costs. Joel's visit was cosponsored by the Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Center for Grassland Studies, and Nebraska Cooperative Extension. A video of the presentation is available for viewing or check-out in the CSAS office. NEBRASKA AG IMPACT PROJECT SET TO BEGIN The Nebraska Ag IMPACT project is reaching out to Nebraska farmers, ranchers and community members to design projects that will improve their farms, communities and environment. The IMPACT project will support farmers and ranchers in learning about and experimenting with sustainable farming systems through a statewide network of community- based projects. The project plans to support at least one group in each of the five extension districts in Nebraska. Groups selected to participate in the project will develop goals for their farms and communities, and will formulate a plan to implement one or more projects drawn from these goals. Projects can include on-farm research, demonstration and education efforts. Groups will receive small grants and technical assistance to support activities and project development. One of the main barriers to adoption of sustainable farming systems is the absence of community support for individuals who adopt sustainable practices. Group interaction and farmer-to-farmer networking can be an effective way for people to learn about and experiment with sustainable agriculture in a supportive community environment. The IMPACT project offers both producers and non-farm community members an opportunity to discover, modify, adopt and promote sustainable practices while benefitting the environment and supporting rural communities. Priority will be given to groups that are farmer/rancher organized and driven, include both farm and non-farm members, involve Extension Educators and other technical information providers (like NRCS and the NRDs), and plan for activities that address innovative aspects of sustainable agriculture at the community level. Groups that include the needs of beginning farmers/ranchers will receive additional support. Project staff from the Center for Rural Affairs (CRA), the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society (NSAS), and the University of Nebraska Extension Service will be available to help groups plan for activities and prepare funding proposals and applications. Staff members can also help interested individuals locate prospective group members. For application forms or additional information, call Wyatt Fraas at CRA --- * Origin: [via Psychotronic BBS = Durham, NC = 919-286-4542]sustag- (1:3641/1) @PATH: 3641/1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (201) Tue 6 Dec 94 18:41 By: Pam Murray To: All Re: 02:Nov-Dec CSAS Newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- @MSGID: 1:3641/223 0006b2f2 @PID GIGO+ sn 175 at psybbs vsn 0.99 pl1 @SPLIT: 12 Dec 94 13:35:18 @3641/223 9025 02/03 ++++++++++ From: CSAS001@UNLVM.UNL.EDU (Pam Murray) @Subject: Nov-Dec CSAS Newsletter Date: 6 Dec 1994 23:41:24 -0000 @Sender: daemon@bigblue.oit.unc.edu @Message-Id: <9412062003.AA29076@wolf.ces.ncsu.edu> (402-254-6893) or Cris Carusi at NSAS (402-254-2289). Source: NSAS Newsletter, Fall 1994 PRIVATE EXTENSION SYSTEM IN ARGENTINA Can you imagine farmers paying $500 to $700 per month to belong to a private extension system? There are currently over 1400 farmers in Argentina who buy into this approach in exchange for access to their own professional crop and animal production advisor, a monthly meeting with other farmers, and publications from their national organization. The Argentinian Association of Regional Groups for Agricultural Experimentation (known locally by the acronym AACREA) is an organization founded by farmers some 27 years ago following a model from France. CSAS director Chuck Francis recently spent two weeks visiting farms and farm families in Argentina and also presented a paper on future sustainable systems at the organization's annual symposium. The heart of the movement is the farmer group, six to ten farmers who meet once each month on one of the farms and do a complete assessment of agronomic, livestock, and economic practices. The owner gives a short presentation, the group takes a one- to two-hour tour of most fields and pastures with the agronomist advisor, and everyone comes together for an extended evaluation of what was observed. No one pulls punches during this lively interchange, as farmers challenge their host on everything from rates of fertilizer or herbicide application to how many people are really needed to efficiently and economically run the livestock enterprise. The critics know the business; they are involved in the same activities. The farmers who provide critiques are also honest and forthright, since they know the group will be evaluating their own operations within a few months. It is this frank interchange that gives people constructive criticism on how to improve their productivity and profitability. Francis was surprised not only by the detailed sharing of production and financial information, but also with the level of environmental concern. One farmer was looking across a field of soybean residue that had about a 1% slope, and lamented the degree of erosion that had occurred after the last rain. "I'll have to change row direction and try to cross the contour in this field next season," he commented. This unique service may be demonstrated to farmers in Nebraska and Iowa in the near future if funds can be identified to bring several farmers and their agronomist advisors here to discuss the system. Submitted by Chuck Francis CUBAN AGRICULTURE REORIENTS TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY During a recent ten-day stay in Cuba, I gained a glimpse of the massive changes underway in the agricultural sector. These changes have been brought about largely by the collapse of economic relations with Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. For several decades Cuban agriculture had been based on the Soviet model of large State-owned and managed farms, heavily reliant upon fossil fuel and agrichemicals. We visited several research institutions, production units (UBPCs), and cooperatives. The most striking impression I have of these visits is the widespread commitment to the common purpose of making Cuban agriculture maximally self-reliant. The methods being advanced to achieve this coincide with many of those advocated by proponents of sustainable agriculture. Current research efforts have several major aims: (1) to find substitutes for agrichemicals in achieving crop protection; (2) to maintain and improve soil quality while maintaining crop production; (3) to reduce fuel needs of the agricultural sector, and (4) to make negligible any impediments to implementation of research findings. Simultaneously, major reorganization of agricultural production has been occurring over the past few years. These include the virtual dissolution of the State-farms and the formation of UBPCs having a relatively high degree of autonomy (e.g. have their own relations with banks). Also, true cooperatives of private farmers have existed for some time, and these are being further encouraged. Among the incentives recently implemented are open food markets, at which prices received by producers are many times that received for produce sold to the State. In early 1995 I will be making several presentations about the trip. If you're interested in attending, please give me a call (402-472-9563) in early January. Also, the organization (Global Exchange) that arranged this trip is organizing a farmer-to-farmer trip to Cuba in February. If you've never been there, I recommend this as a way to be introduced to Cuban agriculture and to gain access to people who might otherwise be impossible to meet. There are perfectly legal ways to get around U.S. government restrictions on travel to the island. Global Exchange's telephone number is 1-800-497-1994. Submitted by Chris Teo-Sherrell EPA CONDUCTS SPECIAL REVIEW OF TRIAZINES The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in November that it has begun a Special Review of three of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S.: atrazine, cyanazine and simazine (known collectively as triazines). These pesticides are primarily used on corn, but are also used on sorghum and other crops. The Special Review will examine the risks and benefits of the pesticides, estimate the costs of shifting to alternatives, and determine whether the pesticides should be canceled, further restricted, or allowed to be used as before. CRITERIA FOR JUDGING RELEVANCY OF RESEARCH TO SUSTAINABLE AG In order to comply with the 1990 Farm Bill mandate to USDA to support research and extension in sustainable ag, a new evaluation system is being tested in several universities. To explore the impact of basic research on sustainable ag, an October workshop in Raleigh addressed four topics that are integral to the management of research in the near term and for developing the vision and strategic plan for ag research in the long term: (1) clarification of criteria that can be used to judge the relevancy of research to sustainable ag, (2) defining high priority research areas, (3) identifying current programmatic and infrastructure impediments or opportunities for new research critical to the development or modification of farming systems that will advance sustainable ag, and (4) how the ag research community can address goals given in the Farm Bill definition of sustainable ag by conducting professionally rewarding research and implementing sustainable ag systems. Implicit in these discussions was the problem of how continuous long-term funding could be obtained to conduct the research needed to achieve sustainable ag production. The workshop included people from 18 professional societies. Source: AGRONOMY NEWS, Dec. 1994. CALIFORNIA PASSES BIOS BILL In late September, the California legislature passed a bill that calls for a reduction in the use of chemicals in agriculture. Also included in the bill is a provision that calls for the integration of biological controls in agriculture. Known as BIOS, the law provides funding for up to five pilot projects focusing on the different commodities produced in the state. Farmers will receive technical assistance and financial incentives to replace synthetic chemicals with biological controls. The law also has the support of the California Farm Bureau Federation. The bill was modeled after the Community Alliance with Family Farmers' BIOS projects, which have producers and ext extension working together on biological controls. Primary Source: "BIOS Bill Passes--New Era for Ag Begins!" AGRARIAN ADVOCATE, Oct/Nov 1994.