Idaho

SARE Professional Development Program Annual Report for Idaho
January 1 - December 31, 2010

State SARE Coordinator:

Summary of 2010 PDP Activities and Results

In 2010, Idaho’s sustainable agriculture professional development focus was on enhancing regional food systems by increasing capacity and connections in four areas: 

• farm to institution
• food processing
• starting or expanding farms and marketing
• community self sufficiency

Twelve organizations, agencies and institutions collaborated to put on a food system conference in Moscow, Idaho which was attended by 121 participants.  Fifteen university faculty and staff participated, as well as many agency representatives who work with farmers.  A survey of conference participants indicated a high rate of increase in knowledge about food systems. Over 70% indicated they are continuing the work started at the conference.

In 2010, one Idaho Extension Educator served as technical advisor on a funded Producer grant proposal; another received a certificate for the online Sustainable Agriculture training and served as an outside reviewer on Western SARE Producer grant proposals; and another received the NACAA SARE Fellow scholarship from the Western Region.

Context and Overview

Sustainable agriculture in Idaho is a collaborative and multidisciplinary effort. College of Agricultural and Life Sciences faculty in research and extension are collaborating with other faculty, producers, non-profit organizations and agricultural and environmental agencies to address those challenging problems facing Idaho agriculture today.  The focus of our work in sustainable agriculture is to help Idaho producers improve agricultural productivity and economic return while preserving their natural resources.  Some of our current areas of focus for Idaho are Conserving Natural Resources; Small Acreage Farming; Alternatives for Pest Management; Sustainable Grazing Systems; and Biodiesel Fuels.  You can read more about these and other projects on our Idaho Sustainable Agriculture web site.

Our focus in Idaho SARE PDP has been to share resource publications and information and provide financial support to our agricultural professionals to participate in a variety of educational opportunities related to sustainable agriculture. The goals are: 1) to enhance the understanding of the holistic nature of sustainability in agriculture, and 2) to build professional expertise and capacity to address the concerns of farmers and others.

Activities and Methods

Our main focus for the year was a regional food system conference in Moscow, Idaho.  It picked up on many of the topics that came forth at Western SARE’s subregional conference in Spokane, Washington. The Idaho SARE PDP Coordinator led a planning team of representatives from twelve organizations that pulled together the Food on the Table conference to synergize regional food system activities. Participants included UI faculty and staff from numerous departments, extension educators, farmers, state and local agency representatives, non-profit organizations, economic development specialists and county commissioners. Five representatives from the Coeur d’Alene tribe attended to learn the process of assessing and enhancing their local/regional food systems.

Outside speakers were brought in to provide context and guidance on how to strengthen regional food systems through cooperatives, processing facilities, scaling up to meet increased demand and models for feeding the community. The conference attempted to connect and engage stakeholders who were already involved in some aspect of food systems work and assist them in developing action plans to take the next steps. A follow-up survey was conducted two months following the conference to evaluate conference success, increased knowledge, connections and level of continued work.

The SARE PDP Coordinator continued efforts to distribute information about sustainable agriculture, SARE and SARE grant opportunities. SARE publications are regularly distributed to extension educators and farmers at meetings, workshops and classes.  An Idaho Sustainable Agriculture display with numerous free SARE publications was a part of the Resource Fair at the Food on the Table Conference.  Over 150 publications were distributed. 

PDP-funded Publications/Educational Materials and Products

A Food on the Table  conference web site was developed by partnering organizations and was created as a page on the Moscow Food Coop website. (The Coop was the partner organization that had the capacity to build/maintain the site.) Other partners will link to this page through their web sites. 

Each Food on the Table conference participant received a CD of resources compiled from guest speakers and conference organizers. Resource topics included: Farm to Institution, Food Processing, Producing and Marketing Food and Feeding the Community.

Changes in Ag Professionals’ Knowledge, Skills and Action

We continue to see more and more involvement of our extension educators in sustainable agriculture activities.

Food on the Table conference evaluations showed:

• Knowledge increase in both food system concepts and specifics about the Palouse food systems
• 87% were likely to share resource materials or information learned with others
• 71% indicated they would continue with the work (action plans) started at the conference

Indicators of behavior change:

In 2010, one Idaho Extension Educator served as technical advisor on a funded Producer grant proposal; another received a certificate for the online Sustainable Agriculture training and served as an outside reviewer on Western SARE Producer grant proposals; and another received the NACAA SARE Fellow scholarship from the Western Region.  Additionally, two educators asked about availability of SARE mini-grants.

Over half of our 41 county Ag/NR extension educators have attended training and are teaching one or more of the following curricula that are based on sustainable agriculture principles and practices: Cultivating Success, Living on the Land, the Lost Rivers Grazing Academy, Annie’s Project and Building Farmers in the West.  At least 10 educators have worked with Idaho Department of Agriculture over the last year to offer regional workshops on Direct Marketing at Farmers’ Markets. Two educators host an organic workshop every other year.  Others are working on composting, nitrogen mineralization, cover crops, organic pest management and many other areas to help farmers work towards sustainability.

Unintended Outcomes

The partnership developed with Idaho Department of Agriculture’s marketing division through previous years of Western SARE funded direct marketing workshops has grown every year. Numerous extension educators now help to host Chef to Producer “speed dating” events and workshops for Farmers Market vendors around the state.  Every year more educators are getting involved, and it has been a win-win relationship for Idaho producers.

The partnerships and activity developed in this year’s Food on the Table conference have galvanized several significant actions.  The UI Sustainability Center stepped up to submit a proposal and receive funding for doing a feasibility study for livestock processing on the Palouse.  A partnership grew out of the conference called Community Food Works that is focused on outreach and educational opportunities for growing, preparing and preserving local foods. Other attendees from the conference are working together on a feasibility study for developing a commercial kitchen/processing facility.

Involvement of others in state PDP planning and implementation

We have identified specific people who provide input on sustainable agricultural programming including: four extension educators, Idaho State Department of Agriculture, non-profits such as NCAP and Rural Roots and farmers and ranchers. Some key advisors we have relied on in the past (Paula Jones from NRCS) have recently retired so we will fill vacancies and revitalize our efforts.  The whole group did not meet in 2010, but several small subsets of the team have met and discussed programming at different events. One-on-one conversation with numerous Idaho Extension Educators helps provide more specific direction related to SARE Professional Development opportunities which meet their needs.