Indiana SARE Plan of Work 2023-24

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Commodities

Practices

• Animal Production: animal protection and health, feed/forage, grazing - multispecies, grazing - rotational, stocking rate, stockpiled forages
• Crop Production: agroforestry, cover crops, fertilizers, organic fertilizers, pollinator habitat
• Education and Training: demonstration, display, extension, farmer to farmer, focus group, networking
• Farm Business Management: farmers' markets/farm stands, land access
• Natural Resources/Environment: habitat enhancement, soil stabilization, wildlife
• Pest Management: mulches - general, mulches - killed, mulches - living, soil solarization
• Production Systems: integrated crop and livestock systems, permaculture, transitioning to organic
• Soil Management: composting, earthworms, soil analysis, soil quality/health
• Sustainable Communities: urban agriculture

2023-2024 Indiana state initiative topics

1. Structural Support for Food and Agricultural Systems
2. Crop Diversification Practices to Enhance Regenerative Agriculture and Food Systems in all scales of agriculture
3. Integrated Approach to Natural Resources   
4. Addressing the Needs of Underserved Farmers - Land Access and Ag Land Conservation
5. Local Foods with Disruptions

Professional Development Initiatives

Initiative 1: Structural Support for Food and Agricultural Systems 

Several synchronized initiatives are taking place in Indiana for holistic food system change. However, there is a need to increase the capacity and diversity of leaders working together for Indiana's more robust, equitable, and resilient food system. We know that professional development and leadership training for food systems changemakers is an impactful approach to addressing our needs. We seek to address this in the short and long term. Several of our current leaders in the Indiana food system have attended the Wallace Center’s national Food Systems Leadership Network Training and find that this was one of their work's most impactful professional development experiences. We intend to bring this training to Indiana and embed long-term support for Indiana food systems leaders within the Partners IN Food and Farming organization (PIFF). Along with developing confident, diverse, and networked food systems leaders for Indiana, we will focus on these primary outcomes:

1. Lead with equity – not an add-on and not optional. Equitable processes and diverse leadership throughout the state will ensure initiatives are led and organized with food equity at the forefront and a collective long-term vision for food justice for farmers, eaters, and the businesses and organizations working in the social, environmental, economic, and justice-oriented work for food systems.
2. Focus on systemic change, the symptoms, feedback loops, and power structures that maintain racist and inaccessible systems.
3. Provide ongoing connection and convening events to inform a statewide push for investment and policy changes for Indiana’s food system.
4. Host a set of tools for trained leaders to utilize in their geographically local leadership roles.

  Activities:  

1. Plan and implement a Food Systems Leadership (FSL) training for Indiana. Invite food systems leaders to apply, attend and complete a 2.5-day training program. Attendees will commit to leading the 2024 food systems leadership training and years after that.
2. Create and maintain resources for leaders, including informational materials, ongoing communication and networking, and training to ensure best practices for leadership in the food system.
3. Assemble the first two cohorts of food systems leaders in a symposium to discuss the next steps

Expected Outcomes:  

Short term: 

• Ten food systems leaders will attend training to participate with the intent to lead in year 2
• Food system leaders will contribute to and utilize a database of resources
• Food system leaders will continue in a community of practice for the FSL network for Indiana
• Gather trained food system leaders to discuss needs, and next steps for the network
• Food system leaders will have identified networks from where they represent/gather information

 Intermediate:  

• Ten food system leaders trained in year one will lead food system leadership training in year 2
• The new cohort of food system leaders will connect and build capacity for improved ways of communicating, understanding, and developing food systems.
• Relationships of trust and communication will be established among food systems leaders in Indiana
• Food system leaders will identify funding, resources, and support organizations for long-term support
• Food system leaders will have networks from which to gather information on priorities, issues, and challenges in the Indiana food system

 Long term:  

• We will establish an Indiana Food Systems Leadership training that will operate annually, led by PIFF (Partners IN Food and Farming) nonprofit
• Each year 5-10 new food systems leaders will emerge to grow the pool of leaders trained in food justice and regional approaches to food system development.
• Food systems leaders in Indiana will access information, resources, and each other for support in their work.
• Food systems leaders will have a mechanism to gather information to help inform coordinated advocacy and education of decision-makers at the local, regional, and state levels.

Initiative 2: Crop Diversification Practices to Enhance Regenerative Agriculture and Food Systems in all scales of agriculture

Educators need the training to support the diverse needs of Indiana farmers and landowners.  This encompasses context-specific principles at the farm level with diversified crop and livestock systems and landowner engagement.

 Activities: 

1. Training offered by Midwest Mechanical Weed control field day
2. Training at UNL’s Flame Weeding Workshop
3. Dry Bean Variety Trial Year 2 
4. Jessie Frost farm field day bus tour - learning about succession and crop rotations

Expected Outcomes: 

Short term: 

• 14 Ag professionals will benefit by gaining real-world experience with mechanical weed control equipment and networking with researchers, other professionals, farmers, and tradesfolk (especially those running the demonstrations).
• 14 Ag professionals attending this trip will gain practical knowledge about flame weeding equipment and practices that will expand their ability to assist organic row crop clients, particularly beginners. 
• 30 Ag professionals will increase their knowledge about dry bean crops in Indiana.
• 15 Ag professionals know intensive succession planning and management into farming systems using cover crops and extended cropping rotations.     

Intermediate: 

• After the field days, educators will share knowledge with their stakeholders. 
• Discussions in regional updates inform educational gaps and assist in delivering training.   
• Participants will develop programming to transfer knowledge to producers.
• Extension Educators, Agriculture Teachers, and Extension Specialists will instruct on the different ways to incorporate regenerative/holistic farming. 

 Long term: 

• Intensive and diversified farmers will have more viable farms based on adopting sustainable agriculture practices. 

Initiative 3 - Integrated Approach to Our Natural Resource 

Indiana remains a leader in soil health practices and cover crop adoption. The various levels of knowledge across the state require a tiered training program for professionals and specialized training for specific production models. Each program focuses on the environmental and economic sustainability of soil health practices while touching on the social aspects of these practices.   

Activities:  

• Intensive on-farm workshop no-till farm in Portland Maine
• Intro to Soil Health Workshops
• Core Soil Health Systems (6 virtual sessions and 2 in person)
• Continuing Soil Health Educations (1 year virtual; 1 year in person in 4 locations)
• Soil Health and Sustainability for Midwestern Field Staff
• NWF Grow More Training (Conservation Communication) 4 trainings in two years (8 total)
• Presentation and Media Skills Development – 1 training 
• Conservation PARP topics created for ag professionals to use with farmers

Expected Outcomes:  

Short term:  

• ~100 ag professionals will increase their knowledge of reduced soil disturbance, increased residue cover, increased biodiversity, and year-round living roots on soil health.  They will learn of the various benefits, uses, and management of cover crops.    
• ~100 ag professionals will increase their knowledge of the various benefits, uses, and management of cover crops (specialty and commodity crop systems) using prescribed cover crops. 
• 15 ag professionals learn about no-till organic intensive growing practices
• 50 ag professionals improve their communication skills with middle adopters of conservation practices.
• 50 ag professionals improve their presentation and communication skills.   
• 5 Conservation PARP topics will be created to use in the Purdue Pesticide Programs library that meets the requirements of OISC and share conservation topics.

 Intermediate term:   

• Local educators will transfer their information and knowledge to other educators, conservation staff, ag students, and local farmers.  
• Information sharing through the network in newsletters, blogs, news releases, and local/ regional meetings, as well as in developing conservation plans to address specific resource concerns. 
• Through improved communication skills, local educators will be more effective in their outreach and education efforts. They will also share techniques with other local staff. 
• PAC staff will integrate cover crops and/or reduced tillage into standard production practices at their center. 

 Long term: 

• Farmers will have more viable farms based on adopting sustainable agriculture practices. 
• Indiana’s Conservation Practices will show more conservation practices being used each year.

Initiative 4: Addressing the Needs of Underserved Audiences in Agriculture – Land Access and Ag Land Conservation

Land access is the biggest hurdle to beginning farmers nationwide. Beginning farmers in Indiana struggle to find and afford farmland in urban and rural settings (based on Marion County needs assessment).

Activities: 

• Land Access and Land Conservation in Indiana – Community of Practice Kick-Off Event
• Community of Practice Monthly Meetings (virtual and two in person)
• Community of Practice Ending Farm Tour and Facilitated discussion to ID action for the next 2-3 years
• Strategic Doing Training                                      

Expected Outcomes:  

Short term: 

• We will bring together 30 Ag Professionals whose work involves land use to learn about solutions that can help beginning farmers.
• Identify resources, ag professionals, and other partners in the land access and ag conservation area.

Intermediate: 

• Together, we will form a "Community of Practice" to learn what other states are doing to improve farmland conservation and access for beginning farmers in urban and rural areas and explore what strategies might work in Indiana.
• We will meet monthly for a year, including two in-person meetings.
• Following this learning intensive 12-month period, 3 ag professionals will be trained and learn how to use the Strategic Doing structure to identify and make progress on 2-3 concrete, collaborative farmland access, and conservation projects.

 Long term: 

• Reporting on the progress of the 2-3 concrete, collaborative farmland access and conservation projects that spin out from this initiative.

Initiative 5: Local Foods with Disruptions

Justification: There is increasing activity at the city, county, and state levels to understand and implement community food policies and programs to address disparities in equity, access, health, profitability, and community resilience to climate change. However, discussion, programming, and funding can and do take place without community capital asset mapping and the knowledge of existing food policies. Tools to identify and map food system climate resilience indicators have been scattered. From 2019-2022 a group of food systems leaders, supported by the North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN), created the CARAT - Community Agricultural and Resilience Audit Tool for self-defined jurisdictions to examine, inventory, discuss and quantify the policies, activities, and actions. The tool is comprised of seven (7) themes for an authority to examine, including 1) Agricultural and ecological sustainability; 2) Community health; 3) Community self-reliance; 4) Distributive and democratic leadership; 5) Focus on the farmer and food maker; 6) Food justice; and 7) Place-based economics.

Activities:

1. Design and deliver one-day training for extension educators, other food councils, and grassroots organizations to utilize the tool.
2. Work with five groups in Indiana, delivering geographically oriented support for the tool with their local jurisdiction(s).
3. Gather feedback and information from jurisdictions and tool users to enhance the quality of the CARAT.

Expected Outcomes:

Short term:

• Five groups in Indiana will attend, learn and take home CARAT tool knowledge and plan for assessment
• Five groups will conduct an assessment within a 6-month window
• Five groups will re-convene to share findings

Intermediate:

• Extension educators, grassroots organizations, and political jurisdictions will work together to gather information and assess their strengths and weaknesses in the food system when facing climate and social disruptions.
• Five groups in Indiana will reconvene to learn from each other and give feedback on the CARAT tool.

Long term:

• Extension educators and grassroots food system leaders in five geographic locations will have clarity on where funding, programming, and policy resources can be most impactful for creating a resilient food system

Evaluation will be used to measure progress toward each of these outcomes. An annual survey asks ag professionals how many people they reached out to with their knowledge gained, and they also share their qualitative observations.