Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audience for this project is beginning farmers, including those who are socially disadvantaged and have limited resources. The project is intended to serve beginning farmers on the Central Coast of California as well as a separate contingent of beginning farmers from across the country attending the CASFS 6-month Apprenticeship Program and 12-month advanced apprenticeship at UC Santa Cruz. The training manuals produced in 2015 have reached nationwide audiences, but for the project's three years all training and mentoring activities took place in the five Central Coast counties of Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Monterey, Santa Clara, and San Benito. Much of the training and instructional materials are based on organic production methods and sustainable agriculture principles, but outreach was conducted to beginning farmers regardless of production practices. There were approximately 898 participants in the educational activities offered in the final year of the program, an increase from 732 in year one and 795 in year two. This number includes duplicated individuals. An unduplicated count of people served can be closely estimated for year 3: 750 is the projection. It should be noted that these participants received trainings of various lengths, but 40 participants in a two-hour workshop were counted the same as the 40 full-time trainees in the six-month Apprenticeship Program who each received approximately 300 hours of formal instruction and 700 hours of hands-on training or work experience at the CASFS Farm & Garden. The demographic breakdown of participants is as follows (includes duplicates). Demographic data was not collected at all education events. This data is for all 3 years of the project. Gender data were collected on 1636 participants. Women=759 (46%), Men=877 (54%) Ethnicity data were collected on 973 participants American Indian or Alaskan Native=11 (1.1%) Asian/Asian-American=133 (13.7%) Black or African-American=28 (2.9%) Hispanic/Latino=176 (18.1%) White/European-American=610 (62.7%) Other Ethnicity=25 (2.6%) Limited Resource information was collected on 475 participants (not using USDA criteria). Limited resource=168 (35.4%) Socially Disadvantaged information was collected on 1350 people Socially Disadvantaged= 568 (42.1%) Veterans' data were collected on 615 participants Veterans=14 (2.3%) The other target audience includes educators of beginning farmers. In the first year of the program, they were served through the beginning farmer network (called the Farmer Education Network). There were 34 people from the 14 Central Coast organizations who participated, and several others from a broader region of California. Women=25; Men=9. Changes/Problems:Unexpected outcomes were seen in the 2nd and 3rd year regarding the assessment outcomes for the Advanced Apprentices. In both years, some students reported less advanced level of learning than the previous year. This finding was explored further with the students from the 2nd year of the project. Results showed they found that the more they knew, the more they were aware of what they didn't know. It got harder for them to choose the "advanced" category for their skills when they saw how far they had to go. We are assuming this is part of what happened for a couple students in 3rd year of the program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?To help beginning farmers, the project offered a variety of support. Objective 1: Increase and improve beginning farmer education nationwide by updating, expanding, and disseminating proven training materials to groups supporting beginning farmers. The revised and expanded editions of both Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors (TDM) and Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors (TOFG) were completed and disseminated in the first half of 2015. The purpose of the manuals is to provide professional development training to Beginning Farmer Educators, as well as provide training to farmers themselves. The manuals provide detailed lesson outlines, handouts, reference lists, activities and labs, for educators to use directly or adapt as they see fit. These resources could be used at a college farm, for example, as well as at a commercial or non-profit farm with interns and apprentices. Instructors and farmers can use the manuals as reading material as well for apprentices, students, or workshop participants. Objective 2: Provide intensive training for beginning farmers through the 6-month CASFS Apprenticeship Program and new Advanced Apprenticeship programming, and support graduates through an online mentorship. A primary offering was the yearly intensive residential 6-month Apprenticeship Program for 39 people from across United States held at CASFS. As part of their full-time course in organic and sustainable agriculture, the apprentices received over 300 hours of formal instruction and 700 hours of hands-on training and work experience in the farm fields, gardens, greenhouses, orchards, and marketing venues. A 12-month Advanced Apprenticeship was also held at CASFS. This course combined formal instruction, hands-on training, and work experience, with an increasing emphasis on responsibility for operations in the farm fields, greenhouses, and marketing venues as the year progresses. Training focused on horticultural skills, crop planning, greenhouse management and propagation, pruning, and soil fertility management. The Apprenticeship serves as a model for many other programs started by Apprenticeship alumni and for farmer educators who visit to gather information for their own beginning training programs. While we don't have a formal train-the-trainers program, our instructional staff does offer tours, advice, and instructional materials to other farmer educators. Objective 3: Coordinate California Central Coast beginning farmer education opportunities, including conference workshops, field days, and mentoring while developing a continuing education model appropriate for national dissemination. The beginning farmer educator network that started informally in 2011 was formalized as part of this project under the name Central Coast Farmer Education Network (CCFEN). The network offered quarterly meetings where educators have planned and coordinated courses, explored best practices, and contributed to grant development for further BFR educator professional development. The goal of these activities has been to improve education to beginning farmers. A joint calendar of classes was created and hosted on the GrowaFarmer.org website for this group, which listed 205 classes in the past 3 years for project collaborators as well as other organizations. A national Grow a Farmer website (growafarmer.org) provided alumni with postings for job and land offerings, connecting alumni with contact information, and providing a calendar, blog, and updates on items of interest like funding sources and opportunities for farmers. Special sessions were held to introduce the 2014 and 2015 classes to the Farmer Forum on the site. Desiring and beginning farmers in the Central Coast region were served by an extensive amount of workshops and trainings. UCSC, CAFF and CCOF offered 48 trainings over the three years with 1439 participants (duplicated). There were 10 webinars, 24 workshops, 9 workshops with demonstrations, and 5 other activities (such as tours, pre-conferences, etc.). Some were open to the public and others were for already existing classes of new farmers. Workshops were conducted on topics including conservation funding and technical assistance, irrigation, cover crops, nuts and bolts, tractors and implements for the small farm, weed management, food safety, marketing, nutrient management and starting to farm. Workshops with Demos were conducted on topics such as equipment for beginning farmers, tillage basics, bed forming/planting, irrigation basics, setting up a 3-bar cultivator and welding. Webinars were conducted on topics including labeling, marketing 101, nitrogen budgeting on organic farms, breaking into retail, small farm financing and crop planning. Other trainings include a CSA pre-conference, a tour of San Francisco's wholesale market and a lab on appropriate equipment for starting a farm. Additionally, there was a beginning farmer Track at the Ecological Farming Conference held each January. The goal of including 6 to 8 beginning farmer educational workshops at the Ecological Farming Conference was met each year. Over the three conferences, 28 workshops and 2 plenary sessions were offered. The number of participants in these workshops ranged from 22 to 160 (600 attended the plenary). Over the 3 years, the sessions focused on topics that would be beneficial to beginning farmers, such as marketing, finances, growing techniques, land access, certification, and business planning. Thirty-one limited resource or socially disadvantaged farmers were given full scholarships to attend the entire conference as well. Beginning farmer mixers were also held in the 2nd and 3rd years to help connect beginning farmers with local services, mentors and other more experienced farmers. On site mentoring drop-in hours were also held at each conference. Other beginning farmers were served by Jim Leap's mentoring activities which included site visits and phone calls, as well as email responses to grower inquiries. Although it was planned that Leap would help students through the growafarmer.org farmer forum, that vehicle never quite took off. Instead he was connected to people through word of mouth. In order to assist other BFR trainers in doing mentoring and workshops, Jim has written a document called "Personal Reflections from Three Years of Beginning Farmer Instruction and Mentoring." In this document he offers his thoughts on developing workshops and field demonstrations - including reflections on topic selection, promotion and organization, scheduling and coordination, structure, handouts, using PowerPoint and evaluations. Additionally, he offers his insights from doing one-on-one mentoring, and concludes with his observations of beginning farmer needs. A few key mentoring insights are that it takes time to build trust with farmers, that on-farm visits are invaluable to really help a new farmer by fully understanding the situation a new farmer is working within, and that continuing education is important for the mentors to stay up on current issues. Additionally, the FEN created a document summarizing what was learned about collaborating with other organizations to better serve beginning farmers, for national dissemination. It is titled "Reflections on Running a Farmer Educator Network." This document highlights the context of how the FEN got started, how it operates, what was learned about successful operation, and what were the outcomes for participants. A few key learnings were to schedule the meetings a year out, set a time each year for all groups to discuss what kinds of education they are hoping to do in the coming year (to help reduce redundancy and increase cooperation), and have a consistent staff person organizing and running the meetings and group calendar. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The training manuals and accompanying Powerpoints and videos were posted to the CASFS website (http://casfs.ucsc.edu/about/publications/Teaching-Organic-Farming/index.html and http://casfs.ucsc.edu/about/publications/Teaching-Direct-Marketing/index.html), where they are accessible free of charge. Since posting in January 2015, the website pages have received 5,264 hits (through November 10, 2015). The University of California's eScholarship site hosting the materials (scholarship.org/uc/casfs) has received 764 views and download requests. The manuals were also posted to the new Farm Answer site's library (farmanswers.org/Library) and information submitted to the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association's staff for posting. Links to the materials were added to the CASFS Grow a Farmer website (growafarmer.org). One-hundred-thirty copies of Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors have been distributed for review by other farmer educators. CASFS staff members made presentations on the training manuals and how to incorporate them into farming education projects at the 2015 Ecological Farming Conference, the California Small Farm Conference, the Washington State University's Cultivating Success Conference, and for Seattle Tilth Farm Works and affiliated programs. CASFS staff also presented a webinar, hosted by grant collaborator California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), to 62 participants located throughout the U.S. An mp3 file of the webinar was posted to the CASFS YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/casfsvideo), where it has received 180 views as of October 28, 2015. Press releases announcing the availability of the training manuals were posted on the UCSC News website (http://news.ucsc.edu/2015/03/casfs-training-manual.html and http://news.ucsc.edu/2015/05/casfs-marketing-manual.html). Press releases, book order forms, and email announcements about the availability of the training manuals were sent to approximately 1900individuals, including: college farm managers, members of the Central Coast Farmer Education Network (FEN), farmer education NGOs, farm-based apprenticeship programs, alumni of the CASFS Apprenticeship, Master Gardener groups, and Extension offices. Information on the availability of the manuals was also distributed through various listservs, including UC Berkeley's Diversified Farming Systems and the Community Gardening Association. Information on the availability of the training manuals and sample copies were presented to conference and event attendees via tabling at the 2015 Ecological Farming Conference in Asilomar, California, the California Small Farm Conference in San Diego, California, the Alumni Weekend at UC Santa Cruz, the Spring Plant Sale at UC Santa Cruz, the visit of the Focus Ag group to the UCSC Farm, the Strawberry and Justice Festival at UC Santa Cruz, the Agroecology World Fair Day at UC Santa Cruz, and on regularly scheduled tours of the CASFS/UCSC Farm for prospective Apprenticeship course members. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Impact The goals of this project are to prepare well-trained new farmers for sustainable production and small farm viability, to support these farmers in their early years of operation, and to build a mentorship and peer farmer network that will help ensure their long-term viability and success. The four partners in this project built on their established sustainable and organic farmer training and support programs to undertake several regional and national initiatives. This project has allowed the partners to expand farmer training opportunities for CASFS Apprentices and alumni; coordinate continuing education workshops in the California central coast; and expand existing and create new mentoring and peer-to-peer support opportunities via workshops, field days, one-on-one sessions, and social networking tools. Workshops and trainings focusing on those preparing to farm and currently farming have helped increase knowledge substantially. Programs working directly with brand new farmers have helped many to farm either independently or work as a farm manager/worker (41% via Apprenticeship). For those already farming independently, mentoring has been an invaluable service to keep them on their farms and encourage them to continue the next year (77%). Objective 1: Increase and improve beginning farmer education nationwide by updating, expanding, and disseminating proven training materials to groups supporting beginning farmers. Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors (TDM) and Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors (TOFG) were both completed and disseminated in the first half of 2015. As of October 2015, there have been 4,483 units viewed for TOFG and 1,545 for TDM. Impacts from the manuals will be evaluated in early 2016, after they have been in distribution for a year. Objective 2: Provide intensive training for beginning farmers through the 6-month CASFS Apprenticeship Program and new Advanced Apprenticeship programming, and support graduates through an online mentorship. To identify changes in knowledge, each student completed a self-assessment at the beginning and the end of the program. They assessed themselves on several skill items in 16 domains on a 5-level scale: no exposure; some exposure; some exposure and some competency; advanced level of competency; full competency. Overall, all students in the six-month program had an increase in knowledge and skills (assessments were completed for 116 or the 117 students over the 3 years). Eighty-two students (70.7%) had an overall increase of at least one level (of the 5 described above). All students reported an increase in knowledge or skills. Additionally, all students reported to have at least an "advanced level of competency" by the end in at least one skill or one learning domain. The advanced apprentices also completed the self-assessment. Overall, 20 of the 21 students reported increases in their knowledge and skills. Fourteen (67%) reported having an "advanced level of competency" (average score of 4) in at least 5 learning domains. At the end of the program in 2014, 32 (68% of 47) intended to start their own farm in the future, which was a 5% increase from their intentions at the beginning of the program. In 2015, 25 (57% of 44) intend to start their own farm. A follow-up survey of the 2012, 2013 and 2014 graduates returned 44 responses of 109 contacted (those with known emails), for a 44% response rate. Results show that the majority (84%) of those responding have used their growing skills in some manner after graduating from the program. Eighteen (41%) of these graduates have managed, operated, or owned a farm since graduating. Nineteen (43%) intend to own/co-own a farm in the future. Objective 3: Coordinate California Central Coast beginning farmer education opportunities, including conference workshops, field days, and mentoring while developing a continuing education model appropriate for national dissemination. The Central Coast Farmer Educator Network was successful in several realms, according to the members. It helped the educators better serve farmers by, a) conducting workshops they would not have otherwise done; b) learning about other organizations' resources, to better direct beginning farmers to the best place to meet their needs; c) collaborating more effectively, d) exploring best practices, and e) providing other funding opportunities. Post-class evaluations were conducted in 15 workshops (237 respondents). These surveys showed that the majority of people's knowledge increased a great deal (63%) or a moderate amount (30%). These results were similar across the two years of the program in which they were collected. An end-of-project BFR Follow-Up Survey was conducted with those who attended any of the BFRDP workshops in the 3rd year, mentoring services, or were an EcoFarm Fellow. There were 42 respondents who had attended at least one workshop. Of these respondents, 39 (93%) are currently farming, 0 (0%) stopped and 3 (7%) plan to start. Thirty-four (83%) plan to farm next year. Twenty-two (55%) changed their production or business practices as a result of the workshop(s), and another 5 (12%) were unsure if they changed practices as a result. Nineteen (48%) said the workshop(s) influenced their desire to keep farming. Survey data from the EcoFarm conference (2014 & 2015) show that BFRs (N=241) stated that the conference was outstanding or good at assisting them with expanding networks (83%), enhancing knowledge (84%) and improving technical skills (61%). In the BFR Follow-Up Survey, 48 people stated they attended the EcoFarm Conference. In this group, 34 (71%) are currently farming, 30 (63%) plan to continue next year, 20 (42%) changed their production or business practices as a result of the conference, and 33 (69%) said the conference influenced their desire to keep farming. There were 31 BFRs accepted into the EcoFarm Conference Farmer Fellows program from the Central Coast that were given scholarships from this grant. In post-conference evaluations, these respondents reported that the conference provided re-affirmation, inspiration, information and important connections. As one person stated, "I have been in a transitional phase - and was influenced by many farmers, role models and connections to continue pursuing my passion in organic farming." Twenty of the 31 responded to the BFR Follow-Up Survey. Of these, 15 (75%) are currently farming, 2 (10%) stopped and 2 (10%) plan to start. Sixteen (80%) plan to farm next year. Seven (35%) changed their production practices as a result of the conference, and another seven (35%) were unsure if they changed practices as a result. Twelve (60%) said the conference influenced their desire to keep farming.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Leap, Jim & Martha Brown. 2015. Personal Reflections from Three Years of Beginning Farmer Instruction and Mentoring. Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, Santa Cruz, CA.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Brown, Martha, Jan Perez & Jessica Beckett-Parr &. 2015. Reflections on Running a Farmer Educator Network. Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, Santa Cruz, CA.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Brown, Martha, Jan Perez & Albie Miles. 2015. Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors (TOFG). Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, Santa Cruz, CA.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Perez, Jan, Martha Brown & Albie Miles. 2015. Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors. Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, Santa Cruz, CA
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Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The primary target audience for this project is beginning farmers, including those who are socially disadvantaged and have limited resources. The project is intended to serve beginning farmers on the Central Coast of California as well as a separate contingent of beginning farmers from across the country attending the CASFS 6-month Apprenticeship Program and 12- month advanced apprenticeship at UC Santa Cruz. The training manuals being produced for 2014 publication will reach nationwide audiences, but for the project's first year all training and mentoring activities took place in the five Central Coast counties of Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Monterey, Santa Clara, and San Benito. Much of the training and instructional materials are based on organic production methods and sustainable agriculture principles, but outreach was conducted to beginning farmers regardless of production practices. There were approximately 795 participants in the educational activities offered in the first year of the program. This number includes duplicated individuals. An unduplicated count of people served can only be estimated: 660 is a projection. It should be noted that these participants received trainings of varying lengths, but 40 participants in a two-hour workshop were counted the same as the 40 full-time trainees in the six-month Apprenticeship Program who each received approximately 300 hours of formal instruction and 700 hours of hands-on training or work experience at the CASFS Farm & Garden. The demographic breakdown of participants is as follows (potentially duplicated). Demographic data was not collected at all education events. Gender data were collected on 486 participants. Women=224 (46%), Men=257 (54%) Ethnicity and veterans’ data were collected on 418 participants American Indian or Alaskan Native=1 (0.2%) Asian/Asian-American=38 (9%) Black or African-American=13 (3%) Hispanic/Latino=54 (13%) White/European-American=246 (59%) Other Ethnicity=9 (2%) Veterans=8 (2%) Limited Resource information was collected on 292 participants (not using USDA criteria). Limited resource=66 (23%) Socially Disadvantaged information were collected on 407 people Socially Disadvantaged= 135 (34%) The other target audience includes educators of beginning farmers. In the first year of the program, they were served through the beginning farmer network (called the Farmer Education Network). There were 33 participants from the Central Coast who participated, and several others from a broader region of California. Women=22; Men=11. Changes/Problems: Unexpected outcomes were seen in the 2nd year. The Advanced Apprentices reported less advanced level of learning than the previous year, and less than the 6-month Apprentices. We expected that this could happen based on the phenomena that ‘the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.’ However, we will explore the reason for these results in the Fall/Winter. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Please see "other products" for a list of training provided by the project. 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? Year Three project plans under Objective 1: Training Manuals Revision, Production, and Publications. In the coming year we will complete the revision and updating of our beginning farmer instructional manuals, Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors (originally published in 2003), and Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors (originally published in 2005). CASFS staff instructors and unit writers will complete the development of new instructional materials, the revision of original teaching units, and the field-testing of instructional materials by January 2015. As units are completed, CASFS staff will edit the instructional materials and oversee the production of both the print books and online versions of these teaching tools. By the end of January 2015, CASFS will have uploaded the free online versions to the CASFS website and other portals. Printed versions of Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors will be complete by the end of January. The other manual will be printed by March 2015. In January 2015, CASFS will develop and initiate an outreach and dissemination plan for the manuals and will begin to conduct targeted outreach to beginning farmers, those involved in training beginning farmers, and beginning farmer websites and information resources nationwide to raise awareness about the manuals. Press releases and other mailed and online information about the manuals will be sent to over 1000 educators. The online manuals will be posted or linked to websites serving agriculture educators such as Start2Farm, eOrganic.org, SARE.org, and others. Outreach will also be conducted via social media and other targeted outreach to farmer educators. CASFS will establish online usage tracking through eScholarship (a project of the University of California's Digital Library) to show downloads of individual units and supporting material. Distribution of printed manuals will be tracked through the CASFS office. In year three CASFS will begin planning train-the-trainer sessions for farmer educators interested in using the manuals, and host exhibit booths at conferences, funded on a separate grant. Year Three project plans under Objective 2: CASFS 6-month Apprenticeship Program, 12-month Advanced Apprenticeship, and Apprenticeship alumni grower support through Grow a Farmer website. In year two of the project, CASFS will offer the annual 6-month Apprenticeship training in organic farming and gardening for 39 participants starting April 13, 2015. Over 156 applications for this program were received and are being reviewed to select the 2015 apprentices and to disseminate the BFRDP scholarship awards for limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers. One goal with this project is to do more targeted recruitment to reach limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers, which was started in 2013-3014. We now have a staff member whose duties include outreach and recruitment, and in the past year we increased the number of applicants from 97 in 2013 to 156 in 2014, while more than doubling the number of scholarship applicants to 67 requests for one type of scholarship and 39 for another type (with duplicates). In the coming year, in addition to increasing general outreach, recruitment will focus on building relationships with groups serving limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers. Other outreach will be more targeted, such as outreach to veterans groups to let them know that G.I. Bill funding can now be used for the Apprenticeship course and that two veterans attended the 2014 course using their G.I. Bill funding. For this third year of the project, CASFS is again running the annual 12-month advanced apprenticeship and has increased the number of trainees to nine. The winter trainings have been planned, from crop planning and seed purchases in December, to January’s sessions in pruning apples, pears, raspberries, kiwis, to February’s propagation and greenhouse management classes along with instruction on planting a new plum and pear orchard. In addition to the curriculum offered in recent years, classes piloted last year such as the "Nuts and Bolts" class and the irrigation classes will be offered.. Again some of these classes will also be opened to other beginning farmers in the region and advertised through the Central Coast Farmer Education Network. In 2015 the CASFS Outreach Coordinator will continue to work to increase the Apprenticeship graduates' awareness of resources on the Grow a Farmer website, including the farmer forum, job postings, land opportunities, and new educational materials. Concerted efforts will be made to track more of the apprentices post-graduation farming work and to document them through postings on the searchable map on the website. Year Three project plans under Objective 3: Coordinate California Central Coast beginning farmer education opportunities, including workshops, field days, and mentoring In year three of the project, CASFS and the partners on the collaborative regional work (EFA, CCOF, and CAFF) will continue offering an integrated range of services to beginning farmers, from direct mentoring to workshops to online community-based technical assistance. These partners and a larger cohort of farmer educators in a five-county region will continue to maintain a shared calendar as a "one stop shop" for beginning farmers looking for education and training in the region. The CCFEN met in November 2014 to share plans and coordinate for the coming year's trainings, including those outlined below. EFA will offer 10 Beginning Farmer Track workshops, along with "office hours" with mentor farmers, at the annual Ecological Farming Conference in January 2015. Workshop topics range from seedbed preparation to seed saving, and from finding affordable land to water saving strategies. Full and partial conference scholarships will be provided to limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers from BFRDP funds. A New and Beginning Farmer Mixer will bring together regional and national beginning farmers to hear about a range of farmer education offerings and services, and to network with each other and with farmer educators. CAFF plans to offer food safety workshops, a farmers’ marketing roundtable, and farm-to-market meet the retailers opportunities for beginning farmers in the five- county area. CCOF will continue to offer its marketing and organic certification workshops as both webinars and in-person workshops, with new offerings this year including two in Spanish, one on record-keeping and one on nitrogen management. CASFS will offer at least three BFR workshops at the CASFS Farm: Nuts & Bolts, Irrigation Distribution and Uniformity, and Setting up a Small Farm Propagation Area. Farmer mentor Jim Leap will also do several additional BFR classes at other teaching farms in the region. Farmer mentor Jim Leap has established a wide following with his mentoring work, classes, and workshops. His mentoring work will continue eight hours per week in year three, with additional hours devoted to beginning farmer classes, workshops, and the development of instructional materials. He will continue to respond to beginning farmer questions on the Santa Cruz Farmer Forum google group and by direct email. In year three he will write up an informal guide on farmer mentoring based on his experience with this project. In year three we plan to expand outreach to all our partner constituent farmers to increase the use of the Central Coast Farmer Education Network calendar hosted on the Grow a Farmer website. The primary work of outreach will be through the individual organizations' outreach channels, e-newsletters, Facebook pages, and websites.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Impact The goals of this project are to prepare well-trained new farmers for sustainable production and small farm viability, to support these farmers in their early years of operation, and to build a mentorship and peer farmer network that will help ensure their long-term viability and success. The four partners in this project built on their established sustainable and organic farmer training and support programs to undertake several regional and national initiatives. This project has allowed the expansion of farmer training opportunities at the CASFS Apprenticeship and for its alumni; coordinated continuing education workshops in the California central coast among various agencies; expanded existing and created new mentoring and peer-to-peer support opportunities via workshops, field days, one-on-one sessions, and social networking tools. In the second year of the program, there were approximately 795 participants in the educational activities offered (duplicated). Workshops and trainings focusing on those preparing to farm and currently farming have helped increase knowledge substantially. Programs working directly with brand new farmers have helped many begin to farm either independently or work as a farm manager/worker (100% via mentoring and 78% via Apprenticeship). For those already farming independently, mentoring has been an invaluable service to keep them on their farms and encourage them to continue the next year (92%). Objective 1: Increase and improve beginning farmer education nationwide by updating, expanding, and disseminating proven training materials to groups supporting beginning farmers. By the end of the second year of the project, significant progress had been made on revisions to both training manuals. The Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors has the majority of lectures (18) written, reviewed, and revised, and prepared for final copy editing and formatting. Only one is still in development, 2 are in revision and 1 is in final review. One chapter has been postponed. There are 11 updated or new appendices. The Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors manual has 21 lectures edited and formatted, 7 lectures completed and ready for final copy editing and formatting, and 8 lectures in final review. Eighteen new narrative supplements and 27 new and updated appendices were also added. Nine Powerpoint presentations to accompany the units in Part 1, Organic Farming & Gardening Skills, were completed or are in development. Finally, 12 instructional videos, to supplement lectures and demonstrations, have been completed. Two more videos are currently in production. Objective 2: Provide intensive training for beginning farmers through the 6-month CASFS Apprenticeship Program and new Advanced Apprenticeship programming, and support graduates through an online mentorship. The 2014 class for the 6-month Apprenticeship Program included 39 apprentices selected from a pool of 97 applicants. Each completed a self-assessment, which was conducted at the beginning and the end of the program. They assessed themselves on several skill items in 16 domains on a 5-level scale: no exposure; some exposure; some exposure & some competency; advanced level of competency; full competency. Overall, all students in the six-month program had an increase in knowledge and skills (assessments were completed for 38 or the 39 students). Thirty-four students (89.5%) had an overall increase of at least one level (of the 5 described above). All students reported to have at least an "advanced level of competency" by the end in at least one skill and one learning domain. Twenty students (52.6%) reported having an "advanced level of competency" (average score of 4) in at least 6 learning domains and 92% of the students had an average score of 3 or more (some exposure & some competency) in at least half of the domains. The Advanced Apprenticeship served 8 students. These apprentices, like the six-month apprentices, also completed the same self-assessment. Overall, all Advanced Apprenticeship students increased their knowledge and skills. Four (50%) reported having an "advanced level of competency" (average score of 4) in at least 1 learning domain. At the end of the program in 2014, 32 (68% of 47) intended to start their own farm in the future, which was a 5% point increase from their intentions at the beginning of the program. A survey of 2013 graduates found that the majority (78%) of those responding are utilizing their growing skills. There were 9 respondents of 32 with known emails (28% response rate). The two graduates from the 12-month advanced apprenticeship were growing food – one as a farm manager, the other as a horticulturalist for a botanical garden. Five of the seven 6-month program graduates were farming, as either an owner (1), farm manager (1), work crew member (2), or installing gardens for orchard keepers (1). Additionally, 8 of the graduates from the 6-month program are in the 2014 12-month advanced apprenticeship. Objective 3: Coordinate California Central Coast beginning farmer education opportunities, including conference workshops, field days, and mentoring while developing a continuing education model appropriate for national dissemination. In this second year, 4 meetings were held and a total of 33 individuals attended (unduplicated) from 11 organizations – meeting our goal. This network provided a successful means for planning and coordinating courses, exploring best practices, and contributing to grant development for further BFR educator professional development. A joint calendar of classes was created and hosted on the GrowaFarmer.org website, which listed 79 classes for this year for project collaborators as well as other organizations. The goal of serving 90 people in workshops, field days and educational events was exceeded – with 422 (duplicated) people participating in 20 events. Post-class evaluations were conducted in 10 workshops (136 respondents), and found that the majority of people's knowledge increased a great deal (63%) or a moderate amount (32%). The goal of including 6 to 8 beginning farmer educational workshops at the Ecological Farming Conference was met. Seven workshops and 1 plenary session were offered. The number of participants in these workshops ranged from 22 to 160 (600 attended the plenary). BFRs (N=86) stated that the conference was outstanding or good at assisting them with expanding networks (82%), enhancing knowledge (82%) and improving technical skills (68%). Ten BFRs accepted in to the Farmer Fellows program from the Central Coast were given scholarships from this grant. Six of the nine Fellows who completed an additional survey stated that their conference experience encouraged them to keep farming (the other 3 were simply dedicated to farming). Survey respondents said the conference provides re-affirmation, inspiration and important connections. As one person stated, “I have been in a transitional phase - and was influenced by many farmers, role models and connections to continue pursuing my passion in organic farming.” Jim Leap's mentoring activities included site visits and email responses to grower inquiries. Leap conducted 26 site visits to 21 farms, and worked with 28 people. He also responded to over 160 emails (65 people). Of the 14 people who responded to a survey about their mentorship experience, 2 started farming, and 11 planned to continue farming. Eleven said that Jim’s assistance influenced their desire to keep farming. Written comments show that mentorship was invaluable, as it provided encouragement, confidence, support, and much needed expertise. “I cannot stress enough how much Jim’s help has allowed me to continue farming. Without this kind of support, starting a new farm would feel like a daunting, completely unobtainable goal.”
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Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The primary target audience for this project is beginning farmers, including those who are socially disadvantaged and have limited resources. The project is intended to serve beginning farmers on the Central Coast of California as well as a separate contingent of beginning farmers from across the country attending the CASFS 6-month Apprenticeship Program and 12-month advanced apprenticeship at UC Santa Cruz. The training manuals being produced for 2014 publication will reach nationwide audiences, but for the project’s first year all training and mentoring activities took place in the five Central Coast counties of Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Monterey, Santa Clara, and San Benito. Much of the training and instructional materials are based on organic production methods and sustainable agriculture principles, but outreach was conducted to beginning farmers regardless of production practices. There were approximately 1706 participants in the educational activities offered in the first year of the program. This number includes duplicated individuals, particularly those who attended the beginning farmer track sessions at the Ecological Farming Conference (where people may have attended several of the 12 beginning farmer sessions). An unduplicated count of people served can only be estimated: a low estimate would be 520, and high estimate would be 800. It should be noted that these participants received trainings of varying lengths, but 40 participants in a two hour workshop were counted the same as the 40 full-time trainees in the six-month Apprenticeship Program. The demographic breakdown of participants is as follows (potentially duplicated). Demographic data was not collected at all education events. Gender data were collected on 543 participants. Women=243 (45%), Men=291 (55%) Ethnicity data were collected on 204 participants American Indian or Alaskan Native=3 (1%) Asian/Asian-American=65 (32%) Black or African-American=1 (.5%) Hispanic/Latino=87 (43%) White/European-American=74 (36%) Other Ethnicity=5 (2%) Limited Resource information was collected on 124 participants (not using USDA criteria). Limited resource=71 (57%) The other target audience includes educators of beginning farmers. In the first year of the program, they were served through the beginning farmer network (called the Farmer Education Network). There were 22 participants from the Central Coast who participated, and several others from a broader region of California. Women=15; Men=6. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Please see “other products” for a list of training provided by the project. 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? Year two project plans under Objective 1: Training Manuals Revision, Production, and Publications In the coming year we will complete the revision and updating of our beginning farmer instructional manuals, Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors (originally published in 2003), and Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors (originally published in 2005). CASFS staff instructors and unit writers will complete the development of new instructional materials, the revision of original teaching units, and the field-testing of instructional materials by June 2014. As units are completed, CASFS staff will edit the instructional materials and oversee the production of both the print books and online versions of these teaching tools. By the end of the project’s second year, August 31, 2014, CASFS will have published the new manuals and uploaded the free online versions to the CASFS website and other portals. In this same time period, CASFS will develop and initiate an outreach and dissemination plan for the manuals. In the summer of 2014, CASFS will begin to conduct targeted outreach to beginning farmers, those involved in training beginning farmers, and beginning farmer websites and information resources nationwide to raise awareness about the manuals. Press releases and other mailed and online information about the manuals will be sent to over 1000 educators. The online manuals will be posted or linked to websites serving agriculture educators such as Start2Farm, eOrganic.org, SARE.org, and others. Outreach will also include presentations and exhibit booths at conferences serving beginning farmers and farm educators. CASFS will establish online usage tracking through eScholarship (a project of the University of California’s Digital Library) to show downloads of individual units and supporting material. Distribution of printed manuals will be tracked through the CASFS office. In year two CASFS will begin planning train-the-trainer sessions for farmer educators interested in using the manuals, with initiation of training sessions in year three of project. Year two project plans under Objective 2: CASFS 6-month Apprenticeship Program, 12-month Advanced Apprenticeship, and Apprenticeship alumni grower support through Grow a Farmer website. In year two of the project, CASFS will offer the annual 6-month Apprenticeship training in organic farming and gardening for 39 participants starting April 14, 2014. Over 100 applications for this program were received and will be reviewed to select the 2014 apprentices and to disseminate the BFRDP scholarship awards for limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers. One goal with this project is to do more targeted recruitment to reach limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers. While the scholarship funding provided by this grant and other grants and gifts has made it possible for more limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers to attend the training, recruitment is needed to assure we have the best candidates for the scholarships and the program. We have hired a new staff member whose duties include outreach and recruitment. In addition to increasing general outreach, recruitment will focus on building relationships with groups serving limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers. Other outreach will be more targeted, such as outreach to veterans groups to let them know that G.I. Bill funding can now be used for the Apprenticeship course. In 2014 CASFS will refine the distinct learning pathways in the Apprenticeship for those who want to focus on CSA farming, urban agriculture, or fruit tree management. CASFS will also revise the assessment tools for the program for 2014, piloting the new pre-assessment form with the incoming 39 apprentices in April 2014. In this second year of the project, CASFS will run the annual 12-month advanced apprenticeship and will increase the number of trainees to eight. There were 22 eligible applicants for the eight positions selected to start October 21, 2013. In addition to the curriculum offered last year, new trainings are on the calendar such as an in-depth tractor equipment “Nuts and Bolts” class, and others are being planned in response to an informal survey of the trainee’s interests. Some classes will be open to other beginning farmers in the region and advertised through the Central Coast Farmer Education Network. Other new classes will be done in conjunction with new undergraduate classes being offered in urban agriculture and in irrigation. In 2014 the new CASFS Outreach Coordinator will work to increase the Apprenticeship graduates’ awareness of resources on the Grow a Farmer website, including the farmer forum, job postings, land opportunities, and new educational materials. Concerted efforts will be made to track more of the apprentices post-graduation farming work and to document them through postings on the searchable map on the website. Year two project plans under Objective 3: Coordinate California Central Coast beginning farmer education opportunities, including workshops, field days, and mentoring In year two of the project, CASFS and the partners on the collaborative regional work (EFA, CCOF, and CAFF) will continue offering an integrated range of services to beginning farmers, from direct mentoring to workshops to online community-based technical assistance. These partners and a larger cohort of farmer educators in a five-county region will continue to maintain a shared calendar as a “one stop shop” for beginning farmers looking for education and training in the region. The CCFEN met in October to share plans and coordinate for the coming year’s trainings, including those outlined below. EFA will offer 8-10 Beginning Farmer Track workshops, along with “office hours” with mentor farmers, at the annual Ecological Farming Conference in January 2014. Full and partial conference scholarships will be provided to limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers from BFRDP funds. A New and Beginning Farmer Mixer will bring together regional and national beginning farmers to hear about a range of farmer education offerings and services, and to network with each other and with farmer educators. CAFF plans to offer up to five food safety workshops for beginning farmers in the five- county area, and CCOF will continue to offer its marketing and business workshops. CASFS is developing new workshops to be piloted at the 30-acre teaching farm for beginning farmers and advanced apprentices, primarily in small-scale farming equipment use and crop production. Farmer mentor Jim Leap has established a wide following with his mentoring work, classes, and workshops. His mentoring work will continue eight hours per week in year two, with additional hours devoted to beginning farmer classes, workshops, and the development of instructional materials. He will continue to respond to beginning farmer questions on the Santa Cruz Farmer Forum google group and on the Grow a Farmer website forum. In year two he will begin to collect information and plan for an informal guide on farmer mentoring. In year two we plan to expand outreach to all our partner constituent farmers to increase the use of the Central Coast Farmer Education Network calendar hosted on the Grow a Farmer website. The primary work of outreach will be through the individual organizations’ outreach channels, e-newsletters, facebook pages, and websites.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Impact The goals of this project are to prepare well-trained new farmers for sustainable production and small farm viability, to support these farmers in their early years of operation, and to build a mentorship and peer farmer network that will help ensure their long-term viability and success. The four partners in this project built on their established sustainable and organic farmer training and support programs to undertake several regional and national initiatives. This project has allowed the expansion of farmer training opportunities at the CASFS Apprenticeship and for its alumni; coordinated continuing education workshops in the California central coast among various agencies; expanded existing and created new mentoring and peer-to-peer support opportunities via workshops, field days, one-on-one sessions, and social networking tools. In the first year of the program, there were approximately 1706 participants in the educational activities offered (duplicated) - up to an estimated 800 individuals. Three-hundred-ten people are considered socially disadvantaged and 71 are considered limited resourced, which are also a target audience for this program. Forty-six people were served in the intensive 6-month to 1-year program and 418 were served in workshops (including a pre-conference). Outcome measures for selected programs show that participants are gaining new knowledge. To date, the program is meeting its expectations of serving new farmers in a broad spectrum of learning situations and different points in their early careers. Objective 1: Increase and improve beginning farmer education nationwide by updating, expanding, and disseminating proven training materials to groups supporting beginning farmers. By the end of the first year of the project, significant progress had been made on revisions to both training manuals. The Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors manual, had 4 lectures in final revision, 10 drafts in review, 6 lectures in development, and 3 that had not begun. Overall, after receiving feedback from CASFS teachings staff, and other manual users, it was decided to substantially overhaul 3 lectures and add six brand new ones. The new lectures include one on labor, food safety, marketing basics (branding, website development, etc.) and other kinds of direct marketing (such as agri-tourism, u-pick, marketing to faith communities, and online sales). The Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors manual had 4 units in final revision, 3 units in review, 8 units in development, and 3 that had not begun. After receiving feedback, it was decided to substantially overhaul 7 of 18 units and add five new lectures. The new lectures include: field-scale composting, the benefits and challenges of cover crops, irrigation concepts and terminology, irrigation scheduling and delivery systems, and transplanting and direct seeding. Eleven new case studies and 5 new appendices were also added, as were PowerPoint templates for authors to use. Finally, 3 instructional videos, to supplement lectures and demonstrations, have been completed. Footage has been completed for 2-3 additional ones. Objective 2: Provide intensive training for beginning farmers through the 6-month CASFS Apprenticeship Program and new Advanced Apprenticeship programming, and support graduates through an online mentorship. The 2013 class for the 6-month Apprenticeship Program included 39 apprentices selected from a pool of 120 applicants. Each completed a self-assessment, which was conducted at the beginning and the end of the program. They assessed themselves on several skill items in 14 domains on a 5-level scale: no exposure; some exposure; some exposure & some competency; advanced level of competency; full competency. Overall, all students in the six-month program had an increase in knowledge and skills. Twenty-three students (61%) had an overall increase of at least one level (of the 5 described above). All students reported to have at least an “advanced level of competency” by the end in at least one skill. Thirty-two students (82%) reported having an “advanced level of competency” (average score of 4) in at least one learning domain and 74% of the students had an average score of 3 or more (some exposure & some competency) in at least half of the domains. In the first year of the program, the new Advanced Apprenticeship served 7 students. These advanced apprentices, like the six-month apprentices, also completed the same self-assessment. Overall, all Advanced Apprenticeship students increased their knowledge and skills (6 of 7 people took the assessment). All students reported having an “advanced level of competency” (average score of 4) in at least 5 learning domains. Five of the 6 reported having an "advanced level of competency” in 13 of the 14 domains. The farmer forum on the Grow a Farmer website has been developed and introduced to potential users (Apprenticeship alumni). More outreach about this feature of the website will be conducted in year 2, as other parts of the website are getting more use, such as the Land Opportunities and Farm Job postings. Objective 3: Coordinate California Central Coast beginning farmer education opportunities, including conference workshops, field days, and mentoring while developing a continuing education model appropriate for national dissemination. The beginning farmer network that started informally in 2011 was formalized as part of this project under the name Central Coast Farmer Education Network. In this first year, 4 meetings were held and a total of 22 individuals attended (unduplicated). Ten organizations participated, meeting our goal. A joint calendar of classes was created and hosted on the GrowaFarmer.org website, listing 76 classes for this year for the project collaborators, as well as other organizations. This network provided a successful means for planning and coordinating courses. The goal of serving 90 people in workshops, field days and educational events was exceeded – with 418 people participating in 12 events (including the CSA Pre-Conference). Post-class evaluations were conducted in 2 workshops (43 participants), and found that the majority of people’s knowledge increased a great deal (59%) or a moderate amount (39%). The goal of including 6 to 8 beginning farmer educational workshops at the Ecological Farming Conference was exceeded. Twelve workshops were offered. The number of participants in these workshops ranged from 26 to 150 (102 on average). Eighteen limited resource beginning farmers received full scholarships to the conference. In addition, the conference added a new feature called “Office Hours” allowing 8 beginning farmers to meet one-on-one with mentor farmers and agriculture professionals. Two beginning farmer “mixers” allowed for information sharing and networking. Jim Leap’s mentoring activities included site visits and email responses to the Grow a Farmer forum and the new farmer Google group forum. Leap conducted 21 site visits to 11 farms, and worked with 16 people. He also responded to 140 emails (the number of individuals is unknown). Feedback from his mentoring includes the following quotes. 1) "He's definitely played more of a mentor role: talking me down from certain ledges, and talking me up from certain valleys.” 2) "I think the workshops he does - especially the mentorship that he's doing right now, the one-on-one - I think that component of help in the first five years of farming is really what can make or break someone." 3) “One of the things that he said to [us] on the very first visit that constantly we go back to was…'I am not going to let you fail.' That is just always there, and you can feel it.”
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