Farmer Educators Advance Sustainability
The Northeast Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program periodically chooses people to serve as sustainable farmer educators. While continuing to run their own operations, these farmers will also use SARE funds to travel to meetings, conferences and field days to speak about their area of expertise. By offering this support, SARE hopes to help the region's farmers as they move toward agriculture that is profitable, environmentally sound, and beneficial to communities.
James Binsberger of Homestead Orchards in Perhkasie, PA, has expertise in farm-based marketing, including bakery and deli sales, and is a practitioner of agritourism, which allows the farm to become a destination in its own right. Binsberger has offered farm tours, hay and pony rides, seasonal events like corn mazes and pig roasts and a range of activities for families with young children. He has spoken at conferences and worked directly with farmers for many years. He can be reached at 215/257-9286 or hoi328@verizon.net.
Jack Gurley of Calvert's Gift Farm in Sparks, MD, runs a profitable organic farm on less than five acres. The farm products are marketed to area restaurants, distributed to shareholders of his community-supported farm, and also sold at two farmers' markets. Much of Gurley's experience is with developing new markets and products. He also focuses on how a very small farm can support a comfortable lifestyle. He has given talks and presentations on organic farming both in Maryland and nationally, and he can be reached at 410/472-6764 or giftcal@aol.com.
Eero Ruuttila of Nesenkeag Farm in Litchfield, NH, is the director of New Hampshire's largest certified organic vegetable farm, which provides fresh specialty food to chefs and for wholesale distribution and also sends produce to area food banks. He has a background in farm management, as a certified organic inspector, and as a local-produce buyer for a large consumer food coop. He has been a speaker at meetings, conferences, and farmer-to-farmer events over the past two decades. He can be reached at 603/886-8215 or pianofarm@verizon.net.
"Farmers value the ideas and experience of other farmers," says Program Manager David Holm, "and we see this as an important component of the achieving the SARE mission." The SARE program supports research, education and producer projects that advance the goals of sustainable agriculture, and the Northeast SARE region is made up of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
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