Abstract
The national United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program cele-brates its twenty-fifth year of operation in 2013. At this critical juncture, the Western SARE Center is now addressing what it considers to be key food systems development priorities in the years ahead. They include:Gaps in and lack of infrastructure development;Consumer education on the benefits and preparation of sustainable, locally grown foods;Changes in policy, regulations, institutional purchasing, and financing that are more supportive of and a catalyst for local food system development; andTraining for beginning farmers and ranchers. In this research commentary, we share how Western SARE arrived at these priorities, based on extensive grassroots input. Further, we outline to what extent these priorities may be a part of a larger, longer-term research agenda in food systems.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundAs it neared its twentieth anniversary in 2008, Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) had disbursed more than US$69 million to fund more than 1,110 grants
Seven hundred people from the Western SARE Region who have a stake in production agriculture and food systems attended the seven Western SARE Subregional Conferences
Western SARE employed a unique process at the conferences to streamline the information in real time on site for use during the conference and in subsequent strategy deliberations
Summary
Introduction and BackgroundAs it neared its twentieth anniversary in 2008, Western SARE had disbursed more than US$69 million to fund more than 1,110 grants. Consumer education, funding, infrastructure development, policy, processing, regulation, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, value-added This grant-making process reflected the West’s research and education needs to some degree, but only as understood by the people who knew about the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture SARE (USDA-NIFA-SARE) program and had the motivation to apply.
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