Several years of effort by a Vermont team to elevate the social issues that farmers face was an impetus for a new USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) bulletin on social sustainability.
Resilient Farmers, Ranchers and Communities: Social Sustainability in Agriculture draws on the work of several CALS and Extension faculty and staff. The bulletin builds on a framework developed by UVM Extension’s Deb Heleba and Professor Lisa Chase, with former CALS faculty Shoshanah Inwood and Jason Parker (both now at the Ohio State University), to present perspectives and tools for thinking about social sustainability.
The bulletin presents five themes for framing social sustainability in agriculture, each exemplified by real farmer experiences, and an exploration of the ways in which agriculturalists, farmers and workers, can work to make their communities more resilient, prosperous, and sustainable.
The bulletin also features Women’s Agricultural Network programming conducted by Beth Holtzman and Suzy Hodgson, on organizing women-centered farmer education. It also features UVM Extension’s Farm Labor Dashboard which Holtzman and Extension Emeritus Professor Mary Peabody collaboratively developed with partners from six other states. The Farm Labor Dashboard, an initiative of the Extension’s New Farmer Project, provides resources and education to help farmers recruit, train and retain employees, and will be offering a variety of workshops and learning circles this fall and winter.