California Ag Network

Tag: SARE

  • SARE Awards $8M to 14 Projects Tackling Food Loss and Waste, Including LA’s FoodCycle

    The USDA recognizes the impacts of food loss and food waste on food security and the environment. USDA, in concert with agency partners, is working toward the goal of reducing food loss and food waste by 50 percent by 2030.

    In the latest effort in reduction activities, the SARE program is leading a national Community Foods Project Food Loss and Waste Training and Technical Assistance Grants Program, funded through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. A total of $8 million is being provided to 14 organizations across the nation.

    These organizations are diverse in size, geographic location, and in their focus on one or more parts of the food supply chain. The awardees are:

    • Gotham Food Pantry, New York, NY
    • Last Mile Food Rescue, Cincinnati, OH
    • Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
    • University of Delaware, Newark, DE
    • FoodCycle, Los Angeles, CA
    • Association of Gleaning Organizations, Kamas, UT
    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
    • El Departamento de la Comida, Caguas, PR
    • University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
    • University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
    • Pete’s Garden, Kansas City, MO
    • Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY
    • Concrete Jungle, Atlanta, GA
    • The Good Acre, Falcon Heights, MN

    Explore these funded projects at: www.sare.org/resources/food-loss-and-waste/. For more information about this grant program, contact Lisa Johnson, National SARE Food Loss and Waste Grant Manager at FLW@sare.org.

    The program supports projects that align with the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics, released in June 2024. The program prioritizes preventing food from becoming waste, diverting edible food to people through donation or upcycling, and feeding animals. The goals of the Food Loss and Waste Training and Technical Assistance Grants Program are to:

    • Increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs
    • Promote comprehensive responses to local food access, farm, and nutrition issues
    • Identify strategies for reducing food loss and waste by identifying value-added production opportunities
    • Meet specific state, local, or neighborhood food and agriculture needs for planning for long-term solutions
    • Create innovative marketing activities that mutually benefit agricultural stakeholders and consumers
    • Describe how the research or training and technical assistance will lead to improved quality of life for producers, communities and consumers.

  • American Farmland Trust and Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Publish Guide on Virtual Engagement for Women

    American Farmland Trust (AFT) and Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE)  published information, tips and tools for effective engagement for online education, including hybrid settings for farm and ranch women on topics related to farm viability, resilience and conservation in “Reaching Women in Agriculture: A Guide to Virtual Engagement”. The guide was originally developed through a partnership with AFT and the University of Vermont extension and has recently been updated, enhanced and published by SARE earlier in 2022.

    The guide shares that one of the reasons to create women-focused and women-only events, virtual or otherwise, is to establish a comfortable space for women-identifying individuals to find and access resources, information and networking they typically do not have easy access to in the agricultural services world. The goal is to create a safe space for women to learn from each other and gain confidence, rather than excluding men.

    “The guidance in Reaching Women is born out of AFT’s Women for the Land initiative and the Learning Circle model which arose out of early partnerships with the Women Food and Agriculture Network,” said Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, PhD, guide author and AFT Women for the Land Director. “Learning Circles, where women learn from other women in a setting with no visible hierarchy, have proven effective in engaging women landowners and producers in conversations about land management, particularly regarding agricultural best practices for soil health and water quality. The guide provides best practices for conducting this work in a virtual setting.”

    Reaching Women incorporates both the characteristics of high-quality programs for women in agriculture and the emerging best practices for adapting farmer education and networking events to virtual platforms. It shares innovative approaches and lessons learned from AFT efforts and the efforts of our partners to engage women in agriculture under the social distancing requirements associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.  This work will continues be critically important for outreach as we continue to integrate virtual engagement in the work we do even as we move beyond acute impacts associated with the pandemic. Rurality, large geographic expanses, expenses associated with childcare and transportation make virtual options for gathering an ongoing need for engaging women in agriculture.

    The guide brings everything together in profiles of work done by partner organizations in the agricultural and natural resources field including Elizabeth Lillard, Women in Conservation Leadership, National Wildlife Federation • Maggie Norton, Practical Farmers of Iowa • Caitlin Joseph and Ashley Brucker (also authors of this guide), Women for the Land Initiative at American Farmland Trust • Cayla Bendel and Kim Cole, Pheasants Forever • Jean Eells, E Resources Group, LLC • Lisa Kivirist, formerly with In Her Boots, a program of the Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service • Wren Almitra, Women Food and Agriculture Network and Women, Land and Legacy

    To order: Download or order your free print copy of Reaching Women in Agriculture at https://sare.org/reaching-women or by calling (301) 779-1007.  Reaching Women in Agriculture is available in quantity for free to educators for use in educational workshops, classes or tours.

    For information on AFT’s Women for the Land initiative and the Learning Circle model, click on included links.

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.

    About SARE: The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program is a producer-driven, decentralized competitive grants and education program operating in every state and island protectorate. Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture, the program is run by four regions hosted by land grant institutions. Since 1988, SARE has funded over 8,000 competitively funded projects to advance agricultural innovation that promotes profitability, stewardship of the land, air and water, and quality of life for farmers, ranchers and their communities. For more information, visit www.sare.org.

  • House Appropriations Committee Advance FY 2022 Agriculture Spending Bill

    National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition — The House Appropriations Committee advanced their agriculture appropriations funding bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 today, which was marked up and approved by the Agriculture Subcommittee last week. The agriculture appropriations bill plays a major role in shaping our food and farm systems as it funds many of the major programs and functions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). For FY 2022, the bill proposes a total of $26.55 billion, a more than 10 percent increase from FY 2021.

    “The House bill includes historic wins for sustainable agriculture priorities,” said Eric Deeble, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) Policy Director. “NSAC applauds House appropriators for advancing comprehensive investments in rural communities, sustainable agriculture research, and local and regional food systems,” Deeble added.

    Notably, the legislation includes a substantial increase in investments for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program at $50 million, a $10 million increase from FY21. This funding level will allow SARE’s farmer driven research to keep pace with the growing challenges farmers face in remaining profitable and viable in the context of climate change. Moreover, NSAC is pleased to see an overall commitment of $347.4 million to address climate change across the USDA.

    NSAC supports the considerable allocation to build resiliency by investing in local and regional food systems. This includes $21.4 million in discretionary funding for the Local Agriculture Market Program, building on the $100 million in emergency funding allocated in the December COVID aid package, along with the $50 million in yearly mandatory farm bill funding.

    NSAC also commends the $2 million allocated to the Agricultural Marketing Service for a new Small Meat Packing Plants Apprenticeship program. Given the increasing demand for local or regional sustainable meat and poultry, and the challenges faced by small- and medium-sized meatpacking operations during the pandemic, this funding aims to bolster workforce development for smaller meatpackers and foster partnerships with existing institutions and organizations with expertise in meatpacking operations.  NSAC applauds Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee ranking member Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) for introducing this provision through the Strengthening Local Processing Act and providing funding for it through the FY22 bill.

    While it is not clear what the timeline will be, NSAC is pleased to see the House agriculture appropriations bill moving forward and we recognize that major hurdles remain to securing final FY 2022 funding levels. We encourage the Senate, as they move forward with their own appropriations process, to replicate these robust investments.

    “We hope Congress will expeditiously move forward with the appropriations process and avoid passing a Continuing Resolution, so that these significant increases in the House bill can be enacted as soon as possible to provide much-needed support to farmers, researchers, and organizations. Making these crucial investments now is key to recovering from the pandemic’s impacts and building a resilient rural economy, bolstering sustainable food systems, and addressing the climate crisis,” said Deeble.

    For more detailed information about the FY2022 Appropriations visit NSAC’s Agriculture Appropriations Chart.