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New Video: Bringing Independent Farmers into the Marketplace
Access to profitable retail and wholesale markets is a challenge for small- to mid-scale family farmers. “The days of showing up with your cantaloupes in the back of the pickup are no longer a way to make a living,” says Diana Endicott of Kansas City, Mo. “So you have to be willing to make a […]
New Video: Improving Soil Through Cover Crops
Like many farmers, Jeff Frey sees the soil as his livelihood, so he does what he can to protect and improve this vital resource beneath his feet. "I remember one afternoon we had a thunderstorm that washed mud out into the road and I could actually see some of my freshly planted soybeans in with […]
New Video: How SARE Supports Farmer-Driven Sustainability
There is no universal vision for agricultural sustainability in the United States—every region, every farm may require a different approach to improving livelihoods, protecting the nation’s land and water resources, and strengthening communities. Since its inception in 1988, the SARE program has supported a broad range of innovations in sustainability through its grassroots, farmer-driven grants […]
Building Internal Capacity for the Blackfeet Tribe Agricultural Resource Management Plan
The Blackfeet Tribe, according to Loren BirdRattler, faces exciting and challenging times in terms of achieving food sovereignty through sustainable agriculture practices. An important undertaking in progress – the Blackfeet Agricultural Resource Management Plan (ARMP) – will change agricultural practices on the Blackfeet Reservation for many years to come, as well as the economic futures […]
NAC Index of SARE-Funded Agroforestry Projects Now Online
Photo credit: Shibu Jose, University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry Valuable SARE-funded agroforestry research is now even more accessible to producers and educators across the country thanks to a new online index created by the National Agroforestry Center (NAC) using data from the SARE project database. The NAC index allows users to search SARE-funded agroforestry […]
Texas Farmers Learn to Build Soil Health Through No-till and Cover Crops
VERNON, Texas – It’s a hot, dry, windy summer day on the plains of North Texas, and a group of farmers are standing in the middle of a field to learn how techniques to build soil health benefit their cash crops in Texas’ harsh environmental conditions. “This is what no-till looks like in the first […]
University of Florida Researchers Expanding the Cover Crop Toolbox for Farmers
HAWTHORNE, Florida – Several new cover crop varieties that have the potential to overcome the limitations of their commercial counterparts are being targeted for use in Florida to provide farmers with a more diverse selection of plants that excel in soil health, weed suppression and pest management. A small group of farmers, Extension agents and […]
New University of Georgia Bulletin Focuses on Cool-Season Organic Vegetable Production
ATHENS, Georgia – In the Southeast, where pests, diseases and weed pressures in the summer make organic vegetable production difficult, more efficient productivity and profitability may be found in shifting cash crop production to the fall. Cool-season vegetable production, combined with warm-season cover crop rotations for soil health, can set growers up for successful production […]
Reflections of a SARE Fellow
The 2014-2016 cadre of SARE Fellows visited numerous farms in Arkansas, Nebraska, Idaho, and West Virginia to study sustainable agricultural practices. The Fellows themselves were from Florida, Maine, Missouri, and Washington; they overlapped with eight other Fellows who were either starting or ending their two-year study period. The various locations visited, diverse enterprises studied, and range […]
SARE Fellows Visit Oregon
Every year since 2007, USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension program (SARE) and the National Association of County Agriculture Agents (NACAA) has offered a national Fellows program. The program is designed for Extension faculty who are interested in learning more about sustainable agriculture in different parts of the country. Eight Fellows, two from each of […]