2009 Survey of Western Region Extension Educators' Knowledge and Actions in Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) aims to advance sustainable agriculture knowledge and increase the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices. SARE does this primarily through grants and support for educational projects and activities. The SARE Professional Development Program (PDP) aims to reach extension faculty including both county and campus-based educators. The SARE PDP is interested in learning about the extension educator experience with educational opportunities and activities related to sustainable agriculture. There are four SARE regions in the United States and each region works toward accomplishing the SARE goals. Periodic assessments are conducted in each region in order to measure how well the SARE PDP is meeting the short, medium and long-term outcomes.
In 2009, the Western SARE PDP worked collaboratively with the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) to conduct a regional assessment of extension educator knowledge and actions in sustainable agriculture. The extension educators in the Western SARE region were surveyed on their knowledge and expertise on various areas of sustainable agriculture, their experience with SARE, their extension activities and outreach and use of sustainable agriculture in their programs, the information sources they use and their information needs. Four hundred and sixty-three extension educators in the Western region completed the survey out of 607 possible. The 2009 results were compared to applicable results on an earlier assessment conducted in 2004.
