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Phil Rasmussen, coordinator
of the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
program. |
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Letter
from the Coordinator
Welcome to the world of sustainable agriculture in the West. My
name is Phil Rasmussen. I’m a soil scientist at Utah State
University and coordinator of the Western Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education program, also known as Western SARE.
I work with the Western SARE staff and a 14-member Administrative
Council to fund projects that support sustainable farms, environments
and communities. Since our program began in 1988, we’ve used
a competitive process to fund more than 700 projects for more than
$24 million. These projects seek solutions to challenges facing
virtually every farm and ranch in the West—keeping water clean
and soil productive, improving marketing and testing new crops,
managing pests and recycling farm waste... the list goes on.
Western SARE is built on a foundation of respect for agricultural
producers— the idea that farmers and ranchers know best what
does and does not work on their land. We like to boast that Western
SARE “is not business as usual.” Farmers and ranchers
initiate many of our projects and are involved in nearly all of
them. Our Administrative Council—comprising producers and
people representing universities, agribusiness, government agencies
and nonprofit organizations—guides our activities and plays
an integral role in funding decisions.
With council guidance, we’ve streamlined a grant program
to include pre-proposals, saving time and energy for staff and applicants.
We’ve shortened our funding cycle to place grant dollars in
the hands of producers when their season begins. We’re using
technology and innovations to handle increasing grant volume with
the same staff, keeping administrative costs under 2%. And we’ve
cut the paperwork required for grant applications to five pieces
from 25 and still met federal requirements.
Our projects reach deep into Western agriculture, ranging from
conventional to organic to alternative production. On the pages
that follow, we share the creative and ingenious work of farmers,
ranchers and their professional and nonprofit supporters who have
applied Western SARE dollars to sustainable solutions. We hope their
stories will pique your interest, invoke your support and stimulate
your questions. Thank you for taking the time to see why we’re
optimistic about a better, more productive, more profitable and,
yes, more sustainable outlook for present and future generations.
V. Phillip Rasmussen, Ph.D., Coordinator, Western SARE, Cooperative
State Research, Education and Extension Service
Simply Sustainable
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