Recipient Organization
RURAL ACTION INC
9030 HOCKING HILLS DR
THE PLAINS,OH 45780
Performing Department
Sustainable Agriculture
Non Technical Summary
The Appalachian region of Ohio and West Virginia presents unique challenges and opportunities for beginning farmers. This region contains some of the most biodiverse and productive forestland in the world and is home to a diversity of cultivable field and forest crops (Loucks et al, 2016). Yet in spite of this natural resource abundance, the counties of southeastern Ohio and northern West Virginia are among the poorest in the region, many of which are USDA StrikeForce Counties. The StrikeForce Counties in Ohio (Guernsey, Morgan, Athens, Meigs, Vinton, Pike, Jackson, Scioto, Adams) and West Virginia (Wirt, Ritchie, Pleasants, Doddridge, Tyler, Mason) will be the geographic focus of this proposal. Hilly terrain, a legacy of extractive industries, geographically dispersed populations, and a lack of financial capital help to tell part of this region's past and challenging future (Appalachian Regional Commission, 2010), and can be further underscored by national trends within the agricultural sector. Research shows that in the United States both farm size and the scale of crop production has continued to increase since the 1980s, resulting in farms that are increasingly consolidated and specialized (McDonald et al., 2018). Contrary to these national trends, the number of small farms in the Appalachian region has increased over the past two decades, and continue to maintain their size and disbursement. One example of this shift can be seen in Morgan County where the number of farms under 10 acres has tripled in the past fifteen years (to 22) while those with 10 - 50 acres have doubled (to 134) in that same period (USDA Census of Agriculture, 2017). With relatively affordable land, access to both metropolitan and micropolitan markets, and access to direct and wholesale market opportunities, this region provides an opportunity for beginning farmers to prosper.The key to successful farm businesses in Appalachia is income diversification through whole farm planning. Whole farm planning is a holistic approach to farm management that helps beginning farmers inventory the natural assets available on their farm, develop sustainable production and management goals based on identified assets, and then implement production and marketing activities (Kloetzli et al., 2014). Profitable beginning farms in the region utilize their on-farm assets to develop multiple year-round income streams to increase profitability, farm resiliency, and reduce risks to external factors (climatic, market-based, pandemic, and otherwise). Asset-based whole farm planning enables beginning farmers to identify and evaluate multiple business opportunities and income streams, then implement those that are best suited to their farm. Regionally-suited and diversified farm businesses may include a combination of production systems, such as specialty crops using lean farming methodology, grass-based livestock, high-value non-timber forest products (NTFPs), custom milling and furniture, value-added products, specialty marketing (e.g. CSAs), and agritourism. Within these production systems there are many valuable crops that are well suited to the forests and farms of Appalachia, including native berries, fruit and nut trees (Pawpaw, Walnuts), microgreens and vegetable crops, and numerous specialty NTFPs, such as maple syrup, gourmet mushrooms, and more than 15 species of high-value medicinal herbs. Many of these NTFPs represent new and potentially significant sources of income for local farmers: wild and wild-simulated American ginseng sells for $600-$800/lb (Persons, 2018), ramps (a native perennial culinary herb related to garlic) retails for $10-$28/lb depending on the market outlet, and gourmet log-grown shiitake mushrooms retail for $10-$12/lb. (prices based on historical trends, and current buyer and seller communications). While timber is often thought of as the only means of income from Appalachian forests, NTFPs that grow in the forest understory can provide farmers with a diversified income stream to supplement earnings from field-based crops and livestock, while also incentivizing forest retention. As the market demand for NTFPs has grown, so has farmer interest in how to integrate specialty forest crops into their farming operations. Our region is particularly suited for the integration of NTFPs in whole farm production as 40 - 60% of all land is forested (Appalachian Regional Commission, 2014). Similarly, specialty products like grass-based livestock, custom furniture, and other on-farm income streams present profitable opportunities year-round for Appalachian farmers. Retail pricing for grass-fed meat alone is telling: grass-fed beef retails for twice the amount ($7.26/lb, carcass weight) as commodity beef, pastured chicken averages $5.87/lb, and pastured pork averages $4.77/lb (USDA AMS, 2019). Custom furniture has opened channels for multi-generational farming craftspersons to reach high end urban markets through milling and fabrication of pieces from un-marketable "character" wood. Other opportunities like agritourism provide off-season income streams for farms. Currently lacking in Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia is a coordinated support network to help beginning farmers start their business and pursue diversified whole farm production.Rural Action's proposal Whole Farm Planning, Peer Learning & Income Diversification for Appalachian Beginning Farmers is to address current knowledge and technical assistance gaps among beginning farmers in southeast Ohio and northern West Virginia. We will achieve this by recruiting beginning farmers into a coordinated whole farmplanning network to develop actionable business plans based on their goals and on-farm assets.Participants will be brought into a support network of peer beginning farmers, as well asestablished farmers in order to set individual goals and develop their whole farm plans. Over athree year period these beginning farmers will receive ongoing and responsive technicalassistance from this network of peer mentors, Rural Action staff, and regional experts focused on financial and legal guidance. This project structure is guided in its entirety by the self-identified needs of beginning farmers. These stakeholders are at the core of Rural Action's asset-based approach to community development in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Farmers are the catalyst for new resource delivery in our work, are directly involved in planning, and are at the forefront of education and technical assistance delivery. In this new proposal for beginning farmers, peer educators will be those most involved, including Woodland Ridge Farm, Solid Ground Farm, Blue Rock Station, Lucky Penny Farm, and Pastured Providence, among others.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goal of RA's proposal is to address current knowledge and technical assistance gaps among beginning farmers in southeast Ohio and northern West Virginia. We will achieve this by recruiting beginning farmers into a coordinatedplanning network to develop actionable business plans based on their goals and on-farm assets.Participants will be brought into a network of peer beginning farmers, as well asestablished farmers in order to set individual goals and develop their whole farm plans. Over athree year period they will receive ongoing and responsive technicalassistance from this network of peer mentors, RA staff, and regional experts focused on financial and legal guidance. This project structure is guided by the self-identified needs of beginning farmers. These stakeholders are at the core of Rural Action's asset-based approach to community development in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Farmers are the catalyst for new resource delivery in our work, are involved in planning, and are at the forefront of education and technical assistance delivery. In this proposal for beginning farmers, peer educators will be those most involved, including Woodland Ridge Farm, Solid Ground Farm, Blue Rock Station, Lucky Penny Farm, and Pastured Providence.RA's, project will scale a whole farm agricultural entrepreneurship program, designed to connect beginning disadvantaged farmers in Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia with wraparound services to support enterprise development and expansion. Services will include peer education, network connections, land management planning, business plan development, connection to retail and wholesale markets, and access to financial resources such as start-up capital and legal services. Access to these services will help farm's implement whole farm planning practices that focus on diversified incomes to support year-round profitability and reduce risks for small farms. This project will leverage RA's three decades of experience in the sustainable agriculture and forestry sectors, our farmer network of more than 500 early stage producers, shared use infrastructure in three facilities, and connections with a scalable market base. Long-term outcomes will raise the overall average on-farm incomes and success rate of beginning farmers in Ohio counties of Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Meigs, Morgan, Perry, Pike, Ross, Tuscarawas, Vinton, Washington; and West Virginia counties of Jackson, Mason, Pleasants, Ritchie, Tyler, Wirt, and Wood. This will be achieved by providing a support network of peer educators and technical assistance providers across agriculture and forestry sectors for whole farm businesses. RA's proposal has five core objectives to achieve this success:Objective 1: Formalize a surveying and data system that tracks the needs of beginning farmers in targeted Appalachian counties and use that to provide responsive technical assistance. This surveying and intake process will be crucial to understanding needs of beginning farmers and directly involving them in all planning from the project start. This data will also inform beginning farmers of the technical assistance and resources available to them from Rural Action, as they plan appropriate income strategies for their farm businesses. Critical to this objective will be the strategic coordination of beginning farmer intake points across the targeted counties, including technical colleges, service providers, and current BFRDP grantees. Data will be collected annually and quarterly by the project team and used to measure farm assets, business goals, ongoing resource needs, and training for beginning farmers, as well as on-farm income and employment. This objective will aid beginning farmers by involving them in project planning stages in order to best direct technical assistance to increase their market entry and expansion. It will also give state and federal partners access to regional understanding of Appalachian beginning farmer needs for future resource delivery.Objective 2: Expand a comprehensive educational, business, and financial support network for beginning farmers in Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia that is based on whole farm planning for risk reduction, income diversification, and long term viability. Over the three year's, RA will reach 300 beginning farmers through peer led workshops; 90 beginning farmers will receive direct technical assistance from Rural Action and sector specific farm mentors; 100 beginning farmers will access non-timber forest product (NTFP) planting stock as part of whole farm plans; 20 workshops each year will be provided on topics related to whole farm models, including production methods, small business, and finance; and $60,000 will be provided in financial support to beginning farmers through Rural Action's Sustainable Agriculture Impact Fund (microlending program). This will result in 30 beginning farmers that start-up whole farm businesses in Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia, and 50 beginning farmers that see on-farm revenues increase over the project period.Objective 3: Map the assets of beginning farmers and incorporate these into whole farm plans (including farm and forestry land use) in order to maximize year-round profitability through diverse income streams. Assets of beginning farmers will be the foundation of each whole farm plan. Key to this will be combining a variety of assets to develop sustainable business models for new farmers. This will include an agroecological approach that pairs specialty crop and livestock production with revenues from forestry products, including valuable medicinal and culinary herbs. Assets will vary among participants and available land. RA will identify and map these assets by providing 60 site visits for beginning farmers. Of these, 30 farmers will receive forest management plans and consultations to implement forest restoration and/or conservation practices to improve on-farm conditions, identify sustainable income opportunities through high-value Non-Timber Forest Products. Workshops' on whole farm planning will also highlight valuation of farm and forestry assets and income opportunities. This work will result in 150 beginning farmers having expanded knowledge of on-farm assets and income streams to expand their revenue year-round.Objective 4: Coordinate a network of peer educators and mentors to support beginning farmers, and create new revenue streams for beginning farmers based on intellectual capital. 25 farm leaders will be trained in the Rural Action model of peer education, 12 existing peer learning toolkits will be updated to incorporate the surveyed beginning farmers needs, and 10 new peer learning modules and replicable toolkits will be created with beginning farmer peer educators. As part of this scope, at least one whole farm planning overview workshop and toolkit will be created to educate beginning farmers and combine all other curricula to be delivered during the project. This whole farm planning toolkit will also be made accessible to partner organizations across the Central Appalachian region.Objective 5: Document and share Rural Action's support model for beginning diversified farmers across a regional and national network of community development organizations. Over the project a third-party evaluator will analyze beginning farmer successes, feedback, and remaining technical assistance needs. The final report for this project will be shared with peer community development organizations to replicate RA's model of whole farm diversification for beginning farmers. Peer organizations will utilize the surveys, toolkits, strategies, and model created during this project in order to develop regionally appropriate strategies for income diversification and risk reduction for beginning farmers.
Project Methods
Rural Action will utilize more than 30 years of partnerships in order to systematically reach beginning farmers in Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia. This value chain approach to whole farm planning will rely on: 1) intake of beginning farmers at multiple points of entry; 2) comprehensive whole farm planning and technical assistance driven by market-based decisions; 3) long-term support of beginning farmers; and 4) personalized follow-up to ensure the needs of small farms are met as their businesses evolve. Participants can enter Rural Action's whole farm planning services at any stage each year, but we will structure the planning and technical assistance to occur comprehensively over one year. That is, each year a cohort of beginning farmers will be recruited, assisted with writing whole farm plans, paired with necessary peer training and mentorship, and receive financial and legal planning based on their needs.Participant Intake - First, an extensive intake strategy for beginning farmer participants will be crucial. This strategy will include creating a Google Suite database for tracking each farmer and compiling baseline information about their business goals, experience, and property assets (e.g. acres forested, acres open, land-use history). This process will be led by a new Beginning Farmer Outreach Assistant ("Outreach Assistant") position through this proposal. This person will refine surveying tools, outreach strategies, and shared databases to support and drive beginning farmer participation, market access, and success. The Outreach Assistant will also lead the creation of an Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia beginning farmer website. This website will serve as a landing page for participants, contain embedded intake forms for recruitment, provide resources for beginning farmers - from Rural Action and other beginning farmer service providers - and serve as a means to track project reach online through website visits and resource downloads. For the intake partners below, it will provide a singular place to direct their referrals who may be interested in Rural Action's whole farm planning services.Farm Planning - Following the intake process, which is the most critical and time consuming stage of our project, participants will work with the Outreach Assistant and Rural Action staff to create a business plan with tangible goals and identify workshops, technical assistance, and financial planning to ensure whole farm viability. Each project year will involve intake of participants during the late fall and early winter. Then, beginning in February-March, each group of participants will meet with the project team for an introductory training on whole farm planning. During this, participants will receive individual planning support from Rural Action's Outreach Assistant and Social Enterprise Director, as well as members of our peer network. This first annual session will also provide a focus group environment for participants to identify other needs and share ways in which this BFRDP project can best serve them. For whole farm planning with participants, the project team will utilize a newly updated planning curriculum (completed by the Outreach Assistant) based on our current farm business plan template. This existing template was created in collaboration with OSU in order to train underserved farmers as specialty crop producers, eventually selling into large institutional markets like OSU dining halls. This new whole farm curriculum will also be informed by existing resources for whole farm planning from Virginia Tech (Virginia Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coalition). Most importantly, the planning stage will provide beginning farmers with market based data to guide decision making for their product offerings and sales strategy.,Support and Tracking - Following asset-based planning assistance, beginning farmers will be engaged in a robust support network using our targeted participant tracking system. This support network will consist of multiple nodes where farm businesses can receive assistance and training, including peer mentoring from established farms, peer and practitioner workshops, legal and financial consultation services, as well as increased access to wholesale, direct, and value-added markets. Each year Rural Action will coordinate up to 20 workshops for beginning farmers across a variety of topics related to whole farm planning. This will consist of at least one Introduction to Whole Farm Planning workshop each year, followed by a diverse range of sustainable agriculture and forestry workshops that will guide participants in their whole farm business. Many of these workshops are currently held each year, but others will be developed based on participant needs. During the Introduction session, beginning farmers will identify particular areas of need for their business; these need areas will be based on both existing peer education curricula from Rural Action and farm partners, as well as new areas of technical assistance identified by participants.Addressing Markets & Challenges - The principal challenges of this and any other beginning farmer programs are access to land, access to capital, and lack of living wages. Rural Action will work with Sowash Law - which has decades of experience working with land acquisition, estate transition, and small business startups in our targeted area - to support beginning farmers in accessing land and retiring producers in transitioning their land to new producers. Access to land will simultaneously be addressed by partnering with OEFFA - current BFRDP grantees - to pair interested beginning farmers with landowners through their Heartland FarmLink website. At the same time our Outreach Assistant will assist with populating the Heartland website to include more land access opportunities in Appalachian Ohio. Finally, Rural Action's Incubator Farm program provides a one acre plot of land in Morgan County for new producers to learn cropping systems, trial varieties, and access shared use infrastructure.Evaluation -A third party evaluation team led by Theresa Moran, PhD will be formed at the start and implemented with beginning farmer stakeholders. Over the project period, Moran will work with Tom Redfern to annually convene beginning farmer stakeholders, including intake partners, service providers, technical assistance providers, and beginning farmer participants. During convenings, participants will review work to date, project objectives, needs of beginning farmers, and interventions for upcoming programming. This will inform quarterly training structures and resource delivery to respond to ongoing beginning farmer needs.Both formative and summative assessment will be utilized in this project to understand participants' ongoing needs and final outcomes. This includes: pre- and post-testing during all peer workshops, focus groups with beginning farmers, and local producer group surveying. All intake of beginning farmers into the program, as well as long term data to track, will be aligned with metrics found in the Farm Business Health Assessment tool. This tool will be used during semi-annual testing to look for long-term change in farm business health. All collected data will be compiled by Dr. Moran to create a final report of best practices to share with other beginning farmer stakeholders in the Central Appalachia region looking to replicate this project