Progress 09/15/22 to 09/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience:According to the USDA's National Institute for Food and Agriculture, "Underserved communities of agricultural producers have not received the amount of specialized technical support [from the U.S. agricultural system] that would benefit the launch, growth, resilience and success of their agricultural enterprises"(NIFA, 2022:6). Socially disadvantaged beginning farmers in California often lack the college education, resources, management and financial skills, and logistical knowledge required to take advantage of such assistance (NIFA, 2022:6; Calo, 2018). They may not speak or read English, face challenges in dealing with access to state and federal agricultural support programs, especially in terms of paperwork and bureaucratic requirements. Latinx operators of small farms (less than 50 acres) are especially at a disadvantage in the U.S. agricultural system, which tends to favor larger operations. Latinx owned-and operated small farms operate face serious economic and social challenges to survival, especially where management and operating skills are concerned. The majority of Latinx farmers rent and farm small tracts of land, have very limited access to capital and experience significant language, bureaucratic and infrastructure barriers to success in the U.S. agricultural system. Many were farmers in Mexico and points south and became farmworkers after migrating to the United States. Some learned their craft at ALBA (The Agriculture and Land Based Training Association in Salinas, California); others rely on experience in their native countries and peer networks and assistance here in California. Reaching out to Latinx farmers is not straightforward. They are weakly socialized into the U.S. agricultural system. They operate in a trust-based milieu rather than a purely competitive one. They have to navigate both the nearby social networks of extended families and neighbors and the remote bureaucratic market system of the U.S. agricultural system. For disadvantaged farmers, much practical knowledge comes from historical praxis in specific environments, passed from peer to peer and generation to generation (Mayo, 2020). Small farmers, whether immigrants or not, face a set of market-based obstacles to success: limited capital, low resilience in the event of crop failure, poor or no credit, high levels of competition as specific crops ripen simultaneously, low remuneration rates from distributors, high costs of energy, water, labor and other inputs, low revenues and profits, and more. Some of these are common to all farmers; others may arise from lack of knowledge and skills (e.g., bookkeeping), mismatch between practice and local conditions, bureaucracy and record-keeping. This project sought to provide new and beginning socially disadvantaged Latina/o farmers in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties with a series of six workshops focused on regenerative agriculture and techniques as well as small-scale technologies practices that can increase productivity, extend the growing season, protect and conserve natural resources and improve marketing and distribution. The workshops combine classroom and discussion style presentations, hands-on experiential activities and participatory action research. Participating farmers received stipends to compensate for lost work time and travel expenses. These workshops were offered from 2021-24, at Whiskey Hill Farms in Watsonville, California and two other locations in San Benito and Santa Clara counties. In total, 60 new, beginning and experienced Latina/o farmers--both women and men, many of whom do not speak English--participated. Dual simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual translation was offered at each meeting. In addition to UC SAREP support, funding for this project was received from National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture (for 2022-23; Award # 022-70033-38215) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (for 2022-2024; Award #22-1625-000-SG). The research produced primarily sociological results (planting and best practices (research was disrupted by severe storms and flooding in January and March of 2023). For socially disadvantaged farmers, much practical knowledge comes from historical praxis in specific environments, passed from peer to peer and generation to generation (Mayo, 2020). Some of these are common to all farmers; others may arise from lack of knowledge and skills (e.g., bookkeeping), mismatch between practice and local conditions, lack of connection to dominant agricultural social and professional resources and networks, bureaucracy and record-keeping (Lipschutz, 2022). Existing agriculture education pedagogy and resources tend to reflect the particular disciplinary expertise and experience of their creators, as well as cultural and social factors specific to their assumed audiences. Classroom-style presentations accompanied by written materials are suboptimal methods of instruction; real-time trusted group interactions, visual demonstrations and hands on application better support peer-to-peer exchange and learning. Printed and digital resources are not the preferred means of communication and learning among Latinx farmers. They do not have the time or language to read relatively detailed documents (many rely on their children to take care of technical and administrative issues). For the future, we recommend support of projects such as this one that provide direct experiential applications of concepts, practices and tools. This might best be accomplished through targeted, low- or no-cost technical assistance programs that match specialized and trusted consultants with individual farmers to address their specific needs. Changes/Problems:We made a no-cost extension request during the first year of the grant. We also made a change in personnel/contractor budget allocations, as follows: We requested several budget modifications on the NIFA funded BRFDP proposal 2022-05772, Award #2022-70033-38215, "Closing the Loop: Regenerative Agriculture on Minority-owned and Operated Small Farms in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties, California," for which the Sustainable Systems Research Foundation is awardee (award sheet attached for your reference). The revised budget (as approved in July 2023) original budget includes the following items: $10,000 for a bilingual project manager (Marisela Lara) who is responsible for communicating and working with Spanish-speaking workshop participants. We would like to reallocate $5,000 to Richard E. Mathis as a contractor/consultant. Mathis is an experienced, bilingual farmer/engineer who replaces the previous farmer mentor, David Blume, and works with and advises workshop participants What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The goal of this project was not to provide training and professional development opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?1. Local news articles Johanna Miller, "Farm, biotech company secured more grants for education programs," Watsonville Pajaronian, April 26, 2022, https://pajaronian.com/farm-biotech-company-secures-more-grants-for-education-programs/ Amy Chen Mills & Eloy Ortiz, "Small and BIPOC local farmers need our help after recent floods," Santa Cruz Sentinel, April 22, 2023, https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2023/04/23/guest-commentary-small-bipoc-local-farmers-need-our-help-after-floods/ Josefina Lara Chavez, Ronnie Lipschutz & Ann Lopez, "Minority Farmers on the Central Coast need relief now!" Lookout Santa Cruz, May 4, 2023, at: https://lookout.co/santacruz/community-voices/opinion-from-community-voices/story/2023-05-04/california-storms-minority-farmers-on-central-coast-need-relief-now 2. Web sites "Regenerative Agriculture for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, Sustainable Systems Research Foundation website, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/socially-disadvantaged-farmers/ "Agricultural Workshop Schedule and Resources," Sustainable Systems Research Foundation website, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/agricultural-workshop-curriculum-and-resources/ 3. Presentations Sergey Komaradenkov, "Agriculturas Regenerativas" Slides from workshop presentation, December 18, 2022, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Agriculturas-regenerativas-resumen-del-taller-1-y-2.pdf Ronnie D. Lipschutz, "A Sociology of Small Farms and Their Operators" Slides from presentation to Egyptian Agriculture Study Group, March 6, 2023, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/A-Sociology-of-Small-Farms-and-their-Operators.1.pdf Laura Murphy, Monterey RCD, "Cultivos de Cobertura," Slides from workshop presentation, Nov. 20, 2022, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Cultivos-de-Cobertura_11.2022.pdf 4. Research articles & Reports Sergey Komaradenkov & Babandeep Singh with Kevin Bell, Dave Blume, Robert Re & Ronnie D. Lipschutz, "Experimental Design and Results of Deployment of SproutLabs Moisture Sensors in a Control and Experimental Bed," January 26, 2023, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Experimental-Design-and-Results-of-Deployment-of-SproutLabs-Moisture-Sensors-in-a-Control-and-Experimental-Bed.pdf Ronnie D. Lipschutz, "What is the Structure of U.S. Agricultural Education and Practice," unpublished draft, June 15, 2022. 5. Video Resources SSRF Hoop House Video, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90vUEhNCBMc What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective #1: Workshop instruction The following topics and applications were addressed during the workshops: Walking analysis of one participant's farm for analysis of site-specific environmental conditions (e.g. soil composition, irrigation, topography, geography). Description and field demonstration of regenerative agriculture techniques, such as no-till/low-till practices, field contouring and leveling, water conservation via low-cost sensors and smart irrigation systems, cover crops (including distribution of cover crop seeds) Soil tests for individual farms, accompanied by presentations on and demonstrations of soil fertility, quality, composition and microbiomes Composting practicum at Whiskey Hill Farms, and design and construction of a sensor-monitored model aerated compost pile Demonstration and installation of low-cost soil moisture/irrigation control systems developed by a Santa Cruz startup at several farms Demonstration of multiple small-scale technologies and specialized, high-value crops Assembly of a hoop house kit on a participant farm for use by workshop participants and future workshops Disruptions to original plan by winter storms resulted in elimination of "farming as a business" from the original schedule. Several participants report implementation of practices learned through the workshops. Objective #2: Accessing and navigating the U.S. Agricultural System Participants are generally aware of public funding opportunities from USDA, CDFA and WSARE. A few have received loans to support investments and operations; one or two have received funding from the WSARE Farmer/Rancher Research and Education Program. For the most part, however, they lack the language, skills and time--and often the qualifications--to apply for support from public agencies. The farmers also have high discount rates: money now is more useful than money in six or 12 months. Most of the emergency relief funds offered by national and state programs will not arrive until after the 2023 growing season and sometimes funding for weather-related damages lag one or two years (for example, USDA funding is available for damages suffered during 2020-21, while CDFA is still offering drought relief funds for farmers). We have found that providing presentations and printed and digital materials on accessing these resources is not very helpful. Most are not available in Spanish or any other non-English language format). Each farm and farmer's situations are different, requiring individually targeted applications and proposals. Agency advice and help are limited and agents are not always bilingual. In order to succeed, farmers must work closely with experienced grant writers to prepare applications that meet funder requirements. We believe that if public agencies are committed to serving socially disadvantaged and non-English speaking farmers (small, new and beginning), they must also be prepared to provide materials in translation, targeted assistance from bilingual agents and funding to pay bilingual grant writers. One potential track to increasing these farmers' access to public resources is through agricultural cooperatives, which could coordinate crop planning, tool sharing, aggregation, marketing, distribution and other needs. There are few such coops in California for non-English speaking farmers, although one (9 Organic Farms Co-op at https://www.9organicfarmscoop.com/) is being organized in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties). As noted above, SSRF sponsored one meeting in which workshop participants discussed a coop, and heard from one of the 9 Organic Farms organizers, and has offered to provide funding if the participants wish to meet more regularly in the coming months. Objective #3: Produce bilingual curricular and instructional materials Meeting this objective has proven more difficult than expected. Direct feedback from participants revealed that existing agricultural extension resources and programs are often not accessible acceptable, or culturally relevant. There is a vast quantity of instructional and visual material available on the internet but only limited availability in Spanish, even from Spain and Latin America. For the most part, that which is available is translated directly from English materials, which do not reflect or incorporate the particular experience and conditions of socially disadvantaged farmers. The creators of the English-language materials assume that farmers can read and are IT-literate, have the capital to invest in improvements and are even college-educated. As noted above, workshop participants took the printed Spanish-language materials we offered but we have no idea whether those materials were even read by the farmers.
Publications
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Progress 09/15/22 to 09/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:2022-2023 was the second year in which these workshops were offered, at Whiskey Hill Farms in Watsonville, California and two other locations in San Benito and Santa Clara counties. Twenty new, beginning and experienced Latina/o farmers--both women and men, many of whom do not speak English--participated. Dual simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual translation was offered at each meeting. In addition to UC SAREP support, additional funding was received from National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture (for 2022-23; #) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (for 2022-2024. Changes/Problems:Changes: We have requested transfer of some personnel funds (see "Project Change." Problems: The original 2022-23 workshop schedule was significantly disrupted by the storms and flood events throughout Winter 2023, which severely impacted most of the workshop participants' farms. For two months, SSRF diverted its attention to raising funds for storm impact recovery grants for the participants, receiving support from private donors, the Monterey County Community Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. We are making changes to our programming framework in order to be more resilient in the face of inclement weather. Challenge Corrective Action and/or Project Change Continuing storms & flooding in March 2023 Rescheduled workshops for April & May Farmers dealt with damage & late planting due to storms & flooding Solicited relief funding from local community foundations and provided $55,000 in no-strings grants for individual farms Repeated conflicts with one of our partners (Whiskey Hill Farms) Terminated working relationship with Whiskey Hill Farms Revise workshop content in light of dissolution of partnership with Whiskey Hill Farms We have identified two well-established farms to replace Whiskey Hill Continuing "closed-loop" element of instruction We are focusing on soil health & composting as two critical elements What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project is providing the research staff with numerous insights into how such workshops should be taught, their content and delivery and the complexities of delivering technical assistance in regenerative and closed loop agriculture and associated practices. The experience and knowledge acquires are the basis for the curriculum and how-to-guides described under Goal #3, which will also inform a curriculum for agricultural extension agents and trainers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Workshop promotional material: https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/agricultural-workshop-curriculum-and-resources/ Johanna Miller, "Farm, biotech company secured more grants for education programs," Watsonville Pajaronian, April 26, 2022, https://pajaronian.com/farm-biotech-company-secures-more-grants-for-education-programs/ Amy Chen Mills & Eloy Ortiz, "Small and BIPOC local farmers need our help after recent floods," Santa Cruz Sentinel, April 22, 2023, https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2023/04/23/guest-commentary-small-bipoc-local-farmers-need-our-help-after-floods/ Josefina Lara Chavez, Ronnie Lipschutz & Ann Lopez, "Minority Farmers on the Central Coast need relief now!" Lookout Santa Cruz, May 4, 2023, at: https://lookout.co/santacruz/community-voices/opinion-from-community-voices/story/2023-05-04/california-storms-minority-farmers-on-central-coast-need-relief-now What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? # Goal & Intended Outcome Activity and Accomplishment 1 Workshop revision & outreach for 2023-24 series We have revised workshop content & structure, including more hands-on activities, and enrolling 20-25 participants. 2 Conduct workshops during 2023-24 We held an orientation on 10/8/23 & the first full workshop on 10/29/23 3 Field research This is being organized for 2-3 farms 4 High-value & out of season crops We are building a hoop house in which participants can conduct experiments 5 Create curricular materials In development 6 Create community of practice Workshop participants are engaged in peer-to-peer knowledge exchange
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective #1: Workshop instruction The following topics and applications were addressed during the workshops: Walking analysis of one participant's farm for analysis of site-specific environmental conditions (e.g. soil composition, irrigation, topography, geography). Description and field demonstration of regenerative agriculture techniques, such as no-till/low-till practices, field contouring and leveling, water conservation via low-cost sensors and smart irrigation systems, cover crops (including distribution of cover crop seeds) Soil tests for individual farms, accompanied by presentations on and demonstrations of soil fertility, quality, composition and microbiomes Composting practicum at Whiskey Hill Farms, and design and construction of a sensor-monitored model aerated compost pile Demonstration and installation of low-cost soil moisture/irrigation control systems developed by a Santa Cruz startup at several farms Demonstration of multiple small-scale technologies and specialized, high-value crops Assembly of a hoop house kit on a participant farm for use by workshop participants and future workshops Objective #2: Accessing and navigating the U.S. Agricultural System Participants are generally aware of public funding opportunities from USDA, CDFA and WSARE. A few have received loans to support investments and operations; one or two have received funding from the WSARE Farmer/Rancher Research and Education Program. For the most part, however, they lack the language, skills and time--and often the qualifications--to apply for support from public agencies. The farmers also have high discount rates: money now is more useful than money in six or 12 months. Most of the emergency relief funds offered by national and state programs will not arrive until after the 2023 growing season and sometimes funding for weather-related damages lag one or two years (for example, USDA funding is available for damages suffered during 2020-21, while CDFA is still offering drought relief funds for farmers). We have found that providing presentations and printed and digital materials on accessing these resources is not very helpful. Most are not available in Spanish or any other non-English language format). Each farm and farmer's situations are different, requiring individually targeted applications and proposals. Agency advice and help are limited and agents are not always bilingual. In order to succeed, farmers must work closely with experienced grant writers to prepare applications that meet funder requirements. We believe that if public agencies are committed to serving socially disadvantaged and non-English speaking farmers (small, new and beginning), they must also be prepared to provide materials in translation, targeted assistance from bilingual agents and funding to pay bilingual grant writers. One potential track to increasing these farmers' access to public resources is through agricultural cooperatives, which could coordinate crop planning, tool sharing, aggregation, marketing, distribution and other needs. There are few such coops in California for non-English speaking farmers, although one (9 Organic Farms Co-op at https://www.9organicfarmscoop.com/) is being organized in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties). As noted above, SSRF sponsored one meeting in which workshop participants discussed a coop, and heard from one of the 9 Organic Farms organizers, and has offered to provide funding if the participants wish to meet more regularly in the coming months. Objective #3: Produce bilingual curricular and instructional materials Meeting this objective has proven more difficult than expected. Direct feedback from participants revealed that existing agricultural extension resources and programs are often not accessible acceptable, or culturally relevant. There is a vast quantity of instructional and visual material available on the internet but only limited availability in Spanish, even from Spain and Latin America. For the most part, that which is available is translated directly from English materials, which do not reflect or incorporate the particular experience and conditions of socially disadvantaged farmers. The creators of the English-language materials assume that farmers can read and are IT-literate, have the capital to invest in improvements and are even college-educated. As noted above, workshop participants took the printed Spanish-language materials we offered but we have no idea whether those materials were even read by the farmers (a question to ask them).
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Sergey Komaradenkov & Babandeep Singh with Kevin Bell, Dave Blume, Robert Re & Ronnie D. Lipschutz, Experimental Design and Results of Deployment of SproutLabs Moisture Sensors in a Control and Experimental Bed, January 26, 2023, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Experimental-Design-and-Results-of-Deployment-of-SproutLabs-Moisture-Sensors-in-a-Control-and-Experimental-Bed.pdf
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Research Foundation website, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/socially-disadvantaged-farmers/
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Ronnie D. Lipschutz, A Sociology of Small Farms and Their Operators Slides from presentation to Egyptian Agriculture Study Group, March 6, 2023, https://sustainablesystemsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/A-Sociology-of-Small-Farms-and-their-Operators.1.pdf
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Josefina Lara Chavez, Ronnie D. Lipschutz, Kevin W. Bell, Sergey Komaradenkov & Marisela Lara, "Regenerative Agriculture for Socially Disadvantaged Beginning Farmers in the Monterey Bay Region," Presentation at Building Partnerships for Agricultural Sustainability Summit, Phoenix AZ December 12-13, 2023
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