Ohio State SARE 2025-2026 North Central SARE Plan of Work

Commodities

Practices

For the 2025-2026 funding period, Ohio State University SARE will focus its education and outreach efforts on several critical topics, including:

• Underserved Farmers Engaging in Sustainable Agriculture Initiatives
• Diversified Cropping Systems
• New/Beginning Farmers
• Weather/Climate Extremes
• Soil Health
• New/Veteran Extension Professional Training
• Labor Challenges in Agriculture
• Farm Succession Planning for Agriculture Sustainability

Ohio State University SARE is committed to promoting, educating, facilitating, and networking with SARE grant recipients, as well as assisting proposal writers, especially from underserved communities. The program aims to help key stakeholders, including farmers, educators, and researchers, learn more about sustainable agriculture and the SARE Program. OSU SARE Co-Coordinators play an essential role in increasing the visibility and significance of sustainable agriculture within the university and its land grant mission, ensuring these initiatives have a lasting impact on Ohio's agricultural community.

In 2025 and 2026, the following SARE professional development initiatives will be implemented by the Ohio SARE team. Some specific (new and ongoing) needs for 2025-26 identified by Ohio SARE Advisory Committee members include: 

1. Supporting diverse and underserved audiences 
   • Translating/adjusting SARE resources including new types
   • 3rd-grade reading level
   • Supporting new/beginning farmers
   • Small-scale and diversified farmers (mixed agriculture – livestock, vegetables, flowers, direct markets) 
2. Outreach -- Real-world stories of success AND challenges, realistic expectations with real numbers, how you got started, examples of pathways, SARE resources, and other resources. Media can include podcasts, videos, documents, and conferences.  
   • Financial education -- accessible for those without financial background, and fits the goals and scale of new/beginning farmers. 
   • Sustainable pest management -- IPM programming for beginning farmers
   • Weather extremes, climate change, and farm stress.
3. Expanding the Face of SARE
   • Educators
     1. NRCS, SWCD technicians, and education coordinators need help with understanding of equipment used in conservation and soil farming operations
     2. A deeper understanding of technology on the farm for different sizes and types of farms, including smaller-scale farms.
     3. Connection with SWCD, ODA, and NRCS employees to direct them to SARE materials and training on their use.
     4. New and Veteran Extension educators need to know about SARE programs and resources as they have changed over the years. 
     5. Peer-to-peer skill building  
     6. Supporting local foods and urban agriculture.
     7. Structure and sales at farmer's markets across Ohio 
     8. Economic sustainability of CSA models including competition within these markets, community gardens vs market gardeners, and community organizations giving away food. 
     9. Land access -- Generational transfer, farm succession, urban land access, leasing, farmland preservation, conservation easements, CAUV, conservation programs including access for new/beginning farmers and underserved populations.
     10. Sustainability through diversification -- education about how to improve profitability or satisfaction through diversification, sustainable practices, on-farm events/education, and alternative incomes without increasing yield through lowering costs or selling directly to consumers, agritourism opportunities, herb markets, diversified livestock, and marketing diversified livestock, herd shares, raw milk, and goat production/sheep production in solar farms. 
     11. Climate change, systems and infrastructure that support small farmers facing climate change including issues facing beginning farmers, site selection, regulations, food safety, marketing, and insurance. 

From input from across the Advisory Committee, Ohio has selected three (3) initiatives including the regional NCR SARE initiative. 

Ohio Initiative 1: Building Sustainable Agriculture Capacity through Engagement with Historically Underserved Audiences including New/Veteran Extension Professional Educational Development and Training.

Interdisciplinary, multi-organizational collaboration and coordination are crucial to promoting sustainable practices among diverse audiences within Ohio’s food and agriculture system. These underserved audiences include BIPOC, veterans, Hispanic, and women farmers. SARE can further support urban farm educators through professional development opportunities, mini-grants, and travel scholarships, empowering them to reach these groups effectively.

Although many individuals within Extension, NRCS, and ODA utilize SARE resources, there are still many who are either unaware of the full scope of SARE’s offerings or have lost sight of its extensive resources. A renewed focus on professional development that re-engages these groups by addressing their specific needs will strengthen Ohio’s sustainable agriculture community, particularly among historically underserved audiences.

Educators would also benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of the unique needs of veterans and their families when promoting sustainable agriculture. Agriculture offers veterans significant financial and wellness opportunities, helping them to transition into new roles and achieve personal and economic growth through farming.

Activities

• Funds will be used to support mini-grant projects and programs:
  • Sponsor activities that promote the understanding and needs of a diverse range of audiences.
  • PDP for educators targeting the needs of historically underserved audiences through meetings and workshops.
  • Deliver an OSU Extension Workshop program to reach a broader educator audience about SARE and SARE resources that train Extension educators, USDA personnel, and others concerning land access specifically generational transfer, farm succession, land access for 1^st generation farmers, farmland preservation, and conservation easements.
• Funds will be used to facilitate urban farm learning opportunities and offer support for farm educators working with urban farmers
  • Funds will be used to plant cover crop demonstration plots at urban farms and hold soil health field days.
• Funds will be used to support professional development travel scholarships:
  • Three educators/year to attend a national or regional agricultural diversity conference
• Funds will be used to purchase and distribute SARE resources (books, bulletins, thumb drives, etc.) to educators across historically underserved audiences.
• Walk-in Clinic works directly with stakeholders to understand their sustainability needs and create opportunities for interactions and environmental experiences for urban citizens.

Expected Outcomes

• 35 educators will be trained in the availability and use of SARE resources
• 50 educators will use SARE information to answer client questions and address local issues.
• 20 educators and farmers will develop new contacts and partners for work.
• 75 farmers will incorporate new knowledge into their production system.
• 50 farmers will make a change on their farms using sustainable agriculture practices.

 Evaluation

• Pre/Post-event evaluations will be conducted to determine changes in knowledge and intentions to act on new information.
• Educators will complete the Ohio SARE PDP post-event evaluation 1 - 6 months after workshops to assess short- and intermediate-term outcomes.

Ohio Initiative 2: Advancing Sustainable Approaches in Diversified Cropping Systems while to Adapting to a Changing Climate, Soil Functionality, and Other Food System Disruptions including New/Veteran Extension Professional Educational Development and Training.

As part of the NCR-SARE regional initiative for 2025-26, one of our state’s key focus areas will be “Adapting to a Changing Climate, Soil Functionality, and Other Food System Disruptions.” Ohio’s agriculture faces a range of ongoing production, environmental, and climate-related challenges, including soil health, water quality, pest resistance, shifting markets, energy demands, and resilience to extreme weather events. Sustainable approaches to these challenges are increasingly recognized as vital components of the solution.

Agricultural educators play a critical role in advancing and promoting sustainable practices across all scales and sectors. Professional development that equips educators with up-to-date, science-based research and practical knowledge is essential for effectively disseminating this information to other educators, farmers, agribusinesses, and service providers. This will, in turn, enhance the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in Ohio.

For educators to be effective, they must stay informed about current issues and regional efforts addressing these challenges. Additionally, engaging farmers as partners in program delivery is crucial, as peer-to-peer learning is often more impactful. Farmers benefit from learning through shared experiences and from educational and networking opportunities that connect them with other producers.

Activities:

• During the two-year plan of work period, funds will be used to support conferences, workshops, and field days through mini-grant projects and programs related to climate change and other major food system disruptions:
  • Support walk-in clinics for municipalities and farmers concerning best practices for water use, discharge fees, and a possible discount for the reduction of wastewater through infiltration
  • Support field days and workshops sponsored by OSU Extension, Conservation districts, NRCS, non-profits, and other partners.
  • Support for educator on-farm demonstration projects to support educational objectives, specifically climate adaptation and soil health.
• Funds will be used for support of listening sessions in order to develop best practices for water on urban farms.
• Funds will be used for the development of educational materials on sustainable approaches to production, environmental and climate issues especially related to water management, and heat stress through examples from farmers in regions with more/less water or severe heat.
• Funds will be used to support professional development travel scholarships as they meet the educational objective.

 Expected Outcomes

• 100 educators (Extension, NRCS, ODA, agriculture instructors) will continue to enhance their knowledge about sustainable solutions to agricultural issues.
• 25 educators will use this information to answer client questions.
• 50 farmers and educators will develop new contacts and partners for work.
• 200 farmers will incorporate new knowledge into their production system.
• 100 farmers will make a change on their farms to reduce production and environmental or climate challenges.

 Evaluation

• Pre/Post-event evaluations indicating a change in knowledge and intentions to act on new information will be conducted by sponsoring organizations/events.
• Educators will complete the Ohio SARE PDP post-event evaluation 1 - 6 months after workshops to assess short- and intermediate-term outcomes.

Ohio Initiative 3: Strengthening the Success and Sustainability of New/Beginning Farmers through Paths to Sustainability with Farm Labor including New/Veteran Extension Professional Educational Development and Training.