CARI: Center for Applied Rural Innovation
Title
Fishbowls in the Field: Using Listening to Join Farmers, Ranchers, and Educations in Advancing Sustainable Agricultue
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
April 2007
From 1992 to 2005, 586 research and development grants were awarded to farmers and ranchers in the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
Program’s North Central Region (NCR SARE). Two hundred were granted in the states of
Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, alone. Farm/ranch research ideas
for crop and animal production, processing, and marketing were innovations in their
communities and regions. They were also relevant to farmers’ and ranchers’ day-to-day
lives, questions to which they needed answers, in part because the information was not
accessible through traditional agricultural education means.
These farmer/rancher researchers learned a great
deal from their projects, engaged in local outreach,
and filed their reports with the regional office. But,
the information didn’t seem to effectively percolate
up to SARE decisionmakers, State SARE
Coordinators, Land Grant University Extension
Agents, NGO staff and others, where it could guide
future work and funding priorities.
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Published by the Center for Applied Rural Innovation, University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Copyright © 2007 by Julia Kleinschmit Rembert and Elaine Cranford.