CHALLENGING THE SYSTEM: ARE U.S. BEGINNING FARMER PROGRAMS DEBILITATING OR ADVANCING THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE?

The overall goals of this proposed project are to evaluate the existing mechanisms of beginning farmer programs and the ability to meet the needs of those farmers, enhance awareness and educational opportunities for beginning farmers and train young agriculturalists to evaluate policies and situations that can impact the future of our industry. Through the efforts of this research identified in the logic model, in Figure 1, and described above we can achieve those goals.OBJECTIVESObjective 1: Evaluate the existing mechanisms of beginning farmer programs and their impact on program participation. 1.1: Identify financial and/or social barriers to participation 1.2: Assess impacts on commodity type by program construction. 1.3: Assess the role of social capital in the utilization of programsObjective 2: Evaluate existing programs ability to meet the needs of beginning farmers. 2.1: Assessing the impact of gaps in current program reach on agricultural sectors (Examples: urban vs. rural, new to agriculture vs. successor, or beef vs. horticultural products.) 2.2: Identifying financial gaps in program reach by program design or eligibility requirements.Objective 3: Enhance awareness among potential program participants, producer organizations, policy makers and other stakeholders. 3.1: Create a social map for producers in regards to information transmission. 3.2: Evaluate communication methods to identify effective channels of communication. 3.3: Create an action plan for information distribution including workshops, blogs, webinars, etc. based on previous results.Objective 4: Train graduate students to enable them to analytically evaluate policies such as beginning farmer programs and contribute to future policies and programs