializing in three special topic areas including: minority and territorial issues; forestry issues; and farm transfer issues.

113 of participants received training on farm and forest land preservation as well as the special topic sessions. Several participants have since requested assistance in putting together a proposal to submit to SARE to do trainings in their state based upon the information they received at the training sessions. The Kerr Center will continue to assist those who request it until the end of the grant period.

All participants now have in their possession the tools and resources necessary to assist their community in farm and forest land preservation planning. The Kerr Center and American Farmland Trust stand ready to assist these community leaders in taking training steps necessary to protect their local communities.

At least three organizations have made or are currently making plans to form land trusts as a direct result of this project!