Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audiences This project team is developing curricula to serve beginning farmers on starting vegetable farming for markets. The curricula then serves educators, lead farmers and beginning farmer organizations with contents to use for educational and demonstration purposes. A unique feature of these curricula is that they are organized using interactive, co learning through prompts for demonstrations, group discussions, questions to engage learners, and activities that promote self learning, or in other words, using a participatory approach model. Beginning farmer educators in Michgian are being trained throughout the final year of the proejct (due to NCE) to teach (through demonstation) implementing a participatory approach for learners and using the curricula to teach/demonstrate this approach. The action learning activities follow a particaptory learning appraoch throughout the 9 themed curricula. A final training will be virtual and recorded then made avaialble to all via the home page of the web site we have developed. This WEB site contents will be loadable to all organization on their own WEB site. Changes/Problems:There were problems around motivating staff to complete and address deadlines. We have learned how to address this in a bit more effective way, through developing teams to jointly address the tasks and we provided better descriptions of expectations. Hesitation existed among some members regarding use of new technologies such as use of the Canva software to format the curricula and different sharing tools such as Google docs. Members leaving their job positon was also an issue and caused slow down for that particular theme to be developed as a curriculum. Replacement staff were secured to complete the tasks. Monthly meetings were held but many members had challenges to attend, perhaps due to their conflicting priorities with their primary jobs. Follow up notes were sent to all following each meeting as well as a recording link of the meeting held to assist with information sharing. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project team developed interactive curricula composed of 9 topics or themes around beginning vegetable production building on a participatory learning style. Each curriculum focuses on a technical theme with features including key vocalbulary, background information/technical informaton. These curricula and the process to teach using participatory teaching methods is being taught to beginning farmer educators, either formal or informal, or through their own identification. Those educators that complete the training receive a certificate of completion, a complete version of the curricula on a Thumb Drive (easy to include updates). This format allows ease to include additional information, resources and activties as they prefer based on their audeinces. The Thumb Drive offers a central location for easy use by the educators. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?These trainings will be publicized to over 50 beginning farmer training programs throughout the state. WE will offer them on other sites, based on our contacts and USDA resources. We rely on our project team and associates to provide contacts, listservs and news articles to their resepctive news outlets to facilitate outreach capacity. Also the PI and CoPI present these opportunities at the several begining farmer relevant conferences in Michigan; Small farm conference, NW Michigan, Family Farm conference, Kalalmazoo MI, Great Lakes Expo, Grand Rapids MI, Detroit Black Farmers annual event, Detroit MI in addition to beginnin farmer relevant events through extension and community-based organizations. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to further edit our curricula to assure relevance and clarity to beginning farmers seeking guidance to grow vegetables for markets. Edit identification will be based on our continued reviews by semi beginning farmers headed up by Amy Buskirk, a new contracted hire. Suggested edits will also be identified during the trainings with the beginning farmer trainers/educators/coordinators across Michigan led by newly contracted, Erin Cole. The current project team of twelve members (since the NCE) will implement edits on the modules from modules within their area of specializations and reviewed by the PI and CoPI. Layout formatting is begin done by Alison Buskirk, WEB master and technical writer. We will then have a copy editor to finialize edits of all modules within the curricula. It will be then available for posting on the WEB site and released to other organizations at no cost as well as continued distribution to relevant organzations, groups and beginning farmer meetings. Thumb drives will be distrubted during this final year of the project. After that time the information can be downloaded from the various co hosting websites and our home site at no cost to the user. The WEB site and information resource directory will be finilized and "how to include on their site" will be released and promoted to beginning farmer organizatons including through the USDA beginning farmer resources. A summary of the overall process including results of evaluations will be written and published in a newsletter format for beginning farmer organizatons and their news outlets and a journal format such as for the J of Extension. These documents will be developed by the PI and coPI and opened to the other members of the team, if they would like to participate.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Curricula Development:The sixteen-member team co-developed a 9-themed curricula to support beginning farmers in vegetable production and business management. The themed topics include; Food safety, soil health, Marketing your product, Farm finances, Integrated Pest Management and Pollination, Urban agriculture and Land access. Two topics for farmer groups establishment include peer mentoring groups, engaging diverse farmers. Although the team is based in Michigan the resources can serve beginning farmers elsewhere. Each curriculum followed a template and entered into Canva. Modules provide technical background, vocabulary, activities to engage learners, and review questions to stimulate dialogue. Participatory learning is the basis for all the suggested activities. There are additional resources to provide educators and farmers with alternative approaches to go deeper into the topics. Evaluations: Our team includes external evaluators who developed surveys and evaluations throughout the process. Initially a farmer survey was developed with 746 responses by beginning farmers to identify preferred learning styles and topics of interest. The results indicated that farmers prefer hands on learning and activities over classroom learning. The evaluators also developed rubrics to guide the curricula reviewers, farmers and educators. This tool assisted with edits and modifications to each curriculum. Surveys were developed to evaluate curricula to assess information relevance and the effectiveness of activities. Additional in-person assessment of the educators who tested the curricula was conducted that provided detail and feedback on the format and content. Meetings: Each month a whole team meeting was held via Zoom to discuss process, development of curricula, and address issues and questions. Also events with relevance for beginning farmers were shared. Two in-person meetings were held to assess the progress of curricula development and share approaches to "getting the job done". In 2024, a mock teaching tested the hands-on activities. The evaluation team held a review of their curricula evaluation. This evaluation assessed the written portion of the curricula. Web site development Two members of the team created a web interface to share the curricula. The WEB page will allow any organization to include the curricula and resources on their own WEB page. The information stored on this WEB site will be maintained by three organizations who participate with grant. Reports by Each Team Member of Their Accomplishments- Listed by Themes Urban Ag Julius Buzzard, Executive Director of Growing Hope, authored two modules focused on critical considerations and civic engagement in urban agriculture. These modules provide valuable insights and practical strategies for fostering inclusive, resilient urban farming communities. Food Safety This theme was headed up by Mariel Borgman and assited by alison Buskirk to produce videoes demonstrating activites that can be done on a farm as well as Phil Tocco who provided technical guidance of the development as well as creating hands on activities. This curricula includes 2 modules, both with field activities and group engagment. Markets for Produce Kathy Sample envisioned, formated, wrote and researched the Marketing modules and did the revisions. This is a critical topic to support small farmers and the community through development of viable markets in their communiuties. Farm Finances The farm finances theme team created two modules and formated them into Canva. They presented parts of the curriculum to team members virtually and in person for feedback and edits. Florencia Colella provided the initial text for the curricula, compiling the previousily resources. She organized the structure of the curricula with input by the project team and farmers. Chris Bardenhagen provided support and co-authorship for the Farm Financials section. Chris drafted and revisied curriculum to fit needed format and target audiences. Additionally, he edited and compiled resources to glean salient points for beginning farmers, forming two slide decks for educatonal use. Integrated Pest Management and Pollinators Ben Phillips developed a curriculum for facilitators to create a learning environment for beginning vegetable farmers. He sought initial ideas from two growers and a curriculum specialist. Phillips drafted disease and nutrient management modules for each crop management module. He sent the the module drafts to farming educators at the MSU Organic Farm and KVCC, to incorporate feedback. The Pollinators / IPM Team included Ben Phillips, MSU Extension Vegetable Specialist, Dr. Ben Werling, MSU Extension West Michigan Vegetable Educator, and Ana Heck, MSU Extension Apiculture Educator. The team developed and revised the following curricula: • Pollination Mediation • Subpoena for Suffering Plants, including: • Insect Investigator • Nutrition Deposition • Pathogen Patrol • Weed Proceedings Land Access Holly Stein, at American Farmland Trust (AFT), developed the Rural and Urban Land Access Curriculum. She gathered informaton from the AFT's resources and the BFRDP Land Access Curriculum. Holly contributed to monthly planning meetings to help refine the project's approach while also learning from other curriculum teams. Katie Brandt created a module for farm educators to facilitate planning meetings for farmer mentorship programs and to engage and connect mentors and mentees. She also has engaged the grant group in a mentorship planning session with a dual focus with rural and urban aspects. Soil Health and Cover Crops Christine Charles developed the Soil Health module on managing soil inputs and contributed to edits of the other soil health modules She built an exercise to develop a soil health plan and an activity to help beginning farmers identify ways to financially support soil health plans and needs. Vicki Morrone was part of the Soil Health team. She developed the module; Introduction to soil health and contributed to the module, Assessing the soil. To complete the curriculum she added a module on cover crops and their management. Christina Curell wrote the module on farm soil assessment, offering 6 activities for the learners to select. The module and activities focus around determining the current state of the soil's health and how to amend the soil using practices to build organic matter. Engaging a wider audience of beginning farmers Shakara Tyler, Co-Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network, authored a curriulum on illuminating the importance of interpersonal and intrapersonal dynamics on farms. She also supported the DBCFSN team to create two videos as learning modules. WEBmaster and Layout Editor Alison Buskirk is a Digital Media Designer at MSU Extension. Throughout this project, she produced several videos and infographics for the Produce Safety team. She designed the handout templates and provided support to use of Canva and the templates. She designed the website for the Beginning Farmer curriculum. Peer to Peer Farmer Networks and WEB Development Daniel Marbury, program specialist at Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology is develping a module to facilate the development of peer to peer groups of farmers. Daniel is developing the database systems to store, display on the website, and maintain resources offered in the curricula.

Publications

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Staff-educators and beginning farmers educators were provided curriculum to review and share input to make a strong output on each others curriculum. These are members on the project team from various Michigan based beginning farmer programs. Beginning farmer advisors were recruited to assist with development of curriculum for each topic. Advisors were chosen based on interest to work with the development of curriculum, having background in starting and running a farm as a beginner and in addition, we sought advisors that offered diverse backgrounds particulaly focusing on mix of rural and urban, racial diversity and geographical representation. Changes/Problems:Problems: the Urban Policy team has not produced materials so is being replaced with another beginning farmer program in the state. At this point we aim to do fact sheets to guide a new farmer seeking land or running a farm business in an urban area. These sheets will be complimented by case examples to highlght the typical issues a beginning farmer faces. Many of these case scenarios will connect with the urban poriton of the land access curricula since similar issues often arise. The farm finiancial team leader left this job and so a replacement has been identified. Now we have 2 team members to make up the farm finance team; Florencial Collela (original team member) complimented by Chris Bardenhagen to complete this curriculum. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During our montly and in person meeting we co-host learning events for all the team members on participatory engagement and hands on learning with a focus on beginning farmers. Curricula development is being discussed each month and team members share their approaches to their focused curriculum. We learn from one another, different approaches and gain a better understanding of various approaches to develop curriculum. The monthly meetings rotate with a different team leading each month, offering not only a different theme to each meeting but gaining the meeting facilitators' perspectives. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We include those not in the team in monthly meetings and gain their perspectives for curriculum development. They are also assisting to provide feedback and edits based on their experiences with beginning farmer training programs. These persons are associated with beginning farmer programs across Michigan including; Produce Safety technicians, Extension educators not affilated with the grant, Northern Michigan Incubator Farm Project, Ottawa County Farm Link (another BFRDG recipient). We have made connection with David Moto-Sanchez as a recipent to another BFDRG to review the curricula format once translated into Spanish. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Each team is finializing their curriculum and co-team members will provide the first level of review. Then an external agriculture educator will review. Edits will be made to finialize the curricula in preparation for testing by beginning farmer programs. The evaluation team will then implement a particiapatory evaluation format that allows hands on engagement by learners and instant results, using sticky dots and grafitti boards via flip charts. To conduct the initial training team members will work with the educator to deliver the program. Guidance will be provided to the educator to present using participatory methods of teaching and buidling an interactive classroom learning environment. Hands on activities and group dialogue will be emphasized. Once the modifications are made, then the curricula will be translated into Spanish. Once final edits are made the curricula will be promoted via the WEB site and at various farmer-based conferences across Michigan and Great Lakes area.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Team of educators met in person one time and meet virtually once per month. During these meetings we share updates, seek best methods (as identified by whole team), and address timelines for curricula readiness. We also have learning sessions for the curricula team to gain technical skills on particiaptory training and outreach. This was initiated by the project directors then continued by several of the curricula team members during the monthly meetings. Curricula is being proofed by beginning farmers to extend their experiences and by agricultural educators not with the project. These changes are being made to meet the technical and beginning farmers' interests. Hands on activities are included with each curricula and are being edited along with the curricula text. The WEB site provides the electronic index of resources and each curriculum. The electronic version will be saved in PDF format to create hard-copy text of curricula and resources. The manual will be provided to users via usb memory sticks. The evaluation team created a review rubric that is being used by the internal and external editors of the curricula. In addition, the evaluation team is tracking progress of curricula and planning evaluations for time of delivery to beginning farmers and educators. Translation will be done at end of editing phase which is planned for April, 2024.

Publications

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audiences: Beginning farmers who seek additional knowledge and hands on experiences Beginning farmer educators who seek informaton and guidance to deliver technical aspects of farming using hands on and engadging formats. Changes/Problems:o Problem: Turnover of staff is a continuing challenge, requiring on-going onboarding o How we are addressing: New staff are being identified to fill vacant positions delaying team impact. o Challenge: Experiential learning format is a learning experience for even the team members. How we are addressing: We will host a learning webinar series in early 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A team of extension educators and community-based beginning farmer coordinators and educators, and beginning farmers are collaborating to develop farmer-identified curricula for use by community and regional based educational programs to train beginning farmers and educators. The curricula will be tested and edited by beginning farmers and educators from participating beginning farmer programs. The curricula will be used as a platform to teach community educators participatory and co-learning approaches with learners, addressing a variety of learning styles. The topics of the curricula were expressly identified by beginning farmers through round table discussions. The curricula will be used to implement training of trainer educator on technical aspects of farming through co-learning, interactive approaches to fully engage the learners and support co-learning with the farmers and educators. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Promote curricula at beginning farmer relevant conferences, webinars and extension/outreach programs Develop an invite to beginning farmers and educators to review of information, curricula and resources on team web sites in the form of "Save the Date" for viewing and testing the curricula and resources.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? There are over 150 beginning farmer programs within Michigan. While each program offers a unique approach to delivering technical farming information, some lack critical areas of information needed for successful farming. This project is developing curricula that focuses on the needed technical areas, seeking to engage diverse audiences of farmers. Delivery style aims to engage farmers to learn in an interactive style. The curricula topics were identified by farmers during conferences thus have strong relevance for new farmers. Curricula topics include: marketing, food safety, integrated pest management (smart pest management and pollinator support), soil health, land acquisition, urban farming policy and farm finances. Curricula targeted to beginning farmer educators include development of mentorship programs and engaging diverse audiences with a focus on Black farmers. These curricula will be made available to programs across the state and beyond. Individuals can access these resources to for self learning and to guide other beginning farmers. Additional, vetted resources will complement the curricula that include YouTubes videos, extension bulletins and guide sheets, and prerecorded educational programs. Our goal is to offer new farmers with technical information, presented in a user-friendly, interactive style . All curricula and resources will be made available to beginning farmer programs for posting on their web sites in English and Spanish- in Michigan and beyond. These curricula will serve as a platform to train beginning farmer educators not just to teach technical areas needed for beginning farmers but use a teaching style that is engaging, with interactive learning exercises and activities to promote co-learning.

Publications