With support from Northeast SARE, a mixed group of 25 educators, farmers and activists gathered in retreat to name barriers and burdens, reclaim their strengths, and listen to and support one another. Drawing from the principles of the Center for Courage and Renewal, facilitators listened attentively and asked honest questions to create a safe space for participants to speak their truths.

Participant and Deep Roots Project founder Mara Marie said, "I'm passionate about the work I do and the folks I get to work with, but this program has supported my journey in taking a look at myself outside of productivity and external expectations."

Although the Reconnecting with Purpose project has drawn to a close, it will flow into a new three-year program called "Growing Benevolent Agricultural Communities.” The Cornell Small Farms Program expects to offer many additional programs through the new project. Want more information? Learn more about Reconnecting with Purpose at https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/reconnecting-with-purpose/.

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State-based study tours are the current that charts the course for participants of the SARE Fellows program. The tours feature a mix of farm visits and deep dives into reading the farm landscapes and are held every spring and fall throughout the United States. I had the good fortune to journey from my backyard up Bear Creek and join the cohort of SARE Fellows in NE Wisconsin for the day. Water, the ever-present current in Wisconsin but largely absent and erratic from the sky this season, guided our inquiry.

"I’m here, in part, to learn perspectives from other educators and different ways they interact with farmers," shared Mary Love Tagerrt, with Mississippi State University Extension. Our site visits featured water and climate change adaptations that farmers were puzzling through and adapting to. Our first stop at the heart of the Duck Creek watershed, we navigated different histories of land management that sprouted from the (re)establishment of White Corn at Tsyunhehkwa (Joon-hey-qwa) Farm. There, alongside the heady breath of tobacco plants releasing the soil’s secrets—a mix of sweet ferment, remnant heat and rot—we learned how different food sovereignty efforts can coexist within a Tribe and broader community. The Oneida Nation in Wisconsin has several farm and food security initiatives, from 4 H programs, Farm-to-School, Elder Food Boxes to a Commercial Beef and Bison Farm, canneries and co-ops. Discussion centered on the cultural aspect of food and the importance food plays in many of the traditional Oneida ceremonies. We also learned about the various product lines and education programs in development and the future aspirations of the Oneida Nation.

Sated, our fleet drove upriver to witness water management and waste’s potential at different scales at Tauchen Harmony Valley Dairy. The farm is a multigenerational dairy operation, started in 1975 by Herb and Marlys Tauchen, that is a typical mid-size Wisconsin confinement operation. Right now, the Tauchens are working on integrating grazing, seeding cover crops and filtering leachate through sand/swales before water is discharged to nearby wetlands. We waded further afield from the main milking barns to tour the grazing-based heifer-raising farm developed by Al Tauchen. After his passing, the other family members have continued that operation. We listened to the riff and rip of cows on grass. 

We ruminated at the pasture's edge. "I never thought about manure management or had much exposure to cattle," reflected Romina Gazis, a horticulture Extension educator and plant pathologist with Florida State, as she pauses from admiring a spattering of spores settling in the fall fescues. Romina spends much of her work among tropical fruits and horticulturists in South Florida.

Like the ebb and flood of waterways, a dairy farm and a farmer's needs remain fluid. This was evident at Full Circle Community Farm, a fifth-generation family farm in the process of transforming into a community-based organic vegetable and meat farm with shared ownership and a cooperative mindset to support the next flock of livestock, crops and farmers on the land. In Wisconsin, it's hard not to think about water and cows. The next day, the SARE Fellows would gather near Lake Michigan’s shorelines and work with the Saxon Homestead Farm, a fifth-generation family partnership operated by the Klessig family. This would be the Fellows’ "Reading the Farm" stop.

Our bellies full, our minds flooded and new knowledge moored in our hearts, a lone killdeer cried, and it was time to part. I drove home thinking of water (too much or too little), cows, cropping systems, conservation and culture. I thought about how they can coexist at varying scales and intensities, support different clientele and remain threaded together by a culture of care as the climate for farmers everywhere continues to change.

As an agriculture educator, you can continue to adapt and learn concurrently with the farms and land in your care through SARE. To learn more about the SARE Fellows program, how to apply, and ways to grow in your sustainable agriculture career, visit https://www.sare.org/Professional-Development/Fellows-Program.

To learn more about SARE resources and programs in Wisconsin, visit https://northcentral.sare.org/state-programs/wisconsin/.

Erin Schneider works with the NCR-SARE Program as an administrative associate and also co-owns/stewards Hilltop Community Farm in La Valle, WI.

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Lombard was a SARE Farmer/Rancher Grant recipient in 2016 for the project Field Testing the Mulberry for Commercial Production in the Midwest. He has successfully incorporated mulberries into the agroforestry system on his farm, where harvested leaves and dropped fruit provide excellent forage for chickens and hogs. His main income streams are through u-pick events and by propagating and selling nursery stock.

This episode of Voices from the Field is one in a series co-produced by ATTRA and SARE that explores the different ways farmers are working to create new local markets for specialty and niche crops. Each partner episode will address a different production system or crop–from endives to small-grain value chains–and will feature farmers sharing their production and marketing strategies, challenges and successes along the way.

Subscribe to ATTRA- Voices from the Field wherever you get your podcasts.

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The retreat was sponsored by the Be Well Farming Project, a collaboration between University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Cornell University’s Small Farm Program and Tufts University’s New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. Funded by Northeast SARE and coordinated by Daniel MacPhee from Blackbird Rise Farm, the team’s goal was to provide farmers with tools to manage farming challenges related to emotional and social wellbeing.

Guided by farmer input, the team designed and hosted a series of retreats and webinars that offered a “reflective, safe space where farmers could find rest and renewal, a place where they could regain a sense of direction and purpose,” says Violet Stone of Cornell University’s Small Farm Program. 

“Most farm sustainability efforts center on economic or environmental concerns where personal values and goals are interwoven; few agricultural sustainability projects focus solely on social sustainability,” says project leader Leslie Forstadt, University of Maine Cooperative Extension. 

Impacting more than 100 participants, the project’s potential ripple effects in farm communities are significant. “A farm can be a stressful environment,” says Cavatorta. “What I learned at the retreat is always a good reminder to keep on trying to listen.”

This story is part of a series highlighting SARE projects using innovative strategies to help farmers and ranchers manage stress. Visit https://www.sare.org/resources/managing-stress/ for more information.

Want more information? See the related SARE grants:

• LNE19-377: Building Social Sustainability on Farms through Online and In-Person Education
• ENE16-142: Focusing on Interpersonal Relationships for Greater Farm Viability

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In Ecological Weed Management at the Martens Farm, Klaas Martens explains how careful and flexible crop rotation disrupts the growth and reproduction cycles of pigweed, Palmer amaranth, lambsquarters and velvetleaf, helping his crops outcompete. “This farm has the same weeds everyone else does; it is a matter of degree and distribution,” Martens says.

Blind Cultivation at the Martens Farm addresses how carefully timed and calibrated “blind cultivation” with a tine weeder can control newly germinated, shallow-rooted weeds when the crop is less vulnerable to tillage disturbance.

In Finger Weeders at the Martens Farm, Martens discusses how blind cultivation can create a size differential between weeds and the crop that improves the effectiveness of managing weeds in the row. Martens also demonstrates how skillful driving and a finger weeder can pull weeds from the row while controlling weeds between the rows. “If you want perfectly clean fields, you have to have the cultural practices right. You have to do some blind cultivation, and you have to do a good job with your tool. It’s fatal to take one high tech tool and use it as a substitute for the whole package,” says Martens. 

All videos in this series may be used with attribution for fair use purposes. Other producers featured in the series include:

• Johnson Farms, Madison, S.D. (corn and soybeans)
• Burroughs Family Orchards, Denair, Calif. (almonds)
• Terra Preta Farm, Edinburg, Texas (horticulture)

The Manage Weeds on Your Farm Video Series is a companion to SARE’s Manage Weeds on Your Farm, a definitive guide to understanding agricultural weeds and how to manage them efficiently, effectively and ecologically. Manage Weeds on Your Farm shows you how to outsmart your weeds by identifying the right tactic for the right weed at the right time, which will reduce as much as possible the labor required, while ensuring your weeds don’t impact crop yields. Download your free copy or order it in print today at www.sare.org/weeds.

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Selected through a competitive national process, the new Fellows represent a variety of backgrounds and disciplines and include both nonprofit and university educators: 

• Northeast: Ñawi K. Flores, Soil Health Institute: Ñawi is a soil health educator at the Soil Health Institute and is a passionate advocate of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) in the agricultural sector. 
• North Central: Molly Sowash, Rural Action: As the sustainable agriculture manager for Rural Action and as a beginning farmer, Molly works 9–5 supporting farmers in Appalachian Ohio to launch and sustain their farm businesses and 5–9 raising grass-fed beef on her own operation, MoSo Farm. 
• Southern: Dr. Trey Malone, University of Arkansas: Dr. Malone is an assistant professor in the department of agricultural economics and agribusiness at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. His research focuses on the intersection of agricultural economics and sustainable food systems, leading to more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals. 
• Western: Daniel Elisara Helsham, American Samoa Community College: Daniel is a media specialist at the American Samoa Community College. For the past ten years, he has served the people of American Samoa by developing media and communications strategies to raise awareness of, promote and educate the community on the importance of agriculture and natural resources.

“We are excited to welcome these talented and dedicated individuals to the SARE Fellows program,” said SARE Associate Director Kristy Borrelli. “They understand the current demands facing sustainable agriculture, and we are confident that they will make a significant impact on the field.”

For more information about the SARE Fellows program, including eligibility, application and past and current SARE Fellow experiences, please visit https://www.sare.org/fellows.

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So when RAFI, the Land Loss Prevention Project (LLPP) and the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) received a grant from Southern SARE to help farmers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia navigate financial and mental health crises, Hardy was happy to collaborate.

Project organizers surveyed farmers who had recently experienced a financial crisis and differentiated experiences based on race to help produce culturally relevant resources. They found that “resources available to farmers didn’t address the varied experiences of farmers in financial and emotional crises,” says Andrew Smolski, a sociologist from North Carolina State University (NCSU). The project yielded a number of strategies communities can use to help farmers navigate financial stresses. And ATTRA's Farmer Well Being website provides additional resources farmers can use to find the support they need.

Farming and ranching is stressful business. And farmers’ physical and mental health is a crucial component of agricultural sustainability. Fortunately, farmers like Hardy are willing to support one another. “Participating in this project was my way of being there to help someone else going through what I went through so that it’s not so much of a painful ordeal for them.”

Want more information? See the related SARE grant and related resources:

• LS20-336 Navigating Financial and Mental Health Crises
• Farmers' Perceptions of Information and Resources for Navigating Economic Hardship and Stress

This story is part of a series highlighting SARE projects using innovative strategies to help farmers and ranchers manage stress. Visit https://www.sare.org/resources/managing-stress/ for more information.

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According to the National Cover Crop Survey, incentives play a key role in getting some farmers started on cover crops—49% of the cover crop users participating in the survey reported receiving some sort of payment for cover crops in 2022, and 77.8% of cover crop non-users said incentive payments would be helpful. However, 90.3% of the farmers who were receiving cover crop incentives reported that they would definitely or probably continue planting cover crops after the payments ended, while only 3.3% said they definitely or probably would drop cover crops at the end of the incentive program.

In all, just 15.6% of cover crop users said receiving incentive payments was one of their goals for cover cropping.

These findings were among many conclusions drawn in a report, issued jointly by SARE, the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA), based on insights from nearly 800 farmers in 49 states.

"Cover crop incentive payments are an important factor in encouraging and helping farmers to transition into cover cropping, but once they see the soil health improvements and other cover crop benefits, most stick with cover crop planting long after the incentives end," says Dr. Rob Myers of SARE, lead researcher on the 2022-2023 National Cover Crop Survey Report. "Insights like these make the National Cover Crop Survey such a valuable tool in understanding the impacts of cover crops, the motivations of users and non-users, and needs for additional information and incentives." 

Read a summary of this and other key findings. The full report is available here.

For more information on the National Cover Crop Survey and previous years' reports, visit https://www.sare.org/publications/cover-crops/national-cover-crop-surveys/.

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There were four primary goals of the National SARE Fellows tour in Virginia: 1) enhance the ability and capacity of agricultural professionals to contribute to the social, ecological and financial sustainability of individual farms and farming systems in their own states; 2) understand the diversity of agriculture in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region and pertinent issues and challenges to sustainable farms and food businesses; 3) understand the opportunities and challenges for Extension programming of sustainable agriculture education, research and service in the Virginia landscape of small, diversified family farms and regional food systems; and 4) strengthen peer-to-peer and regional networking among SARE Fellows, SARE staff, and other participating agricultural professionals.

I really loved the variety of farms that were featured and how they all had a different concept and direction in sustainable agriculture, but were united by common themes. The differences are real and significant, but listening to the farmers talk about their role of stewarding the land and soil brought the concept of sustainable agriculture together for me, as they were united by a common passion of producing food for people today and doing the best to managed the resources to provide for future generations. I really appreciated the opportunity to see first hand this range of operations and talk with the farmers who manage them.

Tom Buller, Kansas Rural Center

The Fellows’ training included tours and conversations at the following sites in the Northern Piedmont region of Virginia: Wollam Gardens, a cut-flower business and destination in Jeffersonton; SemperGreen USA, the largest and fastest growing green roof vegetation and living wall grower of Sedum products in North America, based in Culpeper; the George Washington Carver Center, which hosts an onsite agriculture research center through Virginia Cooperative Extension, a Food Enterprise Center, Virginia State University’s Small Farm Outreach Program, the Minority and Veteran Farmers of the Piedmont (MVFP), and the Friends of the Rappahannock Conservation Nursery; the Fauquier Education Farm that serves the Virginia Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program’s Northern Piedmont Farmer Incubator program and grows fresh produce for local food banks and pantries; 4P Foods, a food port and regional hub that aggregates, processes and delivers in-season produce sourced from independent farmers we know and trust in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland and throughout the Eastern Seaboard and Mid-Atlantic; the Mid-Atlantic Food Resilience and Access Coalition (MAFRAC) that emerged to address the food crisis triggered by the pandemic in March 2020 and continues to resource, connect and empower farmers, producers and food organizations throughout the region; Cool Lawn Farm LLC, a multi-generational dairy farm in Remington that has expanded to include Moo Thru as a retail business that now serves ice cream, sundaes and shakes at three locations in the region.

All of the collaboration evident at the George Washington Carver Center allowed the Fellows to conduct a modified “Reading the Farm” exercise that involved a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis of the Carver Center’s integrated educational programming after touring the different programs. The participants enjoyed a walk through VSU’s Mobile Meat Processing Unit for Small Ruminants, the Food Enterprise Center’s Incubator kitchen, and the George Washington Carver Regional High School Museum, where they learned about the overall vision for the Carver Center as a regional food system resource center. Some strengths and opportunities that were identified included location, administrative support, legacy of George Washington Carver’s name and foresight, and the passion and cooperation of multiple collaborators. The Fellows were cognizant of the challenges of aligning missions, balancing capacity in the early stages of development, and maintaining momentum and energy around the Center’s mission and vision.

The National SARE Fellows Tour was organized and coordinated on behalf of Virginia SARE by Eric Bendfeldt of Virginia Tech and Sanjun Gu and Chris Mullins of Virginia State University. SARE Fellows, who came from Washington, Mississippi, Montana, Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin this year, showed great interest in all of the strategically arranged tour stops and learned a great deal about sustainable agriculture in Virginia, especially in counties in close proximity to Metropolitan DC.

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Earlier in 2023, Dhore was awarded a North Central SARE Farmer Grant to evaluate best practices in the commercial-scale production and marketing of foxtail and proso millets. She’ll be collaborating with University of Minnesota Extension staff on this project.

For her efforts, Dhore’s story has recently been featured by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations as part of the International Year of Millets 2023, available here. This FAO initiative is meant to raise awareness around the world about the societal benefits of millets, which are nutritious and can thrive in difficult and changing climate conditions.

“It’s just amazing I can grow millets, something I had as a child in Somalia, here in a place like Minnesota,” says Dhore.

More Information

• Read Dhore’s full story on the FAO website.
• Learn more about her plans for her SARE-funded project.
• Discover other stories from around the world that are connected to the International Year of Millets.
• Find general information on the International Year of Millets initiative.

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