Source: ORGANIC CENTER FOR EDUCATION AND PROMOTION submitted to NRP
CULTURALLY RELEVANT ORGANIC CURRICULUM, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: INCREASING JUSTICE, EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN THE ORGANIC SECTOR
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1032800
Grant No.
2024-51300-43050
Cumulative Award Amt.
$705,805.00
Proposal No.
2024-03351
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2024
Project End Date
May 6, 2025
Grant Year
2024
Program Code
[113.A]- Organic Agriculture Research & Extension Initiative
Recipient Organization
ORGANIC CENTER FOR EDUCATION AND PROMOTION
28 VERNON ST STE 413
BRATTLEBORO,VT 05301
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
There remains a critical lack of racial diversity across the agricultural sector and the organic industry, especially apparent in the population of organic certifiers, organic inspectors, and in the personnel of organizations and universities who provide much of the nation's technical assistance and educational programming in agriculture. The long-term goal of this project is to jumpstart participation and motivation for a diverse representation in future organic leadership that helps make the organic sector more inclusive, equitable, and just. To meet this goal, our project will develop and distribute innovative professional development and culturally relevant curricula that target 18 faculty members and 8 student fellows. Education modules including inspirational films developed by this project team will equip participants with foundational knowledge about organic through an Organic 101 type of training and offer exposure to a variety of professional career opportunities across the organic industry.This program will include a week-long learning exchange facilitated by The Organic Center and Organic Trade Association and an 8-week paid student fellowship to work with professionals across the industry. Held in parallel with Organic Week in Washington D.C, the learning exchange will expose participants to organic policies, processes, and challenges, and professional networking across the organic sector. Learning sessions/modules will be interspersed with workshops for professional development to help (a) faculty connect with minority students through culturally relevant pedagogy, and (b) prepare students for their fellowship placement with collaborating agencies and businesses committed to centering racial equity in professional development and the organic movement.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
90360993020100%
Goals / Objectives
CRITICAL NEED AND LONG-TERM GOALS:Through cohorts of inspired and empowered university faculty who will teach organic agriculture in ways that inspire students and offer a greater understanding of and broader participation in the organic sector, our long-term goal is to co-create culturally relevant content and experiential learning opportunities that accelerate an increase in the diverse representation across future organic leadership and workforce.U.S. organic agriculture is the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. farm-to-fork supply chain. Organic food sales continue to increase annually and have reached a substantial $69 billion per year.To meet industry needs, it is critical that we recruit and train students and other professionals to enter the organic workforce.The vision of a future organic sector that is more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive is shared by faculty, businesses, federal and non-federal entities, and students across the country. Inspired by the USDA's Federal Equity Commission recommendations for investments in minority-serving institutions better positioned to reach a diverse and historically underserved population, we will target and recruit faculty and students across minority-serving institutions across the country to help pilot a professional development workshop and experiential learning fellowship that are featured in this project.OBJECTIVES:We believe that empowering educators who are best positioned and prepared to reach a diverse set of students and leveraging a willing set of stakeholders and potential employers committed to centering racial equity in the organic movement, will help tackle the distinctive challenges encountered by growers and other stakeholders in the organic industry, especially farmers of color. In this regard, we propose three key objectives as part of our project:1a. Implement professional development training for agriculture faculty employed at federally designated minority-serving institutions, including 1890 Land Grant colleges, 1994 TCUs, and 2009 HSACUs. This intensive training will aim to facilitate sensitivity to, awareness of, and effective teaching pedagogies that help dismantle deficit thinking, build and nurture cultural competencies, and develop a critical consciousness and awareness in faculty and students. The main goal of this objective is to task and empower faculty to better support a diverse workforce that helps ensure agricultural education and its opportunities are equitable, resilient, and prosperous for all.1b. Develop culturally relevant curricula to include Organic 101 to increase faculty and student competence in organic practice standards, certification process and basic rules, organic program governance and the holistic benefits of organic. Some of these modules will be co-designed by faculty participants (objective 1a) and will be made available on a publicly accessible website (see data management plan p 25).2. Develop and implement inspirational professional training for meritorious students interested in experiential learning in the organic sector. This student internship program leverages the tremendous stakeholder interest and commitment to racial equity in organic and will continue to build on this interest to (as a continuation for this project) eventually host a clearing house for student internships across the organic sector. Students will receive coaching from project personnel to explore ways to receive university credit for the summer-long internship to facilitate progress toward their degrees.
Project Methods
Activities proposed:1. Strategic Planning with Advisory Committee Engagement (supports all objectives)In Year 1 PD Sciligo and the Manager of Science Programs will join four advisors and Co-PD Racelis at UTRGV for a 4-day planning session where the objectives, goals, activities proposed and timeline will be revisited and refined. A detailed plan of action for the first two years will be developed and by the end of the summit the whole team will have gained solid grounding in what a culturally relevant curriculum should look like.2. Curriculum Development (Obj. 1a and 1b)Faculty Development WorkshopsWeek-long learning exchange for university faculty and educators and student fellows, will occur in the summer of Years 2 and 4, to coincide with OTA's annual Organic Week in Washington D.C. This event will bring in professional and community voices who can provide baseline knowledge and common language around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion across the organic community.3. Organic 101 Curriculum DevelopmentFaculty participants each summer will develop inclusive, culturally-relevant teaching modules and pedagogies for effective minority student engagement in organic agriculture or sustainable agriculture-related courses. New or redesigned teaching modules, along with redesigned syllabi for each participant, will be curated and made available online.4. Professional Development and Leadership Skills Training with Experiential Learning Fellowship (Obj. 2)Professional development workshops.Week-long learning exchange for university faculty and educators and student fellows, will occur in the summer of Years 2 and 4, to coincide with OTA's annual Organic Week in Washington D.C. Student programming will focus on leadership skills training and learning about organic, its policies, challenges and opportunities, network building and exposure to various career opportunitiesOrganic Student Fellowship programFollowing the week-long professional development workshops in D.C. students will be placed with their organic sector host to participate in an 8-week experiential learning opportunity.5. One-on-one coaching with professionals, advisors, and mentorsThroughout each year of a student fellowship, following the summer experiential learning opportunity, fellows will have the opportunity to build their networks and professional skills through one-on-one mentoring with industry professionals including advisors.6. Filming and production of an inspirational documentary sharing a relatable journey along the student-to-organic-industry pipeline to be shared with student fellows and incorporated into the organic curriculum modules for faculty.In Year 1, before the Organic Week workshops, production of an impactful series of short mini-documentary features will be filmed and produced. Four vignettes will tell the singular, but universally relatable stories of a cohort of young Latinx organic leaders who emerged from communities like those targeted by this emerging curriculum. Through immersive storytelling, viewers will be able to see themselves with more clarity and confidence at the organic table.7. Project EvaluationThe evaluation plan includes measures of project execution and goal attainment, and measures for student and faculty-focused outcomes and impacts to determine the extent to which the stated objectives have been achieved. Group reflections will be facilitated annually to review individual experiences and measure goal achievement. These activities will help improve the project after each year of the grant period, following benchmarks that will be thoroughly developed in the planning summit in Year 1.

Progress 09/01/24 to 05/06/25

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audiences includedorganic stakeholders across the industrybroadly, including professionals in organic certification (e.g. Accredited Certifiers Association), conservation practice management (e.g. Natural Resource Conservation Services),marketing and communication (eg Organic Trade Association), business (many industry stakeholders and brands/businesses) and research and education professionals in academia and at NGOs (e.g. multiple universities across the U.S.and their extension affiliates, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research- FFAR, Organic Farmers Association- OFA, and Organic Farming Research Foundation- OFRF). Within the Research and Education bucket, weespeciallytargeted academic stakeholders with an emphasis on early-career faculty and students who work in/study disciplines related to the food system. Changes/Problems:Early termination of the project without any advance warning disrupted and ended all progress on the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Guest lectures at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley offered professional development opportunities for two staff members at The Organic Center. Collaborations for the internship prgram development helped train the TOC team in best practices for mentoring future cohorts of interns The video production work offered experience for all grant team members in storytelling and expanded our network of professionals in the organic sector. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1a. and 1b.Implement professional development training for agriculture faculty&Develop culturally relevant curricula Organizing the planning summit to start work on this training program and curricula development was completed but not executed due to early termination of the grant. 1c. Develop and implement inspirational professional training for meritorious students Video production of a mini-docuseries was started and in peak production when the grant was terminated early. The series featuresfour inspirational "characters" who offerinspirational insights to real-life career opportunities in the organic sector. This series was meant to pair with resources for students that show them different pathways into the organic sector. Pre-production 17 individuals identified as potential features after a comprehensive industry scan including a snowball interview process with multiple leaders in the organic space. These individuals recommended for follow-up interviews represented every corner of the industry: policy, media, communications, inspection, certification, processing, farmer advocacy, farmer education, plant breeding, government relations, consumer insights, sustainability, agricultural technology and more. Of the 17 selected 'characters', the production team had in-depth discovery calls with 13 of them, assessing project fit, gauging interest, and conducting a pre-interview to capture each unique story arc and contribution to the conversation about opportunities in the organic industry. Four individuals were ultimately selected for filming, representing a diversity of backgrounds, roles, and geographies: Production and Post-production ?Filming was scheduled with the selected subjects and travel was organized for production acrossfourdifferent states. Production and post-production was left at various stages because of early grant termination, but a preview of some of the final work can be found in the "other products" section of this report. We also began the development of an infographic and information tool to share in this package for training. Also in this packet would have been a compilation of videos of leaders in the organic sector-- these are videos of people that we found in our discovery work for the documentary series pre-production phase: Deydra Steans - Modern Pioneering Kenya Abraham - Women for the land, stories from the field Mackenzie Feldman - Brower Youth Award Dr. Jennifer Taylor - 2019 Woman of the Year in Agriculture Become an Organic Inspector Robert Pierce - Wisconsin Life, Urban Farmer Donald Sherman on the Legacy and Challenges of Black Farming Alejandra Sanchez - 'All things food SXSW '24 Summit" We began planning the experiential learning opportunity for students by developing many collaborations with businesses and other non-profits whose partnerships would offer support for program development, funding for internship opportunities, and hosting internships through our program. This development was stopped short due to early grant termination.

Publications