Early results from our national Maple Producer Survey are in, and the first-round analysis is already pointing to a practical takeaway for Extension and farm business education. Using producer responses on farmland ownership, community embeddedness, wellbeing-related indicators, and agroecological orientation, we identified two distinct producer profiles.
A “Community-Driven Ecological Majority” reported higher agreement on trust, reciprocity, community connectedness, and collective action, along with stronger cultural significance, social support, and emotional resilience. In practical terms, the data suggests that one-size-fits-all outreach leaves value on the table.
Our next step is to validate these profiles and use follow-up producer interviews to co-develop two customized outreach tracks so programming, tools, and messaging better match how different maple businesses learn, decide, and adopt new practices.