Community Development

This curriculum on Colorado’s Department of Agriculture website was designed to provide detailed training resources for agricultural professionals and farmers interested in expanding their income sources and entering into the agritourism industry. 

NCR-SARE developed a Diversity Goals Narrative to clarify NCR-SARE’s goals for its new diversity initiative and initiated a special call for the Diversity Research and Education Grant Program.The special call for the Diversity Research and Education Grant Program’s purpose was to fund people and/or projects that could help NCR-SARE reach and work with underserved audiences to improve agricultural sustainability in the region.

This website represents the collaborative efforts of: the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy; Ohio Department of Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture; Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA); the Organic Food and Farming Education & Research Program of the Ohio State University Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center; and the Ohio State University Extension. These entities, working together as Begin Farming Ohio, aim to build Ohio’s capacity to provide, expand, enhance, and sustain services to beginning farmers.

This guide lists funding opportunities offered by federal programs, and is indispensable for anyone seeking government help to foster their innovative enterprise in forestry and agriculture. Available only online.

These case studies highlight the project planning and development of 12 county-based teams trained to assist in the development of community-based food systems in North Carolina. 

The Community and Local Food Resources website provides resources to support rural communities just beginning to build their community food systems as well as those whose local food systems are already strong. Resources are intended for farmers and producers, community organizations, and Extension Educators but may interest anyone in community and local foods.

This website hosts an interactive map that locates over 170 data layers for a variety of factors that influence the sustainability of food systems in Virginia and North Carolina. 

In Creating Change in the Food System, the authors present a case study of an integrated effort to build long-term local and regional food commerce in Iowa using a community of practice approach.

A landmark curriculum that helps USDA professionals better serve American Indians is being widely adopted throughout the West, and garnered its writers USDA’s 2011 National Extension Diversity Award.

The Farmers Market Federation of New York has offers this comprehensive training resource, the Farmers Market Managers Training Manual. This manual is the product of a three-year training effort funded through a Northeast SARE Professional Development grant.

A guide for towns, institutions, and land trusts using or leasing farmland.

Hundreds of farmers in Appalachia making the switch to sustainable methods have received vital help from SARE-supported Appalachian Sustainable Development.

The localvore movement leads to multifarm cooperation.

Renowned experts' articles, essays and poems offering historical and contemporary Black perspectives on sustainable agriculture.

Graduate student's research on agriculture at the rural-urban interface has profound implications for government farm policy.

The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, supported by SARE grants, has helped dozens of small farmers in Massachusetts establish their roots.

A growing group of people are interested in getting more local foods into the hands of consumers -- and providing additional marketing channels for farmers to produce sustainable, local foods. “Scaling Up” local food refers to the process of building the system necessary to make local food available to a wider segment of the population than currently possible. NCR-SARE has supported research and education in some of the key challenge areas to scaling up local foods including agricultural production, storage and transportation, and marketing and sales.

Local Harvest: A Multifarm CSA Handbook offers straightforward guidance on cooperative marketing, an innovative practice that is helping CSAs stay strong and viable over the long term.

A 16-page bulletin intended to be a resource for agricultural educators, heads of community development and agricultural organizations, government agency staff and others who want to better connect with and improve the lives of farmers and ranchers who remain hard to reach.

A regional toolkit of strategies to support the evolution of a sustainable Portland Metropolitan Foodshed. Toolkits are for farmers, ranchers, policymakers and consumers.

Down a winding country road in Garnett, Kansas stands the Bauman farm, where agriculture is a family affair. Upon purchasing the farm in 2001, the family’s first farm venture was to raise pastured chickens and livestock. Today, the Baumans sell about 7,000 broiler chickens each year and an average 350 dozen eggs a week.

With the help of a grant from the NCRSARE Farmer Rancher grant program, the Baumans experimented with pasturing different species of animals in the same area. With the “pasture stacking” project, the family increased their broiler chickens’ average weight by 50 percent.

This Extension educator curriculum focuses on successful strategies for increasing the adoption of sustainable practices on reservation lands. 

A publication to foster recognition of the Appalachia region and encourage preservation of heirloom seed varieties.

Across the region, farmers are planting cover crops,  method of revitalizing soil, curbing erosion, and managing pests. Steve Sutera, an Extension educator at South Dakota State University (SDSU), saw an opportunity to bring together Bon Homme County’s Extension service, FFA Chapter, 4-H Club, and ongoing research at SDSU.

For decades, John Allen has helped farmers develop business skills and strategies, improving their profitability and helping to revitalize rural communities.

Promoting Local Food

Southern SARE and the Social Sciences

Order an entire set of SARE Outreach books and bulletins for one low price.

This 2-page highlight offers six ideas from women farmers for hosting farm tours.

The San Joaquin Valley of California is one of the most productive and diverse agricultural areas in the country. However, Daniel O’Connell of the Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT), along with local producers, gathered data that identified challenges in building a healthier regional food system.  These challenges, similar those many other regions face, included  lack of infrastructure to provide for adequate distribution channels, minimal awareness by consumers about where and how to access product in the region,  land use decisions on the urban-rural edge that impacted farmers with pressures that drove up land and production costs, and the Valley’s disconnect from broader, statewide food systems thought, policy changes and economic benefits from localized trends like value-added processing.

Because of high obesity and diabetes rates and a lack of locally-grown foods on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Washakie, Wyoming, Justine Russell launched her PDP-funded project with the goal of increasing awareness of the potential for a farmers market on the Reservation. In less than two years, she and her partners accomplished so much more than increasing awareness.

Sustainable Community Innovation Grants

Hailing from small vegetable farms, cattle ranches and grain farms covering thousands of acres, the producers in The New American Farmer, 2nd edition have embraced new sustainable approaches to agriculture.

In one complete volume, this must-have resource for direct market producers covers the latest tips and trends from leading-edge sellers, managers and market planners all over the country.

Will Allen is using innovative soil-building techniques and educational programs to lead the way in urban agriculture.

Community CROPS's Growing Farmers Training Program received an NCR-SARE Research and Education Grant to bring together existing farmers, extension staff, and area farm training programs to help beginning farmers successfully grow increasingly larger amounts of food and market it locally. This video features staff from Community CROPS talking about the program.

Brad Jaeckel tested a diversity of winter and summer vegetables that can be grown in unheated hoophouses. A handful of Moscow, Idaho, area growers have used hoophoses for season extension, but not yet for winter crops.

A collection of online curricula for K-12 youth education in sustainable agriculture.

In southeastern Michigan, a dedicated non-profit organization is growing and delivering fresh produce to low-income residents through a youth program. “Edible Avalon” is an organic community garden and education program in association with Avalon Housing, the largest provider of permanent, supportive affordable housing for extremely low-income residents in Washtenaw County, MI. 

This full-color book profiles 50 inspiring young people—one from every state—who are revitalizing rural America with new enterprises.