STRATEGIC PLAN FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
DRAFT
Submitted July 1995 to:
USDA
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program
by Vern Grubinger
(Based
on input from extension meetings,
and individual comments from extension personnel and
farmers)
Introduction:
Our challenge is to address short-term educational needs
in agriculture while at the same time laying the groundwork for farms to be
successful in the future. This strategic plan is intended to provide a
framework to keep us on course so that our tactical plans dealing with just a
few years will contribute to the fulfillment of our long-term goal of a vibrant
agriculture in
External Situation and Trends:
The ramifications of a significant decline in
Farms are also critical to maintaining the unique quality
of life in
A strategic plan for sustaining agriculture requires a
long-term view that looks ahead at least a generation. By anticipating the
problems and opportunities over that time period, we can provide a sound
footing for starting to address these challenges over the next few years.
Extension will have to take risks and increase its role as an advocate for
agriculture, educating the public and policy makers as to the consequences of
inaction, and the steps required to turn this thing around. Otherwise, it's
hard to imagine a positive future for the next generation of
Specific Problems and
Opportunities:
Dairy comprises the majority of
In general, a shift to larger farms, value-added
products, crop diversification and/ or production techniques that substantially
lower costs will be necessary for
UVM
Extension faculty with dairy expertise have projected
that dairy farm numbers will decline by about one-third over the next decade
(Oct.4, 1994 meeting). It is not unreasonable to assume that only half of our
dairy farms, one thousand give or take, will adapt and remain viable over the next
generation (20-30 years). The other thousand will either disappear into the
non-working landscape, or be transformed into other enterprises (including
other dairy farms) that maintain the well-being of people, land, natural
resources and economic forces.
Our educational programs should be organized and
developed so as to recognize varying potentials for continued success in
dairying, and to promote appropriate options for successful transformation (as
discussed in part at the UVM Extension Cost Control meeting 10/93).
Without passively accepting the trend to fewer dairy farm
numbers, we can admit the serious challenges to dairy farming, then act to promote success by helping farmers identify
their goals and options, and facilitate their learning from each other.
STRATEGIC ACTIONS:
1) Help successful,
high-potential dairy farms with:
-technical advice, management tools to reduce costs/cwt
milk
-electronic delivery systems to get state-of-the-art info
-pro-active marketing options to cope with poor milk
prices
-expansion necessary to gain sufficient economy of scale
2) Help farms with
intermediate-potential to succeed in dairy to:
-diversify into more profitable products and/or crops
(value-added products; lumber,
horticulture, compost, etc.
-share resources and/or management with nearby farms
-improve cost-control (ID/reduce unprofitable activities)
(transition to intensive pasture
management if appropriate)
3) Help farms with low
potential for success to:
-take corrective action (get out) before all equity is
lost
-assess options for alternative employment and/or
training
-cope with stress, find health insurance, maintain dignity
4) Help people put former
dairy farms to productive use:
- meet educational needs of part-time/entry-level farmers
- address the needs of second-career
"transplant" farmers
-
facilitate farm placement/intern opportunities for youth
- help
new producers ID unsaturated specialty crop niches
- link processors/markets to
farmers to expand market niches
5) Help conserve unused
farmland for agricultural/open space:
-catalog incentives a community can provide to new
farmers
-facilitate leasing/co-ops/land trusts, donations etc.
-involve tourism industry in ag preservation programs
A variety of non-dairy livestock commodities have great
potential as alternatives to dairy as far as ease of transition and effect on
maintenance of open space. In fact, grass-based livestock agriculture (whether
dairy or non-dairy) is perhaps the only realistic option for long-term
sustainability of many farms due to
Much of
For non-dairy livestock production to thrive, market
demand and infrastructure must be developed.
Pleasure horses may have an increasing role to in
sustaining agriculture and open land. Many Vermonters with access to land are
seeking recreation, not farm occupations. This industry creates a demand for
high quality hay and a variety of services that support an agricultural
infrastructure. Extension has not been actively involved in this area, and we
need to become more involved.
STRATEGIC ACTIONS:
1) Work to increase demand for
local livestock products:
-cooperate with VT Dept Ag, producer marketing efforts
-provide technical info for high quality production
-ID viable market niches: hormone-free, pasture-fed, etc
2) Support start-up operations
to increase industry critical mass
-build on educational consortium of Ext, AnSciDept, VDA, etc
-adapt and transfer dairy-based programs to other
livestock
-work with producers to strengthen association activities
3) Plan for growth and
profitability
-work to establish producer coops that retain profits
-work to establish local processing facilities
4) Expand non-dairy livestock
role for Extension
-seek
-work with AnSci Dept on to
expand pleasure horse programs
Horticulture
is a rapidly growing segment of
Simply aiming to increase horticultural production is
likely a recipe for disaster. Already, the brief boom in Vermont Christmas tree
production, coupled with competition from
Wholesaling horticultural products
poses essentially the same obstacle to profitability that dairy is facing - the
setting of prices by national and international forces beyond the control of
local producers. Apple growers, highly dependent on wholesale markets
that trade on a global scale, have experienced this problem perhaps more than
other horticultural producers. The passage of various
free-trade agreements are likely to render wholesale markets even less
friendly to the small-scale, expensive production environment that
characterizes
STRATEGIC ACTIONS:
- Increase consumer demand for
local products through advocacy
- Help producers identify
retail opportunities vs. wholesale
- Use GIS, surveys, etc to ID
unsaturated direct market locations
- Provide public policy
education to facilitate institutional awareness and increased purchasing of
local products
- Identify options for
obtaining cost-effective labor
- Aggressively educate about
non-chemical management options, and
capitalize on this type of production in the marketplace
- Improve linkage between
local production and specialty foods
Education around wood products and woodlot management has
been a highly cooperative effort for Extension, given the large number of other
resources in this area such as county foresters, consultants, and the UVM
School of Natural Resources. The focus of future Extension efforts should be on
areas of overlap with farming issues, such as analysis and education about
options and ramifications of changes in the current use taxation program, and
in management areas where other expertise is not available.
STRATEGIC ACTIONS:
- Provide conflict resolution
education to help address resource management tensions between
environmental groups and industry
- Capture more international
markets
- Manage for long-term
resource harvest
Besides commodity-oriented expertise and programming,
there are a number of systems management tools that cut across all types of
farming and are essential to sustaining agriculture. These include integrated
pest management, soil stewardship, comprehensive decision making systems such as holistic
resource management, water quality protection, and marketing techniques.
STRATEGIC ACTION:
- Extension personnel with
expertise in specific agricultural systems tool(s) should develop educational
programs that cut across commodities, building new skills in a wide range of
agricultural producers, educators, agencies and industries.
In addition to production and natural resource-based
systems approaches, it is increasingly recognized that social, political,
policy and value-based systems must be addressed by extension as part of our
sustainable agriculture effort. This means an increased role for all extension
workers in addressing:
youth
education, farm family issues, and community and policy decisions affecting
agriculture, and consumer issues that affect how people perceive farming and
food.
UVM dairy faculty recently (Oct 4, '94) recognized that a
shift in some FTE assignments must be made if Extension is to be effective in
"...developing leadership, communication, and public policy process skills
of agricultural producers, families and supporting people in the infrastructure
to enhance the understanding and appreciation of agriculture to public decision
makers, and to the general public including youth"
STRATEGIC ACTIONS:
- Define appropriate
agricultural advocacy role for extension
- Develop programs to build
leadership/advocacy by producers
- Deliver policy-oriented
programs to youth, consumers, etc
- Collect, format and
disseminate supportive data about ag
- Include personal values in
education that promotes local ag
Internal Strengths and
Weaknesses
UVM Extension is blessed with faculty and staff that are
committed to enhancing the current and future well-being of agriculture in
However, we are a low population state with funding
levels that limit our number of extension faculty, and consequently our depth
in terms of subject matter areas. As a result, we tend to have diverse demands,
and many of us are spread too thin to adequately address the educational needs
of emerging audiences and clientele.
We recognize that Extension's clientele are changing, and
that we must adapt. Our "traditional" audiences are declining and
others are growing in number and in potential impact on
Growing audiences include "non-traditional"
producers of commodities such as beef, sheep, dairy goats, horses, aquaculture,
ornamentals, vegetables, specialty/alternative crops, and organic products. In
addition, a variety of non-farm audiences are on the increase, and warrant
additional attention from Extension if we are to fulfill our mission of
building broad-based support for agriculture. These include: gardeners,
environmental groups, tourists, youth, and "transplanted"
professionals coming to
STRATEGIC ACTIONS:
1) Increase educational
synergy by building on our networks.
Because of internal resources limitations, we will have
to rely on cooperation and collaboration to meet the educational and
informational needs of diverse audiences. We already have excellent networks in
2) Trade-off functions to build
efficient educational networks.
As our networking expands, redundant functions must be
acknowledged as soon as possible and traded between and among organizations in
order to maintain efficiency. The New England Extension Consortium may provide
a context for carrying some of this out, but other sharing of duties can be
established within state, between and among organizations.
Among New England Land Grant universities and their
extension systems, hard questions about efficiency and redundancy have yet to
be answered. How many soil test labs, diagnostic labs, commodity newsletters,
etc. do we need. With limited faculty positions, can
various states specialize in certain subject areas? Extension should be ready
to offer constructive suggestions to our Directors as they pursue this critical
issue.
The Vermont Department of Agriculture, Food and Markets
and the Agency of Natural Resources should be aggressively targeted for
specific cooperative working agreements. They, too, have a diagnostic lab, a
newsletter, conduct farm visits, and provide education to commodity groups. We
must improve our working relationship with our sister agency, strengthening
communication and formalizing trade-offs in responsibilities. Similar practical
working agreements should be pursued with
3) Develop closer funding and
activity ties with producers.
Producer
groups have increasingly been cooperators on efforts such as newsletter
production, conference organization and other educational programs. We should
further this relationship to include more funding for and participation in
applied research and demonstration, farmer-to-farmer advising and public
policy/leadership efforts. We must also increase our ability to collect and
consider input from producers as we develop and implement educational programs
4) Use the information superhighway, without getting run over.
To keep up with information demands, Extension will have
to greatly improve our ability and willingness to rapidly and easily access
"non-traditional" information from around the nation and the globe.
This will not be accomplished simply with additional technology, but more
importantly with training on how to locate and scan various data bases, and a
clear division of labor within the organization so that individuals can focus
on keeping up with certain topics and not get buried alive with information.
5) Utilize alternative information and education tools (to take
us beyond the role of technology
transfer).
In addition to accessing appropriate and useful
research-based information, we need to be open to adopting more progressive
education techniques that will facilitate the rapid spread of information about
innovative production, management, marketing and community practices that
strengthen local agriculture. Curriculum-based, classroom programs and
individual consultations should not be abandoned, but they need to be balanced
with new approaches, especially those that empower clients to become
self-learners and co-learners.
Extension should consider alternatives/supplements to
farm visits as means of establishing personal educational relationships with
farmers. By encouraging farmers to have fax, computers, etc, regional
information compiled by faculty could be retrieved by individual producers
efficiently and conveniently.
Broad
audiences could be reached, and connected, by establishing networks (in person
and/or electronically) of agriculturists, landowners, and citizens with a
common interest in a public issue, technology, research effort, etc.
Examples of successes with alternative educational
methods include study circles (Toward an Agricultural Ethic, Umass Extension '94), participatory assistance (Lanyon, '94), practical farmers of
The intent of using these kinds of methods is described
in the National Level Strategic Plan for Agriculture, which highlights the need
for networking and constituent empowerment processes as alternatives to
traditional technology transfer methods.
Vision Statement
To support and encourage Vermont's people to make a
living, improve their quality of life and strengthen communities by managing
human, land and other resources in and ecologically sound and economically
competitive manner.
Educational Goals and
Objectives:
Provide factual information to agricultural producers
that is useful and progressive and which supports efficient, profitable and
environmentally-sound farming practices.
Teach farmers, landowners and managers of natural
resources about tools for comprehensive decision-making.
Facilitate networks for sharing of experiential knowledge
among a diversity of people with an interest in agriculture.
Forge partnerships between and among farmers, educators,
scientists, regulators, policy makers and consumers in order to improve
people's understanding and control of their food system.
Explain to the public the value of interconnections among
agriculture, community development, tourism, recreation, wildlife and a
citizenry that values natural resources and open space.
Encourage future generations to understand, value and
become involved in agriculture.