Building Team Chemistry: The Bigger Picture Behind Cows & Climate
Conor McCabe
Animal Biology Graduate Student, UC Davis
The $350,000 Organic Training for Agricultural Professionals Prize recognizes extraordinary contributions to training farmers, agriculture professionals and community organizations in organic production. In selecting the 2022 prize winners, The Organic Center and FFAR prioritized farmer-led projects with the potential for expansion and multi-regional impact. Organizations were also selected based on their project’s ability to increase diversity, equity and inclusion among participants and on the extent to which they included measurable, in-person and online knowledge exchange between farmers and organic agriculture professionals. Applicants were required to match the award amounts.
Organic farming is poised to be part of the climate change solution; organic farmers do not rely on fossil-fuel intensive synthetic inputs to manage pests or increase soil fertility and use farming techniques that sequester carbon in the soil. However, more work is needed to understand specific strategies organic growers can adopt to mitigate climate change, while managing the negative effects climate change is having on their farms through drought, flooding, invasive pests and extreme weather events.
OATS is a training program for agricultural professionals working with organic or transitioning farmers in the northern tier of the U.S., fiscally sponsored by the Organic Trade Association. With this award, OATS will increase domestic organic crop production by strengthening the support network of organic agronomists, certified crop advisors, Cooperative Extension agents and technical service providers. OATS aims for every transitional and certified organic farmer to have robust access to unbiased, science-based support for their farming operation. The prize helps OATS achieve its goal by supporting the development of an organic professional certificate program, a variety of multi-media training tools and an industry-wide assessment to identify future participants and necessary education.
This research develops and deploys the latest technology and knowledge to help farmers build and maintain healthy, productive soil and to protect farmers’ livelihoods and the environment, while increasing productivity.