Abstract

Local food and agriculture provides basis for community development opportunities.

Issue

New York communities have people with a great skills, ambition, and drive along with multiple natural resources for agricultural opportunities, yet many communities in New York are facing hardship and community decline due to the globalization and industrialization of the food system.

Response

The Community, Food, and Agriculture Program (CFAP) in the Department of Development Sociology uses a combination of empirical research and theorizing to understand the emerging global context, and then employs multifaceted practical strategies for reclaiming entrepreneurial opportunity and rebuilding community around food and agriculture in a seamless research, teaching, and extension program. Increasingly, this involves working collaboratively with constituents and serving as a catalyst for helping people in local communities create opportunities and other changes that they desire. Recent examples include developing innovative marketing information and strategies, training development professionals for implementing the local food and agriculture-based development, and assisting communities in a grape growing region to create and implement a local heritage harvest development strategy.

Impact

Examples of successes: Three of the participants in the Growing Home Certification program were successful in obtaining nearly $130,000 from the 2005 New York State Grow New York Food and Agriculture Industry Development (FAID) grants program with proposals for projects developed as part of their participation in the Growing Home Certification program. In a little more than one year's time, the Concord Grape Belt Heritage Association in western New York started up, brought together diverse segments of the local communities and got their buy-in, became a formal organization with several active committees, and acquired a variety of grants to support important local development and revitalization activities.

Funding Sources

• Other USDA (e.g., Water Quality, Special Grants, NRI)
• Federal Formula Funds - Research (e.g., Hatch, McIntire-Stennis, Animal Health)

Collaborators

• Cornell Small Farms Program;
• Cornell Cooperative Extension Chautauqua County;
• SUNY Fredonia Center for Rural Regional Development & Governance;
• Chadwick Bay Regional Development Corporation;
• NE-SARE;
• Fredonia Vineyard Laboratory;
• Lake Erie Region Conservancy;
• NY Wine and Grape Foundation;
• National Grape Cooperative;
• Growers' Cooperative;
• Lake Erie Region Conservancy and Maritime /Underwater Preserve;
• North East (PA) Chamber of Commerce

Key Personnel

• Thomas A. Lyson, LHB Professor, Development Sociology
• Gilbert W. Gillespie Jr., Senior Research Associate, Development Sociology
• Duncan L. Hilchey, Senior Extension Associate, Development Sociology
• Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman, Program Coordinator Development Sociology
• Gretchen Gilbert, Office Manager, Development Sociology