On behalf of CSM
Proponent
Valerie Dantoin – faculty, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
Main responsible entity
Wisconsin State Technical College System – Northeast Wis. Technical College
Date/Timeframe
2008-2017 and beyond
Funding source
Wisconsin Tech College System
Location
Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. A regional-center city of about 100,000 people with a strong interface between its rural (mostly dairy farm) area and its urban (not very wealthy) working-class citizens.
Background/Context
In 2008 a federal grant was received to create a Sustainable Agriculture credential (a certificate) at our regional college. A process was developed to a) interview the emerging Sustainable Agriculture & Food System “industry” members, b) outline and develop College courses, c) recruit students and begin teaching courses. This occurred from 2009 – 2012. In 2013 a two-year Associate Degree in Sustainable Agriculture grew out of the original certificate, due to its popularity. The intent of the program is to create more small scale farmers.
Local food and agriculture system members recognized that it is irresponsible and impractical to graduate new farmers and “release them into the wild” without collaborative efforts to support crop prices and the sustainability of their new businesses. For that reason, we chose to form the SLO (Sustainable, Local, Organic) Farmers Cooperative. The Cooperative is an attempt to work together, rather than compete, for the customers in our region. Without Cooperation, we will do what farmers (especially the inexperienced) have always done; we will compete on price until we drive each other out of business. We then abandon the growing local food movement in our working class region to only a few strong players or to national scale businesses. This is a new model for not only getting new farmers started, but also supporting their success.
Focus/Objectives
Objective 1) Create an Associate Degree in Sustainable Farming & Food Systems that is accessible and affordable. (about 20 students have enrolled in each of the first four years)
2) Graduate 15 people each year to work in the regional food system. About ¼ will create their own small farms. Help them network and grow.
3) Support students beyond the classroom by creating internships and apprenticeships where they can learn to grow food while working with an experienced local farmer.
4) Properly introduce new farmers into the local food eco-system so that they do not disrupt the current small scale farmers currently in the marketplace.
Key characteristics of the experience/process
Accredited adult education and use of the Cooperative model are keys to the process.
Key actors involved and their role
Valerie Dantoin – Curriculum developer, Lead Instructor
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College Leadership Team – Amy Kox, Associate Dean
SLO Farmers Cooperative
Wisconsin Farmers Union Cooperative
Key changes observed with regards to food security and nutrition and sustainable agriculture and food systems
We grow the capacity of local farmers to successfully supply our region with high quality, sustainable food. SLO food is become more widely available at prices that are fair to both producers and consumers.
Challenges faced
The biggest challenge is funding to operate the SLO Farmers Cooperative until sales volume is large enough to make it self-sustaining. The Co-op is run by individual farmers and does not have a supporting agency. Also, there is never enough “people power” to provide adequate follow-up and support for graduates of the associate degree program.
Lessons/Key messages
It does not make sense to create new farmers unless we have a mechanism to support their successful entry and integration into the marketplace. A fisheries example is analogous. If we hatch a bunch of small fry and invest in growing them up to fingerling size, we should be careful to release them into the wild in an estuary first – a protected place where they can learn to swim strongly and evade predators. Likewise, we can continue to grow new farmers in a classroom relatively easily; but we will have a high failure rate until we provide proper habitat when we re-introduce them into the wild. In our programming, let’s remember to include care and support for newly minted farmers rather than just throwing them into the rough waters of a competitive marketplace.
Sra. Teresa Maisano