Winter, 1992 (v5n2)
The Operations Committee
of the national Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE,
formerly, "LISA") program met in Washington, DC November 19-20,
1992. The two-day meeting included updates on the four regional SARE programs:
- In 1992 the Northeast region took the lead in developing a 124-page handbook, "Managing Cover Crops Profitably"; funded 12 new projects; began a newsletter "Innovations" by communications specialist Beth Holtzman; and started a program of minigrants for farmers.
- Major accomplishments of the Southern region include a 26-page booklet of FY 1992 Accomplishments and FY 1993 Goals and Activities; the development of a "State of the South" report; and planning for a regional conference to be held in March 1993.
- The Western region continues to stress systems analysis in its calls for proposals, and developed a paper to stimulate thinking on the topic. Both a research conference and an Extension conference are being planned.
- Activities in the North Central region include the funding of 26 projects under the new producer mini-grant program; a strategic plan; and increased outreach by the new communications specialist, Lisa Jasa.
- While most SARE projects are funded by these regional programs, a few projects of national scope are funded nationally. Updates of these projects were also presented at the meeting:
- John Ikerd of the University of Missouri is leading a team of sociologists and economists developing a framework for integrating Quality of Life issues into the SARE program.
- Harry Wells of the Environmental Protection Agency heads the Agriculture in Concert with the Environment (ACE) program, that has been co-funding research and education on agricultural pollution prevention strategies with SARE.
- Jayne MacLean directs the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center at the National Agricultural Library, which publishes free "quick bibliographies" and answers a wide range of questions.
- Greg Gajewski of the Economic Research Service is steering a team of economists who are conducting a national study of the economic and social impacts of sustainable agriculture.
- UC SAREP's Jill Auburn chairs the committee developing the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), which is collating information on sustainable agriculture into publications and databases offered on diskette and via the Internet wide-area computer network.
- The Center for Farm Financial Management, Richard Hawkins, director, at the University of Minnesota is the home of Planetor, a computer program for farming decision analysis that helps farmers understand the whole-farm implications of their management decisions.
- Dixon Hubbard of the Extension Service reported on demonstration projects and workshops funded in all four regions.
Contacts for more information
about the SARE program:
Northeast: Fred Magdoff, Dept. Plant & Soil Science, University of Vermont, Burlington,VT 05405
North Central: Steven S. Wailer, 207 Agriculture Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE68583-0704
South: William H. Brown, Ag. Experiment Station, Louisiana State University, P.O. Box 25055, Baton Rouge, LA 70894-5055
West: David Schlegel,
University of California, DANR/OPIA, 300 Lakeside Drive, 6th Floor, Oakland,
CA 94612
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