Source: CORNELL UNIVERSITY submitted to
ENHANCING BEGINNING FARMER SUCCESS THROUGH VIBRANT SUPPORT NETWORKS IN THE NORTHAST
 
PROJECT DIRECTOR: Rangarajan, A. Staehr, E. Park, T. Haddcock, S. Mendenhall, H.
 
PERFORMING ORGANIZATION
Horticulture
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ITHACA,NY 14853
 
NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY: While there are many committed groups providing on-the-ground support to beginning farmers in the Northeast, they often work in isolation, missing opportunities for cross-promotion, learning best practices from each other, identifying gaps, and reflecting on larger issues affecting their work. The result is that for beginning farmers in the region, training and support is patchy and often difficult to locate and access. This Educational Enhancement Project will pursue three major strategies to foster vibrant support networks for these beginning farmers: 1) Establish an Educational Team comprised of a diverse mix of talented people able to quickly assess needs, prioritize, and deliver training to Standard Projects and/or beginning farmers themselves, and to evaluate impacts of Standard Projects region-wide 2) Formalize a Northeast-wide coalition of beginning farmer service providers, including all funded Standard Projects in the region, to learn from each other, share resources and success stories, and amplify visibility of all beginning farmer programming in the region 3) Model an approach for engaging youth in the pursuit of farming by connecting them with young farmer role models, social networks, and on-the-ground projects that can support their learning post-graduation. The combined networks, skills, tools and resources of our Educational Team and current and new Coalition members will generate synergies and pathways for individuals anywhere in the Northeast and at any point on the new farmer continuum to link into the tools and training they need to develop successful new farm enterprises.
 
OBJECTIVES: While there are many committed groups providing on-the-ground support to beginning farmers in the Northeast, they often work in isolation, missing opportunities for cross-promotion, learning best practices from each other, identifying gaps, and reflecting on larger issues affecting their work. The result is that for beginning farmers in the region, training and support is patchy and often difficult to locate and access. Our long-term goal is that beginning farmers anywhere in the Northeast can access high-quality training, information, and mentoring needed to start and maintain viable farms. As an Educational Enhancement project (EEP), our target audience is SBFPs and other such training efforts in the Northeast. We will create the Northeast Beginning Farmer Coalition (NBFC), a learning network for these vibrant BF programs, to enrich their training approaches. Our EEP objectives and desired outcomes that move us towards our long-term goal include: Objective 1: Deliver mentoring, training, and program development resources to Standard BFRDP Projects and in the Northeast. Outcomes: Vibrant social network and communication channels among SBFPs fosters peer to peer learning and mentoring; gap identification leads to new strategies; EEP efforts improve SBFP trainings. Objective 2: Develop educational and evaluation resources and outreach strategies to understand and enhance impacts of SBFP training efforts. Outcomes: Expanded online courses and farm business planning tools, new video enhance SBFP training efforts; online data collection provides SBFPs new information on BF demographics; social networking and other Coalition outreach strategies channel more BFs to SBFPs; evaluation demonstrates positive SBFP and EEP impacts; creative partnerships improve long term sustainability of SBFPs. Objective 3: Engage K-12 teachers and young farmer activists to shift youth cultural norms about farming as a desirable career option. Outcomes: A new partnership demonstrates a model to re-invigorate K-12 education; more high school students enroll in supervised ag experience with other young farmers or through SBFPs; innovative young farmer networks motivate students to start farm businesses; new online social networking platforms keep students involved in agriculture after graduation.
 
APPROACH: In our past BF coalition-building efforts, we constantly sought out new partners to enrich our network. As an EEP, the addition of SBFPs will expand the expertise, training strategies and geographic reach to the Northeast. Other members will include statewide and regional agricultural support agencies (e.g. NRCS, Farm Credit, Cooperative Extension) and non-profits (e.g. Heifer International, and Northeast Organic Farming Associations). Unique to our EEP team building approach is the inclusion of young farmer representatives, including the Greenhorns and agricultural science teachers for K-12. These individuals will extend the reach of SBFP's and BF training to youth in schools. Thus, our Coalition will serve the continuum of new farmers, from the very young (12 yrs) to those mature individuals poised at a major life change and choosing agriculture. Our team building efforts will include face to face meetings, conference calls, webinars for training and evaluation skill building and facilitated gap analysis, to help regional BF programs identify new opportunities for support. We will create new online resources for use by all BF training efforts in the Northeast. Demand for our online course far exceeds our ability to provide trainings. We have learned that these courses, once developed and tested, are financially self-sustaining. Even allowing for scholarships for low-income participants, our Extension instructors have found that they are able to charge enough for the course to make it worth their time to teach it. Past online course participants have requested new courses with integrated video on ag production topics. We will expand course offerings and test models for integration with on-the-ground SBFP training. Topics users have suggested include "Accessing State and Federal Programs to Help New Farmers," "Season Extension with Hoophouses and Low Tunnels," "In-depth Financial Management," "Whole Farm Planning," and "In-Depth Marketing." At present, there are over 300 middle and high school agriculture teachers in NY (including Buffalo and New York City) plus over 700 in the Northeast, who teach curriculum designed to enhance students' understandings of our food, fiber, energy, and natural resource systems. As part of school-based agricultural science education, students are encouraged to develop their own supervised agriculture experience (SAE), which involves engaging in actual production agriculture and demonstrating earnings. This network of ag science educators provides a new venue to reach youth and cultivate networks and connection with our Coalition members, who can provide continuing support to young entrepreneurs after graduation. To create this more seamless continuum of BF support, we will adapt our online and other SBFP beginning farmer materials (as available) for school-based agricultural education, engage young farmers as presenters in schools, rejuvenate the SAE by providing students with exciting new internship opportunities with successful young farmers and SBFPs, and create new social networking opportunities to keep students engaged with a motivated group of young, new, committed farmers after graduation.
 
CRIS NUMBER: 0219699 SUBFILE: CRIS
PROJECT NUMBER: NYC-145359 SPONSOR AGENCY: NIFA
PROJECT TYPE: OTHER GRANTS PROJECT STATUS: NEW MULTI-STATE PROJECT NUMBER: (N/A)
START DATE: Sep 1, 2009 TERMINATION DATE: Aug 31, 2012

GRANT PROGRAM: Beg. Farmer & Ranchers Dev. Prog, Sec. 7410
GRANT PROGRAM AREA: Extension

CLASSIFICATION
Knowledge Area (KA)Subject (S)Science (F)Objective (G)Percent
601603030202.3100%

CLASSIFICATION HEADINGS
KA601 - Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management
S6030 - The farm as an enterprise
F3020 - Education
G2.3 - Provide Risk Management and Financial Tools


RESEARCH EFFORT CATEGORIES
BASIC (N/A)%
APPLIED 100%
DEVELOPMENTAL (N/A)%

KEYWORDS: beginning farmers~agriculture service providers~online courses~k-12~extension~youth~coalition building

PROGRESS: Sep 1, 2010 TO Aug 31, 2011
OUTPUTS: Obj. 1: Deliver mentoring, training, and program resources to beginning farmer (BF) service providers in the Northeast. The BF Learning Network (BFLN) launched in March 2010 continues to strengthen skills of BF organizations in the region. Prior to every meeting, we survey the members for their priorities for training. Our October 2010 meeting trained 55 attendees on evaluation planning, using social media, farm financial planning and farmer mentoring. Our third BFLN meeting in September 2011 was attended by 66 people representing 48 organizations, 20 from BFRDP-funded projects and 46 from other BF programs. The agenda focused on farm bill education, networking, economic impact of beginning farmers, land access and linking strategies, and BF skills and competencies lists. A follow-up GAP ID survey builds upon our initial farmer survey (300 respondents) for more details on barriers to BF success. The results will provide a database sortable by farm scale, farmer age, farm type, years in farming, and more. Obj. 2: Develop resources to enhance impacts of BF service provider efforts. We now offer 13 online BF courses; 8 were developed with BFRDP funds. We provided high-quality online instruction and guidance to 120 students in five new courses covering topics including Business Planning, Profitable Poultry, Soil Health, and Financial Recordkeeping. We launched the new Northeast Beginning Farmer Project website (nebeginningfarmers.org) in January 2011, which contains a New Farmer Hub with pre-business planning tutorials, events calendar, map of BF service providers, and links to publications. Our map of 82 organizations helps BFs to locate local support. We have produced and posted to the website nearly two dozen new video clips (more coming) highlighting production practices of successful farms. Obj. 3: Engage K-12 teachers and young farmer activists to shift youth cultural norms about farming as a desirable career option. This year, we completed a collection of curriculum support materials, including a teacher resource guide, poster, complementary DVD with video clips to support teacher efforts in reaching youth farmers. At the 2011 NY Assoc. of Agricultural Educators meeting, teachers from 6 of 8 partner schools provided feedback on materials and student response. 296 students and 15 teachers from 16 schools responded to a survey on the Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE). These evaluations shape future curriculum and youth outreach and final recommendations. Posters for youth outreach have been distributed to over 250 educators. At the project website, a new youth portal will host youth targeted resources for 10 to 18 years olds interested in farming and SAE. Our teacher list serve (49 members) promotes resource sharing, updates, and events for youth interested in farming. Scholarships the 2011 NOFA NY winter conference were given to 4 agriculture teachers and 8 students to attend and participate in a networking activity with young, inspiring beginning farmers. Next year, we will add web resources, promote more BF youth events, outreach to new educators, and increase participation at the NOFA NY conference youth networking. PARTICIPANTS: Anu Rangarajan, Sr. Extension Associate, Dept of Horticulture, Cornell University is the PI of this project. She directs the Cornell Small Farm Program and has provided leadership to the original NY Beginning Farmer Project. Erica Frenay, Cornell Small Farm Program, is the Project Co-Manager for this EE project. She provides oversight to all the project components. Michelle Striney, Cornell Small Farm Program, is the other Project Co-Manager. Travis Park, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Education in Agricultural Sciences, Cornell University. Travis Park provides leadership for Objective 3 enhancing K-12 youth in agriculture. Ed Staehr, Director of NY FarmNet/FarmLink at Cornell University, which is a network of 50 consultants who support business planning of BFs. Kate Mendenhall and Northeast Farming Association (NOFA) - New York. NOFA-NY is the oldest and largest organic farming organization in New York with 1000 farms among its 2220 members. We have worked with them to integrate beginning farmer programming at the annual NOFA conference, and to host on-farm workshops as part of our online courses. Severine von Tscharner Fleming and the Greenhorns, Hudson Valley NY. The Greenhorns is a grassroots, volunteer-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote, recruit, and support young farmers across the United States. They work with the project team to create new strategies and experiences to reinvigorate K-12 classroom education. Peter Carroll Productions, Ithaca NY, is a videographer who collaborated previously with us on the NY Beginning Farmer Project. He filmed our farmers and created the clips that are the "Voices of Experience." His group works closely with the online course team to identify the content, farmer subjects, and strategy for acquiring these clips. Steve Hadcock and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia County, NY. Steve has been an Extension Educator in Columbia County for 27 years. He provides leadership to online course development. Dave Grusenmeyer and the New York Farm Viability Organization are providing match to this BFRDP project and provided leadership to the Gap ID portion of the project. NYFVI has used a gap ID process with farmers across NY to help clarify extension and research needs. Rebecca Morgan of Heifer International has been this organizations coordinator of BF training efforts. She will work closely with the PI to develop the learning network and with the K-12 team. . Trainings hosted, 5 total: NOFANY New Farmer Mixer, Full-Day Beginning Farmer Workshop, and six 90-min BF workshops in January 2011, Beginning Farmer Learning Network Meetings: Oct 29, 2010, attended by 55 service providers throughout Northeast and Sept 30, 2011 attended by 66 service providers from 48 organizations throughout the Northeast, Teacher Workshop on NE Beginning Farmer Project, NYAAE Conference, June 29-30, 2011, and training for Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators on best practices for supporting new farmers, CCE Centennial Conference, Oct 13, 2011. TARGET AUDIENCES: This project has four target audiences. 1). Beginning Farmer Service providers, whether public, non-profit or foundation based programs are the primary target audience for this project. Most of our project efforts aim to directly enhance the organizational skills and program efficacy of these partners in supporting beginning farmer development. 2) Beginning Farmers are a secondary target audience, since they are direct beneficiaries of our online courses and other resource materials developed by the team. They also will benefit from improved services provided by local organizations interested in supporting beginning farmer development. 3) Teachers involved with agriculture education benefit from the materials and findings of our K-12 team, as we test strategies to increase engagement of youth in agriculture. 4) Policy makers will benefit from our findings through our gap id and other evaluation efforts on what types of programs are needed and which are highly effective at ensuring the long-term success of beginning farmers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Our efforts to promote farming as a career among K-12 youth continues to evolve based on feedback from our partner teachers, students and farmers. Teachers and students are actively using online resources and downloadable content in their classes and have encouraged us to make all our resources available in hard copy, digital cd, and online content available through our website. While a new curriculum supporting SAE was deemed unnecessary, teachers welcomed the idea of lesson plans, assignments, field trips, and classroom visits by farmers as positive activities supporting farm career exploration and as a desired addition to their existing lessons. Agriculture education teachers, beginning farmer service providers, and farmers have remained interested in pursuing new networking opportunities, lesson ideas for students, training activity suggestions, resource materials, and in promoting student use of online tools, networking opportunities, event calendars, and resources. Current activities are focused on broadening our outreach activities to educators outside NYS, and sharing agricultural resources and the SAE to a more broad audience of students, parents, teachers and communities.

IMPACT: 2010-09-01 TO 2011-08-31 Five new online courses have helped 120 new farmers improve their financial recordkeeping systems, get started growing vegetables, raise profitable poultry, build soil health, and write business plans. 70% of these new farmers demonstrate progress in their farm planning, increased confidence in their venture, and new investments of funds to start or expand their farms. 90% report increased knowledge on where to go for help and resources. One student reports: "I commend the project for making this class available to would-be farmers at a very reasonable price. Sure, there is a ton of information on the web that you can study on your own but I think it has been helpful to read everyone's farm goals and the challenges they have faced along with the course instruction." We received unanimously positive feedback on our Learning Network. 66 BF service providers from 48 organizations reported plans to network with others to strengthen their programs, strengthen their evaluation strategies, evaluate BF competencies and to share what they had learned with their colleagues. 25 organizations want to participate in economic impact analysis in the future. After attending, members from PA and MA have launched in-state versions of the network, bringing together grassroots, state, and federal agencies serving BF. The project website now has over 2200 registered users, 300 who have used our online pre-business planning worksheets. BF service providers report sending aspiring BFs to our website to complete worksheets prior to consultations, enabling more effective and efficient support to new farmer clients. Our videos have had over 8,300 views from the YouTube channel alone, with 403 people subscribed. ATTRA, Realtimefarms.com, dozens of classroom-based ag teachers in NY, and many Northeastern organizations have asked for permission to embed our videos in their sites, or otherwise link to them and use them in trainings. The following comment is typical of the feedback we've received: Your beginner farmer project has been a godsend to us. I go to your site for info all the time, and have attended at least 3 seminars that I wouldn't have known about if not for you. As far as I am concerned your beginner farmer program is not only justified, it is an indispensable resource for new farmers without an ag degree. It can make the difference between the success or failure of new farmers. Based upon survey results, we developed a Guide to the SAE Project for teachers with suggested activities supporting SAE and farming careers. Our inspirational youth poster has reached over 250 educators and beginning farmer service providers, and has received positive feedback for its design and messaging. The list serve services 49 educators with updates on youth focused BF activities, events, and opportunities. Young farmers networked with youth at the NOFA NY winter conference. Student and teacher feedback to our resources and support of the SAE has been positive. Teachers want additional sharing of BF and SAE resources and resources to encourage positive support of agricultural by their schools and communities.

PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 2010-09-01 TO 2011-08-31
No publications reported this period

PROJECT CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: Rangarajan, A.
PHONE: 607-255-1780
FAX: 607-255-0599