Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1998, Practical Farmers of Iowa and the Leopold Center formalized an
agreement to forge an intentional multi-year partnership. The partner-
ship seeks to enhance on-farm research and outreach as a vehicle for
more effective agroecological strategies and practices. In Wisconsin, the
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems bridged the needs of local
farmer networks and the professional goals of scientists by creating a
research and extension system titled “radially organized teams.”
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By
1995, Wisconsin had 30 regional networks, 18 of them devoted to graz-
ing. Most of the non-grazing networks were organized around organic
production techniques or direct marketing, and many of them worked
closely with CIAS.
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The Kansas program offers support for local
networks, many of them graziers, much as CIAS does. Several, such as
the Cornell and Nebraska programs, have remained relatively small, and
not designed to develop alternative, field-scale farming systems for
conventional agriculture.
The two New England programs are small and designed to small farm-
ers in their states. They emphasize direct marketing, organic production,
and artisanal food. The Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture
(based in the Extension System, not the experiment station) is focused on
intentional rotational grazing since dairy products are the primary agri-
cultural commodity for this state. The Maine Sustainable Agriculture
Program has sponsored integrated crop/livestock research, and tough
state-wide nutrient management regulations are stimulating interest in
agroecological approaches.
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In California, the CAAP/California Rural Legal Assistance lawsuit
created a political opening for other critics of UC to act, and State
Senator Nick Petris sponsored legislation to create the Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education Program and the Small Farm Center
in 1986. Both of these were created against the will of UC leadership,
who perceived them as threats to their institutional autonomy.
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SAREP
has played a critical role in agroecological partnerships despite multiple,
on-going efforts by UC leadership to suppress it.
In 1984, the National Research Council appointed a committee to
study alternative agriculture, naming John Pesek of Iowa State University
its chair. The committee discovered that many farmers had already devel-
oped techniques that reduced both input costs and environmental harm.
A few had invented new techniques, but most had modified their
