Project Overview
Commodities
- Agronomic: corn, oats, soybeans
- Fruits: peaches
- Vegetables: Diverse vegetable farms
- Animals: goats
Practices
- Animal Production: grazing management
- Crop Production: forest/woodlot management
- Farm Business Management: farm-to-institution
- Soil Management: soil quality/health
- Sustainable Communities: food access and security, values-based supply chains
Proposal abstract:
For the next grant period we are continuing and expanding our Cover Crop Initiative, adopting the Regional Labor Initiative, and adopting two initiatives developed by our new Advisory Board.
Illinois Initiative 1: Sustainable Agriculture Practices Practical Application
Illinois Initiative 2: Pathways to Sustainable Farm Labor
Illinois Initiative 3: Supporting Market Development for Emerging Crops
Illinois Initiative 4: Transitioning from Sustainable Farms to Sustainable Food Systems
Project objectives from proposal:
Illinois Initiative 1: Sustainable Agriculture Practices Practical Application
This initiative will build off our previous Cover Crop Initiative but with a wider focus. There are many angles people take when promoting sustainable agriculture practices. It can be soil health, climate-smart agriculture, nutrient pollution, or many others. However, for the most part these all come down to the same practices that improve how our food system works for the environment. This initiative supports efforts to increase our educator’s knowledge of these practices to better support our sustainable farming community.
- Activities
- Building educational materials from a five-year cover
crop comparison on 9 farms across the state.
- This is an ongoing IL SARE project that will be completed during this grant period.
- Soil tests, penetrometer readings, and biomass samples from the 9 farms will be analyzed to build educational materials about the impact of cover crops on soil health over a five-year period. Each farm divided a field into a control, and a cover cropped plot for comparison.
- The results will be shared with other educators through field days and incorporating the data into other presentations by our participating Extension Educators.
- Support conferences such as the Illinois Association of
Soil and Water Conservation Districts Annual Meeting & Summer
Training Conference, and the Illinois Organic Grains
Conference.
- In addition to tabling we will put together SARE grant writing workshops to give at these events.
- We are also giving out lots of SARE educational materials to educators and farmers.
- Travel scholarships will be given out to help educators attend trainings to refine their knowledge of sustainable agriculture best management practices such as agroforestry, livestock integration, or how to participate in programs that support climate-smart agriculture.
- Building educational materials from a five-year cover
crop comparison on 9 farms across the state.
- Expected outcomes
- 75 educators increase knowledge of best practices for sustainable agriculture practices
- 20 educators will develop materials based on what they learned.
- 10 educators will develop new programs as they expand their expertise
- 100 farmers get a deeper understanding of sustainable agriculture best practices
- 50 farmers will make changes to their farm operation
- Evaluation
- Participants will be asked to fill out a post-event survey to evaluate increases in knowledge, and changes to their programs.
Illinois Initiative 2: Pathways to Sustainable Farm Labor
As part of our regional initiative on “Paths to sustainability with farm labor,” we will send a team of educators from our state to a regional NCR-SARE training on the initiative to be held in 2025 at a Midwest location to be determined. State SARE funds will be used to provide travel support to the educators attending the training. Following the training event, we will convene the participating educators from our state to further discuss and plan how we can provide professional development on this labor topic for our state. We will also stay in communication with other states in the region working on this, including participating in further information exchange facilitated through the NCR-SARE PDP program. Before the end of the two-year funding cycle, we will implement one or more state-based professional development programs related to the regional initiative topic for educators and farmers in our state. State SARE funds will be used to partially or fully cover the cost of delivering this professional development program in our state.
- Activities
- Travel scholarships will be provided to send educators to the Regional SARE Event. We have educators from Food Works and The Land Connection interested in attending and will continue to share this opportunity with other parties.
- We will sponsor events our educators hold on the topic of sustainable labor when we return.
- Expected Outcomes
- 25 educators will increase knowledge of best practices and challenges to sustainable farm labor.
- 20 educators will develop materials based on what they learned.
- 10 educators will develop new programs around sustainable farm labor
- 50 farmers will learn new employer skills.
- 30 farmers will make changes to their farm operation
- 25 farm workers will learn more about their rights and things to look for in a farm employer
- Evaluation
- Participants will be asked to fill out a post-event survey to evaluate increases in knowledge, and changes to their programs.
Illinois Initiative 3: Supporting Market Development for Emerging Crops
Illinois farmland is predominantly grown in a corn and soybean rotation. This rotation has many constraints as a sustainable cropping system. Increasing crop diversity, including adding livestock, has numerous benefits for building more sustainable cropping systems, agricultural economies, and rural communities. This initiative will work to build off of ongoing diversification efforts in Illinois to make sure this knowledge about what works is reaching our educational networks and teach their farmer constituents about these new market opportunities.
- Activities
- Coordinate outreach with events from the Diverse Corn Belt project, a multi-state project to better understand what is needed to diversify our predominating corn and soybean agricultural system.
- Support projects that advance educators’ understanding of market opportunities for different crops and livestock, such as the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition Grazing Conference.
- Provide travel scholarships to help educators access educational opportunities around diversified markets.
- Expected outcomes
- 25 educators will increase knowledge of best practices and challenges to accessing new markets as well as what infrastructure or systems IL may need to access these opportunities.
- 20 educators will develop materials based on what they learned.
- 10 educators will develop new programs around new crops or what is needed to make them possible in IL.
- 50 farmers will learn about market opportunities for new crops
- 30 farmers will make changes to their farm operation
- Evaluation
- Participants will be asked to fill out a post-event survey to evaluate increases in knowledge, and changes to their programs.
Illinois Initiative 4: Transitioning from Sustainable Farms to Sustainable Food Systems
Illinois has many outstanding sustainable farms. However, there is only so much they can do as individual entities. To see widespread change, we will need a sustainable food system that supports them and offers greater market opportunities. This initiative will support our educators in pursuing a greater understanding of what intermediate steps and systems are needed to create this broader sustainable food system.
- Activities
- Support projects, speakers and conferences such as the Illinois Specialty Crop Conference.
- Support innovative projects teaching us about creative ways to increase market access for local food such as the Food Works mobile farmers market project exploring whether a truck based mobile farmers market could increase market opportunities and access to local food in rural food deserts.
- Provide travel scholarships to educational opportunities around what is needed to develop a greater sustainable food system.
- Expected outcomes
- 25 educators will increase knowledge of best practices and challenges to advancing local food systems.
- 20 educators will develop materials based on what they learned.
- 10 educators will develop new programs around these new ideas and technologies
- 50 farmers will learn about ways to further engage the food system.
- 30 farmers will make changes to their farm operation
- Evaluation
- Participants will be asked to fill out a post-event survey to evaluate increases in knowledge, and changes to their programs.