03/17/2009

Farmland Policy Innovation Center Announces Farmland Protection Grants

Writer:

Martha Filipic
filipic.3@cfaes.osu.edu
(614) 292-9833

Source:

Jill Clark, Center for Farmland Policy Innovation
clark.1099@osu.edu
(614) 247-6479

Cindy Kalis, Ohio Department of Agriculture
CKalis@agri.ohio.gov
(614) 752-4505

March 17, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Four projects -- in Wayne, Lake, Athens and Lucas counties -- have been awarded grants through the Farmland Protection Partnership Program to test ideas that will support the viability of local farms.

The program is coordinated by Ohio State University's Center for Farmland Policy Innovation. Jill Clark, director of the center, adds that for the first time, three of the grants are being co-funded by the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Rural Rehabilitation Program.

The projects, all of which are also getting at least a 50 percent match from local sources, are valued at more than $100,000.

"The whole point of this program is to allow local communities to try some really innovative, creative ways to boost local agriculture and offer other benefits," Clark said. "We're very pleased that the Ohio Department of Agriculture was enthusiastic when we asked if they wanted to partner with us. I think it shows that there's a lot of support throughout Ohio for helping new ideas get off the ground."

Community-based agricultural economic development involves community planning, organizing and acting to enhance the viability of local agriculture and the health of area farms. By considering agriculture to be part of local economic development strategies, communities can benefit by keeping more dollars circulating in the local economy and protecting more of local farmland resources.

"Partnering with the Center for Farmland Policy Innovation provided the department the opportunity to help advance these important projects while at the same time allowed us to stretch our limited funds to finance other projects as well," said Greg Hargett, Ohio Department of Agriculture deputy director and Ohio Rural Rehabilitation Program chairman. "The fact that the criteria for the Farmland Protection Partnership Program require projects that can be replicated makes our participation a smart investment. We hope similar programs around the state can learn from this process."

The projects that gained funding are:

• Hispanic Grower/Farmers' Market Project, submitted by the Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District. The project, funded at $24,000, will work with other local organizations to support local Hispanic farmers in developing farm-to-market businesses, making fresh varieties of cultural produce available locally, and strengthening the local farm market economy. Lake and Ashtabula counties are home to about 8,000 Hispanic residents, many of whom farmed in their native countries but currently work in industrial jobs and have no access to arable land on which they could plant food crops. Many cultural produce items they desire are not currently available in northeast Ohio. This project will recruit 10 area Hispanic families who are interested in growing this produce, such as numerous varieties of peppers, chilies, beans, corn, tomatillos and vianda (tubers), and finding nearby land where they could grow these crops. The program will also help them locate potential markets for their crops, such as local farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture programs, or local restaurants. Partners in the project include the Western Reserve Resource Conservation and Development Council; Hispanas Organizadas de lake y Ashtabula; Parker Bosley, a promoter of local foods; and Lake Erie College Center for Entrepreneurship. For more information, contact Maurine Orndorff, agricultural programs technician for the Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District, at (440) 350-5863 or morndorff@lakecountyohio.gov.
• M.A.N.U.R.E. (Manure Agreements, Nutrient Utilization and the Rural Economy), submitted by Countryside Conservancy working with Baughman Township in Wayne County. The project, funded at $12,400, will set up a manure bartering program for producers and consumers within the township, educate landowners about proper nutrient utilization, create model contracts for transactions related to manure, encourage neighbor and community relationship-building, and examine the tax implications for farmers that participate in a manure bartering program. The idea stems from a Baughman Township 2006 comprehensive planning process that identified the area's strong agricultural base, with approximately 40 livestock operations and 120 farms, as one of its greatest strengths, while inadequate manure management in the area was perceived as an issue that needed to be addressed. Organizers say that the project's aim is to transform something that's currently perceived as a pollution problem into an economic asset. For more information, contact Katie Myers, Farmland Programs Coordinator at Countryside Conservancy, at (330) 657-2355 or kmyers@cvcountryside.org.
• Athens Food Policy Council, submitted by Rural Action and the Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative. The project, which received $10,000, aims to reinvigorate the local farm economy by working to make more arable land available for growing high-nutrition staple food crops, such as those being grown by local farmer Brandon Jaeger as part of a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Currently, hundreds of acres of prime farmland in the area is owned and managed by Athens County, the city of Athens and its water districts. Most of this acreage is not in production, partly to protect wellhead areas from chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides used in conventional farming. This project proposes to bring policy-makers and community groups to the table to make recommendations for policy changes needed create incentives to grow food for local human consumption -- boosting the local economy and at the same time increasing local food security. “Our aim is to look at how we can boost sustainable farming practices, redirect crops away from commodity feed to human food crops, and impact the ever-growing population of the food insecure in our region," said Michelle Ajamian, director of the collaborative. "The question is, how can local government and farmers use the precious bottom land to grow food for the region and boost the farming economy at the same time?" For more information, contact Ajamian at (740) 797-4399 or michelle.ajamian@gmail.com.
• Lucas County Senior Nutrition Local Fruit and Vegetable Purchasing Program, submitted by the Area Office on Aging of Northwest Ohio. The project, funded at $10,000 solely from the Center for Farmland Policy Innovation, will use the funding to purchase locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables to serve at its senior dining site and in its home-delivered meals program. Lucas County Senior Nutrition currently provides over 500,000 meals each year to older adults, and to comply with guidelines in the Older Americans Act, each meal served must contain three servings of fruits and vegetables. Currently, most of the produce purchased for this purpose is canned or frozen, while participants increasingly request fresh fruits and vegetables. The aim of this project is to show that locally produced fresh fruits and vegetables can be used in these types of programs, offering diners a boost in flavor and nutrition and local farmers an additional market for their produce. For more information, contact Rebecca Liebes, director of nutrition and wellness at the Area Office on Aging of Northwest Ohio, Inc., at (419) 382-0624 ext. 1153 or rliebes@areaofficeonaging.com.

The Center for Farmland Policy Innovation was established in 2006 to enable communities to achieve farmland protection policy priorities by partnering on innovative projects and providing needed programming. The center works directly with communities on innovative policy demonstrations and models, writes policy briefs, maintains a communication network, and hosts an annual statewide farmland policy meeting -- which is, according to American Farmland Trust, the largest of such meetings the country.

This month, the center received a $105,000 appropriation in the federal Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009. The center uses this type of federal funding to directly fund these kinds of projects, Clark said. The funding, which comes from the Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was supported by Ohio's U.S. senators Sherrod Brown and George Voinovich.

For more information about the center, contact Jill Clark at (614) 247-6479 or clark.1099@osu.edu, or see the center's Web site at http://cffpi.osu.edu.

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