Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The core outputs delivered were mentoring and training Beginning Farmers (BF), and training and program resources to beginning farmer service providers (BFSP) in the Northeast. The BF Learning Network (BFLN), launched in March 2010, strengthened skills of 60+ BFSP organizations in the region. Prior to every face to face annual meeting, we surveyed the members for their priorities for training and offered webinars on specific topics to be considered in depth. We trained over 120 participants on topics such as evaluation planning, using social media, farm financial planning, farmer mentoring, farm bill education, networking, economic impact of beginning farmers, land access and linking strategies, and BF skills and competencies assessments. Additionally, in Summer 2012, we offered four professional development webinars on successful beginning farmer support models, expanding diversity of your new farmer audience, and new ideas in land access financing, that were attended by over 140 professionals from all over the country. The Northeast Beginning Farmer Project website (nebeginningfarmers.org) contains a New Farmer Hub with pre-business planning tutorials, events calendar, map of BF service providers, and links to publications. Our map of 82 organizations helps BFs to locate local support. We have produced and posted to the website nearly two dozen new video clips (more coming) highlighting production practices of successful farms. We now offer 13 online BF courses; 8 were developed with BFRDP funds. We provided high-quality online instruction and guidance to over 250 students annually in topics including Business Planning, Profitable Poultry, Soil Health, and Financial Recordkeeping. These students come from all over the country. We completed a follow-up BF and BFSP resource and education GAP ID survey built upon an initial farmer survey (300 respondents) for more details on barriers to BF success. The results will be published in the winter of 2013 and provide a database of responses sortable by farm scale, years farming, farm type, and demographics. We completed a collection of curriculum support materials, including a teacher resource guide, poster, complementary DVD with video clips to support teacher efforts in reaching youth farmers. The intent of these materials is to engage K-12 teachers and young farmer activists to shift youth cultural norms about farming as a desirable career option. Teachers from 6 of 8 partner schools provided feedback on materials and student response. 296 students and 15 teachers from 16 schools responded to a survey on the Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE). These evaluations shape future curriculum and youth outreach and final recommendations. Posters for youth outreach have been distributed to over 250 educators. Our teacher list serve (49 members) promotes resource sharing, updates, and events for youth interested in farming. PARTICIPANTS: Anu Rangarajan, Sr. Extension Associate, Dept. of Horticulture, Cornell University was the PI of this project. She directs the Cornell Small Farm Program and provided leadership to the original NY Beginning Farmer Project. Erica Frenay, Cornell Small Farm Program, was the Project Manager for this EE project. She provided oversight to all the project components. Michelle Podolec, Cornell Small Farm Program, was Project Coordinator for the K-12 team and provided support on all aspects of the project. Travis Park, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Education in Agricultural Sciences, Cornell University. Travis Park provided leadership for Objective 3 enhancing K-12 youth in agriculture. Ed Staehr, NY FarmNet/FarmLink, Cornell University, is Director of NY FarmNet, a network of 50 consultants, supported business planning of BFs. Kate Mendenhall and Northeast Farming Association (NOFA) - New York. NOFA-NY is the oldest and largest organic farming organization in New York with 1000 farms among its 2220 members. Kate helped us integrate on-farm training with our new online courses. Severine von Tscharner Fleming and the Greenhorns, Hudson Valley NY. The Greenhorns is a grassroots, volunteer-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote, recruit, and support young farmers across the United States. They worked with the project team to create new strategies and experiences to reinvigorate K-12 classroom education. Peter Carroll Productions, Ithaca NY, is a videographer who collaborated previously with us on the NY Beginning Farmer Project. He filmed our farmers and created the clips that are the "Voices of Experience" as well as the new agriculture production videos. He worked closely with the online course team to identify the content, farmer subjects, and strategy for acquiring these clips. Steve Hadcock and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia County, NY. Steve has been an Extension Educator in Columbia County for 27 years. He provided leadership to online course development. Dave Grusenmeyer and the New York Farm Viability Organization provided match a to this BFRDP project and leadership within the Gap ID survey for the project. NYFVI has used a gap ID process with farmers across NY to help clarify extension and research needs. Rebecca Morgan of Heifer International has been this organizations coordinator of BF training efforts. She worked closely with the PI to develop the learning network and with the K-12 team. Through the BF Learning Network (BFLN), we provided professional development and improved skills to 60+ BF service provider organizations in the Northeast. We trained over 120 participants on topics such as evaluation planning, using social media, farm financial planning, farmer mentoring, farm bill education, networking, economic impact of beginning farmers, land access and linking strategies, and BF skills and competencies assessments. Additional training was provided to over 800 new farmers, through thirteen online courses that focus on all aspects of starting a new farm business. TARGET AUDIENCES: This project had four target audiences. 1). Beginning Farmer Service providers, whether public, non-profit or foundation based programs were the primary target audience for this project. Most of our project efforts aimed to directly enhance the organizational skills and program efficacy of these partners in supporting beginning farmer development. 2) Beginning Farmers were the secondary target audience, since they are direct beneficiaries of our online courses and other resource materials developed by the team. They also benefited from improved services provided by local organizations interested in supporting beginning farmer development. 3) Teachers involved with agriculture education benefited from the materials and findings of our K-12 team, as we tested strategies to increase engagement of youth in agriculture. 4) Policy makers benefited from our findings through our gap id and other evaluation efforts on what types of programs are needed and which are highly effective at ensuring the long-term success of beginning farmers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Our efforts to promote farming as a career among K-12 youth was modified and evolved based on feedback from our partner teachers, students and farmers. Teachers and students are actively using online resources and downloadable content in their classes and have encouraged us to make all our resources available in hard copy, digital cd, and online content available through our website. While a new curriculum supporting SAE was deemed unnecessary, teachers welcomed the idea of lesson plans, assignments, field trips, and classroom visits by farmers as positive activities supporting farm career exploration and as a desired addition to their existing lessons. Agriculture education teachers, beginning farmer service providers, and farmers have remained interested in pursuing new networking opportunities, lesson ideas for students, training activity suggestions, resource materials, and in promoting student use of online tools, networking opportunities, event calendars, and resources.
Impacts
We received unanimously positive feedback on our Learning Network. 66 BF service providers from 48 organizations reported plans to network with others to strengthen their programs, strengthen their evaluation strategies, and evaluate BF competencies and to share what they had learned with their colleagues. 25 organizations will participate in economic impact analysis in the future. Members from PA and MA have launched in-state versions of the network, bringing together grassroots, state, and federal agencies serving BF. Over 300 website users have submitted pre-business planning worksheets. BF service providers report sending aspiring BFs to our website to complete worksheets prior to consultations, enabling more effective and efficient support. Subscriptions to our YouTube videos have quadrupled to over 1600 in the past year, and continue to grow by 10+ subscribers/day. ATTRA, Realtimefarms.com, dozens of classroom-based ag. teachers in NY, and many Northeastern organizations have asked for permission to embed our videos in their sites, or otherwise link to them and use them in trainings. The following comment is typical of the feedback we've received: "Your beginner farmer project has been a godsend to us. I go to your site for info all the time, and have attended at least 3 seminars that I wouldn't have known about if not for you. As far as I am concerned your beginner farmer program is not only justified, it is an indispensable resource for new farmers without an agriculture degree. It can make the difference between the success or failure of new farmers." Since the inception of this grant in October 2009, thirteen online courses have helped 800 new farmers launch or enhance their farm business. Five new online courses have helped 120 new farmers improve their financial recordkeeping systems, get started growing vegetables, raise profitable poultry, build soil health, and write business plans. 70% of these new farmers demonstrate progress in their farm planning, increased confidence in their venture, and new investments of funds to start or expand their farms. 90% report increased knowledge on where to go for help and resources. One student reports: "I commend the project for making this class available to would-be farmers at a very reasonable price. Sure, there is a ton of information on the web that you can study on your own but I think it has been helpful to read everyone's farm goals and the challenges they have faced along with the course instruction." Our new Guide to the SAE Project for teachers suggests activities for supporting SAE and farming careers. Our inspirational youth poster has reached over 250 educators and BF service providers, and has received positive feedback for its design and messaging. The list serve services 49 educators with updates on youth focused BF activities, events, and opportunities. Young farmers networked with youth at the NOFA NY winter conference. Student and teacher feedback to our resources and support of the SAE has been positive. Teachers want additional sharing of BF and SAE resources and resources to encourage positive support of agricultural by their schools and communities.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Obj. 1: Deliver mentoring, training, and program resources to beginning farmer (BF) service providers in the Northeast. The BF Learning Network (BFLN) launched in March 2010 continues to strengthen skills of BF organizations in the region. Prior to every meeting, we survey the members for their priorities for training. Our October 2010 meeting trained 55 attendees on evaluation planning, using social media, farm financial planning and farmer mentoring. Our third BFLN meeting in September 2011 was attended by 66 people representing 48 organizations, 20 from BFRDP-funded projects and 46 from other BF programs. The agenda focused on farm bill education, networking, economic impact of beginning farmers, land access and linking strategies, and BF skills and competencies lists. A follow-up GAP ID survey builds upon our initial farmer survey (300 respondents) for more details on barriers to BF success. The results will provide a database sortable by farm scale, farmer age, farm type, years in farming, and more. Obj. 2: Develop resources to enhance impacts of BF service provider efforts. We now offer 13 online BF courses; 8 were developed with BFRDP funds. We provided high-quality online instruction and guidance to 120 students in five new courses covering topics including Business Planning, Profitable Poultry, Soil Health, and Financial Recordkeeping. We launched the new Northeast Beginning Farmer Project website (nebeginningfarmers.org) in January 2011, which contains a New Farmer Hub with pre-business planning tutorials, events calendar, map of BF service providers, and links to publications. Our map of 82 organizations helps BFs to locate local support. We have produced and posted to the website nearly two dozen new video clips (more coming) highlighting production practices of successful farms. Obj. 3: Engage K-12 teachers and young farmer activists to shift youth cultural norms about farming as a desirable career option. This year, we completed a collection of curriculum support materials, including a teacher resource guide, poster, complementary DVD with video clips to support teacher efforts in reaching youth farmers. At the 2011 NY Assoc. of Agricultural Educators meeting, teachers from 6 of 8 partner schools provided feedback on materials and student response. 296 students and 15 teachers from 16 schools responded to a survey on the Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE). These evaluations shape future curriculum and youth outreach and final recommendations. Posters for youth outreach have been distributed to over 250 educators. At the project website, a new youth portal will host youth targeted resources for 10 to 18 years olds interested in farming and SAE. Our teacher list serve (49 members) promotes resource sharing, updates, and events for youth interested in farming. Scholarships the 2011 NOFA NY winter conference were given to 4 agriculture teachers and 8 students to attend and participate in a networking activity with young, inspiring beginning farmers. Next year, we will add web resources, promote more BF youth events, outreach to new educators, and increase participation at the NOFA NY conference youth networking. PARTICIPANTS: Anu Rangarajan, Sr. Extension Associate, Dept of Horticulture, Cornell University is the PI of this project. She directs the Cornell Small Farm Program and has provided leadership to the original NY Beginning Farmer Project. Erica Frenay, Cornell Small Farm Program, is the Project Co-Manager for this EE project. She provides oversight to all the project components. Michelle Striney, Cornell Small Farm Program, is the other Project Co-Manager. Travis Park, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Education in Agricultural Sciences, Cornell University. Travis Park provides leadership for Objective 3 enhancing K-12 youth in agriculture. Ed Staehr, Director of NY FarmNet/FarmLink at Cornell University, which is a network of 50 consultants who support business planning of BFs. Kate Mendenhall and Northeast Farming Association (NOFA) - New York. NOFA-NY is the oldest and largest organic farming organization in New York with 1000 farms among its 2220 members. We have worked with them to integrate beginning farmer programming at the annual NOFA conference, and to host on-farm workshops as part of our online courses. Severine von Tscharner Fleming and the Greenhorns, Hudson Valley NY. The Greenhorns is a grassroots, volunteer-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote, recruit, and support young farmers across the United States. They work with the project team to create new strategies and experiences to reinvigorate K-12 classroom education. Peter Carroll Productions, Ithaca NY, is a videographer who collaborated previously with us on the NY Beginning Farmer Project. He filmed our farmers and created the clips that are the "Voices of Experience." His group works closely with the online course team to identify the content, farmer subjects, and strategy for acquiring these clips. Steve Hadcock and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia County, NY. Steve has been an Extension Educator in Columbia County for 27 years. He provides leadership to online course development. Dave Grusenmeyer and the New York Farm Viability Organization are providing match to this BFRDP project and provided leadership to the Gap ID portion of the project. NYFVI has used a gap ID process with farmers across NY to help clarify extension and research needs. Rebecca Morgan of Heifer International has been this organizations coordinator of BF training efforts. She will work closely with the PI to develop the learning network and with the K-12 team. . Trainings hosted, 5 total: NOFANY New Farmer Mixer, Full-Day Beginning Farmer Workshop, and six 90-min BF workshops in January 2011, Beginning Farmer Learning Network Meetings: Oct 29, 2010, attended by 55 service providers throughout Northeast and Sept 30, 2011 attended by 66 service providers from 48 organizations throughout the Northeast, Teacher Workshop on NE Beginning Farmer Project, NYAAE Conference, June 29-30, 2011, and training for Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators on best practices for supporting new farmers, CCE Centennial Conference, Oct 13, 2011. TARGET AUDIENCES: This project has four target audiences. 1). Beginning Farmer Service providers, whether public, non-profit or foundation based programs are the primary target audience for this project. Most of our project efforts aim to directly enhance the organizational skills and program efficacy of these partners in supporting beginning farmer development. 2) Beginning Farmers are a secondary target audience, since they are direct beneficiaries of our online courses and other resource materials developed by the team. They also will benefit from improved services provided by local organizations interested in supporting beginning farmer development. 3) Teachers involved with agriculture education benefit from the materials and findings of our K-12 team, as we test strategies to increase engagement of youth in agriculture. 4) Policy makers will benefit from our findings through our gap id and other evaluation efforts on what types of programs are needed and which are highly effective at ensuring the long-term success of beginning farmers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Our efforts to promote farming as a career among K-12 youth continues to evolve based on feedback from our partner teachers, students and farmers. Teachers and students are actively using online resources and downloadable content in their classes and have encouraged us to make all our resources available in hard copy, digital cd, and online content available through our website. While a new curriculum supporting SAE was deemed unnecessary, teachers welcomed the idea of lesson plans, assignments, field trips, and classroom visits by farmers as positive activities supporting farm career exploration and as a desired addition to their existing lessons. Agriculture education teachers, beginning farmer service providers, and farmers have remained interested in pursuing new networking opportunities, lesson ideas for students, training activity suggestions, resource materials, and in promoting student use of online tools, networking opportunities, event calendars, and resources. Current activities are focused on broadening our outreach activities to educators outside NYS, and sharing agricultural resources and the SAE to a more broad audience of students, parents, teachers and communities.
Impacts
Five new online courses have helped 120 new farmers improve their financial recordkeeping systems, get started growing vegetables, raise profitable poultry, build soil health, and write business plans. 70% of these new farmers demonstrate progress in their farm planning, increased confidence in their venture, and new investments of funds to start or expand their farms. 90% report increased knowledge on where to go for help and resources. One student reports: "I commend the project for making this class available to would-be farmers at a very reasonable price. Sure, there is a ton of information on the web that you can study on your own but I think it has been helpful to read everyone's farm goals and the challenges they have faced along with the course instruction." We received unanimously positive feedback on our Learning Network. 66 BF service providers from 48 organizations reported plans to network with others to strengthen their programs, strengthen their evaluation strategies, evaluate BF competencies and to share what they had learned with their colleagues. 25 organizations want to participate in economic impact analysis in the future. After attending, members from PA and MA have launched in-state versions of the network, bringing together grassroots, state, and federal agencies serving BF. The project website now has over 2200 registered users, 300 who have used our online pre-business planning worksheets. BF service providers report sending aspiring BFs to our website to complete worksheets prior to consultations, enabling more effective and efficient support to new farmer clients. Our videos have had over 8,300 views from the YouTube channel alone, with 403 people subscribed. ATTRA, Realtimefarms.com, dozens of classroom-based ag teachers in NY, and many Northeastern organizations have asked for permission to embed our videos in their sites, or otherwise link to them and use them in trainings. The following comment is typical of the feedback we've received: Your beginner farmer project has been a godsend to us. I go to your site for info all the time, and have attended at least 3 seminars that I wouldn't have known about if not for you. As far as I am concerned your beginner farmer program is not only justified, it is an indispensable resource for new farmers without an ag degree. It can make the difference between the success or failure of new farmers. Based upon survey results, we developed a Guide to the SAE Project for teachers with suggested activities supporting SAE and farming careers. Our inspirational youth poster has reached over 250 educators and beginning farmer service providers, and has received positive feedback for its design and messaging. The list serve services 49 educators with updates on youth focused BF activities, events, and opportunities. Young farmers networked with youth at the NOFA NY winter conference. Student and teacher feedback to our resources and support of the SAE has been positive. Teachers want additional sharing of BF and SAE resources and resources to encourage positive support of agricultural by their schools and communities.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Objective 1: Deliver mentoring, training, and program resources to beginning farmer service providers in the NE. Our two main activities over this year for this objective were to launch a learning network for professional development of BF service providers and to conduct a needs assessment of new farm start-ups. On March 8, 2010, we convened the first NE BF Learning Network meeting. It was attended by 45 people representing about 25 organizations in the NE. We surveyed these organizations prior to the meeting, to understand their desired outcomes of a learning network. The agenda focused on networking, on-farm training, mentoring, legal issues, overview of outcomes-based reporting, and advice on preparing a good grant proposal. To understand gaps in service to new farm startups, we designed an online survey and seek 400 BF responses. As of October 15, we had 250. The survey was translated into Spanish to include Latino farmers working with several of BF organizations in MA and NY. Results will be analyzed and compiled by Nov 2010 and posted to our website. Objective 2: Develop resources enhance impacts of BF service provider efforts. A new online course was launched in March- "BF 103: What Do I Need To Know to Become a Farmer". The course filled quickly (30 students), had long waiting list and enthusiastic participation. It covered legal, tax, and regulatory questions. In March, we also hosted "Online Learning 101: An Instructors' Course for Facilitating Learning Online" to train new instructors. The 20 participants included farmers, non-profit staff, and extension educators. They were invited to submit proposals for new online courses. As a result, we have 5 new online courses for BFs covering production, soil health, financial recordkeeping, developing a marketing plan and legal issues for starting a farm. Two of these new courses will combine at least one face-to-face event into each course, to enhance the learning experience. We expect these opportunities to reduce attrition, increase student engagement, and deepen the impact of the course on the new farmers' plans. New video clips focus on the "how-to" of various farming enterprises at four farms in central NY. Objective 3: Engage K-12 teachers and young farmer activists to shift youth cultural norms about farming as a desirable career option. We focused on developing materials and an approach for 8 schools in NY with ag education programs. During two conferences with the teachers, we developed and reviewed materials and resources, selected a poster for classroom use, and created resources to support teachers in instructing the Supervised Ag Experience. We also developed a workshop to help teachers improve their existing methods of classroom career exploration and SAE development. In September, we surveyed teacher and student attitudes and information levels about agriculture careers, SAE, and farming in their communities. Teachers resources and packets with posters, a press kit, the Greenhorns mini-video documentary and trailer for use in their classrooms. We also built a Young Farmer Outreach Map to link teachers with young farmers to be speakers or for field trips. PARTICIPANTS: Anu Rangarajan, Sr. Extension Associate, Dept of Horticulture, Cornell University is the PI of this project. She directs the Cornell Small Farm Program and has provided leadership to the original NY Beginning Farmer Project. Erica Frenay, Cornell Small Farm Program, is the Project Manager for this EE project. She provides oversight to all the project components. Michelle Striney, Cornell Small Farm Program, is Project Coordinator for the K-12 team and provides support on all aspects of the project. Travis Park, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Education in Agricultural Sciences, Cornell University. Travis Park provides leadership for Objective 3 enhancing K-12 youth in agriculture. Ed Staehr, NY FarmNet/FarmLink, Cornell University. Ed Staehr is Director of NY FarmNet, a network of 50 consultants, will support business planning of BFs. Kate Mendenhall and Northeast Farming Association (NOFA) - New York. NOFA-NY is the oldest and largest organic farming organization in New York with 1000 farms among its 2220 members. They will help us integrating on-farm training with our new online courses. Severine von Tscharner Fleming and the Greenhorns, Hudson Valley NY. The Greenhorns is a grassroots, volunteer-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote, recruit, and support young farmers across the United States. They will work with the project team to create new strategies and experiences to reinvigorate K-12 classroom education. Peter Carroll Productions, Ithaca NY, is a videographer who collaborated previously with us on the NY Beginning Farmer Project. He filmed our farmers and created the clips that are the "Voices of Experience." His group will work closely with the online course team to identify the content, farmer subjects, and strategy for acquiring these clips. Steve Hadcock and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia County, NY. Steve has been an Extension Educator in Columbia County for 27 years. He will provide leadership to online course development. Dave Grusenmeyer and the New York Farm Viability Organization are providing match to this BFRDP project and leadership within the Gap ID portion of the project. NYFVI has used a gap ID process with farmers across NY to help clarify extension and research needs. Rebecca Morgan of Heifer International has been this organizations coordinator of BF training efforts. She will work closely with the PI to develop the learning network and with the K-12 team. . Trainings hosted: NOFANY: New Farmer Mixer, Full-Day Beginning Farmer Workshop, and 6 90-min BF workshops [January 2010] Teacher Workshop on Student SAE (Supervised Ag Experiences)[Draft]Teacher/Farmer Meeting on the NE Beginning Farmer Project [February, 2010] Beginning Farmer Learning Network Meeting [March 8, 2010] - attended by 45 service providers throughout Northeast Teacher Workshop on NE Beginning Farmer Project, NYAAE Conference [June 29-30, 2010] NY FarmNet training on start up farm business analysis and cash flow planning. Extension Educators, NY FarmNet consultants, Farm Service Agency loan officers, and project team members attended training. [August, 2010] TARGET AUDIENCES: This project has four target audiences. 1). Beginning Farmer Service providers, whether public, non-profit or foundation based programs are the primary target audience for this project. Most of our project efforts aim to directly enhance the organizational skills and program efficacy of these partners in supporting beginning farmer development. 2) Beginning Farmers are a secondary target audience, since they are direct beneficiaries of our online courses and other resource materials developed by the team. They also will benefit from improved services provided by local organizations interested in supporting beginning farmer development. 3)Teachers involved with ag education will benefit from the materials and findings of our K-12 team, as we created tested strategies to increase engagement of youth in agriculture. 4)Policy makers will benefit from our findings through our gap id and other evaluation efforts on what types of programs are needed and which are highly effective at insuring the long term success of beginning farmers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: In working with the schools, we have made significant changes from what we initially wrote in our USDA proposal, primarily based on feedback from involved partners. We had assumed that most young people are online. So we had proposed using online tools - in particular an adaptation of our online new farmer curriculum - to teach them about farming. But we learned from the teachers that most of their students don't have computer access, and therefore we have adapted our thinking (and our work plan) to focus more on in-person events and hard-copy resources for our work with students. Our intervention continues to develop based on feedback from our test and control schools. Student access to online materials is limited in rural districts; however the teachers are actively using online resources and downloadable content in their classes and have encouraged us to make all our resources available in hard copy, digital cd, and online content available through our website. We continue to develop our resource materials as a mix of face to face events, hard copy resources, and online materials. While a new curriculum was deemed unnecessary, teachers welcomed the idea of lesson plans, assignments, field trips, and classroom visits as an addition to their existing class work. Teachers have remained interested in pursuing online SAE recordkeeping, and in promoting student use of online tools and resources.
Impacts
Since the inception of this grant in October 2009, one new online course has helped 32 new farmers understand and make better decisions regarding the legal and tax implications of farming. One new farmer and participant in BF 103 "What Do I Need To Know to Start a Farm" online course, reports that the course has made a huge difference to her start-up. She found the information immediately useful, and feels much more confident about her business structure and how tax issues will affect her. "This course should be a requirement for all new farmers," she said. Another 75 new farmers will be aided by new courses debuting this October. We have trained 20 new online course instructors, and have chosen 6 to develop new online courses for beginning farmers over the next two years. We have helped 45 beginning farmer service providers connect with each other, learn about each other's work, and cultivate ideas for collaboration. We received unanimously positive feedback on the Learning Network meeting. All attendees reported intention to follow up with other organizations to strengthen their work, and to share what they had learned at the meeting with their colleagues. As a direct result of conversations at our BF Learning Network meeting, the Greenhorns teamed up with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia County and many other land trusts and Hudson Valley organizations to plan a workshop on land leasing and tenure for new farmers this Fall in the Hudson Valley. We expect their workshop will be a model that we can evaluate and spread to other groups via the Learning Network. We offered free guidance to any organization wishing to apply to the BFRDP program this past spring. Several organizations took advantage of this offer. After the conversation, two of them decided that they were not prepared to apply and did not waste their time on an application that was unlikely to be funded. Two organizations worked very closely with our team on their applications, and both received at least partial awards in the most recent round of funding. In February 2010, we met with the Agricultural Education teachers and interested farmers from the 8 school districts involved in this part of the project. This was an opportunity for the teachers to provide feedback on the actions laid out in our grant proposal. We began to brainstorm possibilities for what an "intervention" could look like in each school - namely, a series of events designed to pique student interest in farming as a career, expose them to successful models of young farmers, provide hands-on opportunities on local farms, and equip interested students with information about agencies and organizations that can support them after graduation. The long-term impacts of all of this work will be more evident in 2 years, but to date we can report that we have received very positive feedback and encouraging early results on all fronts, and we will continue our efforts to build a vibrant network of beginning farmers and the service providers who support them.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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