Action Team Issues – Metro Food Systems Successes
Grow Local and Urban Agriculture are two food systems trends presenting unique opportunities for Extension. Extension has responded by assembling an Urban Ag team led by Sarah Browning. Gary Lesoing has also highlighted successful Grow Local entrepreneurs through SARE and teamed up with the Nebraska Rural Initiative and several faculty to present farm food safety GAPs training. Two recent experiences of mine raised some questions and ideas as to what is UNL Extension’s role.
On a recent SARE tour of Ryan and Katie Pekarek’s farm, it was good to see how a young family could get started in farming with only 12 acres (and support several summer employees) of intensive vegetable production. Ryan is an example of someone who really does his homework as he has built this operation into a viable family farm. Ryan regularly mentioned his numerous inquiries of North Carolina State faculty for assistance (contacts from his masters program) but did not share the use of UNL Extension as a information resource. Is UNL Extension a resource for the Nebraska fruit and vegetable producer? Are we prepared to help these agricultural entrepreneurs?
I also had the opportunity to visit the Old North St. Louis community’s effort to address the food dessert in a disadvantaged urban area. This was a fascinating example of how urban agriculture and local food production is playing a key role in a larger urban community development initiative (a model for us to consider here in Nebraska?). Some key features worth noting include:
• Extension as the lead partner in the urban agriculture/local food component.
• A cooperative grocery store owned by the residents that focused on marketing healthy foods.
• The partnership of the community with an entrepreneurial vegetable producer from 60 miles away.
• The vegetable producer’s focus on his strengths specific to “production” and “delivery” of vegetables and desire to partner with groups for “retailing” his product.
What will Extension’s role be in the emerging issue of Metro Food Systems? How will our clientele begin to recognize us as the “Go To Place” for information and education? What faculty resources will our system need to become an expert resource? Should this be a Signature Outcome for Extension? Interesting questions for us to discuss as we assemble our Extension plans for 2012.
Action Team Updates
Beef Team: Our Beef Action Team has partnered with USDA Meat Animal Research Center to enhance its professional development experience. The action team will host a 2-hour overview of MARC research and its applications to Nebraska producers at Fall Conference. The team has also set the dates of March 27 and 28 for an in-depth professional development session by a joint UNL and MARC team most likely at the USDA facility near Clay Center. Stay tune for more information. This is an excellent example of an Action Team raising the bar for professional development for our educators in the field.
North Central Region’s “Banner” Outcomes
Last week, we attended the North Central Cooperative Extension Association meeting. This group represents the deans and program leaders from the 12 north central states and works to promote multi-state programming and regional efforts. Part of the work of this group is the identification and reporting toward regional outcomes, similar to the signature outcomes identified by our Extension Action Teams.
During the past year, the region identified two broad banner outcomes that could be used across program areas to better report the impact of our work. The first is Economic Value focusing on things like jobs created or retained, workforce preparedness, increased income/savings, business expansion, reductions in public service costs, etc. The second is Engagement in Public Issues which includes Extension’s value in public policy, service to the community, access to under-utilized public resources, etc. We will be continuing to look at ways that we might better define and assess some of these outcomes across all program areas. As we think about the differences we make, we might think about how our work contributes to these outcomes. Collectively, our work in these areas would be impressive. We will be sharing more information as it unfolds.
-- Kathleen Lodl and Rick Koelsch