Homepage
 
Overview
 
County  Programs
 
Publications/ Resources
 
Links
 
Contact:
 Kathy Brasier
Tim Kelsey
Walt Whitmer
 

Program Overview
 
The Future of Agriculture in Your Community program is one method of bringing community members together to understand and address the challenges facing farming in their community.  The program uses a broad, community-wide coalition to develop and implement an economic development plan for sustaining and strengthening local agriculture. It helps community members gather information about local farmers’ needs, concerns, and opportunities, and then use that information to craft and implement appropriate strategies based upon this information.

Farmers’ needs and concerns are collected via informal discussion (called Farmer “Let’s Talk” sessions), and through a written questionnaire administered to randomly selected local farmers by teams of community volunteers (called Farm Visitors). The “Let’s Talk” comments and questionnaire responses are analyzed by a team of Penn State faculty and staff, and are used by the community coalition (called the “Task Force”) to identify strategic directions and action plans addressing the future of agriculture in the community. Subcommittees within the community Task Force implement these action plans over the next year or two.

The Future of Agriculture in Your Community program is loosely based upon the Business Retention and Expansion (focusing on economic development), and the Charting the Future of Our Community (community strategic planning) programs. It was developed by Penn State Cooperative Extension.

 
PROGRAM GOALS

Short-Term Goals

• Provide community support for local farms
• Solve immediate individual farm concerns
• Increase the public’s appreciation for and understanding of agriculture’s role in the local community

Long-Term Goals

• Increase the competitiveness of local farms and agribusinesses
• Sustain a healthy farm economy and create an improved business climate
• Establish and implement a strategic action plan to insure the future of farming in the community

 
PROGRAM STRUCTURE

Farmer "Let’s Talk" Sessions: Three public meetings for farmers to share and discuss the issues, challenges and opportunities they face.

Farm Visits: Local community leaders receive training on how to conduct the local farm interviews. After receiving training, Volunteer Visitors call on farms and interview the farmer. A proven survey tailored to Cumberland County is used for the interviews, pinpointing farm needs, concerns and development plans. Individual farm data is kept confidential.

Immediate Follow-Up: A local Task Force reviews the survey results and responds to the needs and concerns expressed by farms.

Strategic Planning: University faculty and other experts computerize the information from the "Let’s Talk" and Farm Visits, and prepare an initial draft report for the Task Force. The report includes data analysis and suggests recommendations for improving the local business climate. The Task Force uses this report, its knowledge of the community, and a strategic planning process to develop an action plan.

Implementation: The action planning process fosters the development of local implementation teams. These teams spearhead efforts to achieve the goals in the action plans. Farms, agribusinesses, other local businesses and a variety of agencies may be drawn into the process by these teams.

 
Main Players

The Leadership Team introduces and promotes the program in the community, coordinates task force meetings, and organizes immediate followup to the survey results. The Leadership Team serves on the Task Force and also arranges for the training of the business Volunteer Visitors.

The Task Force is a broad-based group of local community leaders. The Task Force should include representatives of local Economic Development Councils, Industrial Development Authorities, Chambers of Commerce, local government, area utilities, community colleges, and other well-respected, influential community leaders.

Farm Visitation Teams consist of two persons per team. Visitation Teams will visit from two to four firms. These teams can be made up of Task Force members, educators, business people or retirees

 
WHY A COMMUNITY-WIDE APPROACH IS IMPORTANT

The proposed action steps need to reflect the concerns of everyone in the community, or else they may inadvertently create local political opposition that slows or delays implementation. Many potential action steps typically involve non-farmers, such as local government officials, local financial institutions, local Chambers of Commerce, and others, so it is better to involve them from the start so they feel some ownership of the process rather than try to bring them in later once important decisions have already been made.

The broader the coalition of groups and individuals involved at the start of the program, the stronger and more politically acceptable the results. This will make it easier to sustain implementation of action steps. If the program is perceived by others in the community as solely an initiative and concern of farmers, it will inevitably fail.

A major benefit of the program is that it significantly increases non-farmers’ awareness of the needs of the agricultural community. The farm visit part of the program, in particular, creates greater understanding by non-farmers because they physically visit several farms and talk directly with farmers about farm concerns.