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INVESTIGATOR: DeVos, M.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
SOUTHSIDE COMMUNITY LAND TRUST
109 SOMERSET STREET
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND 02907

FEED RHODE ISLAND: GROWING SUSTAINABLE FARMS

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Feed Rhode Island: Growing Sustainable Farms seeks to increase the number and success of limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers in the state. Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) will accomplish this goal by leading an experienced team to undertake four objectives: provide training and technical assistance, manage multiple incubator sites, offer on-farm apprentice training, and facilitate a land transfer working group. Partners include RI Department of Environmental Management, Brown University, RI Land Trust Council, Nature Conservancy RI Chapter, Northeast Organic Farming Association, Northern Rhode Island Conservation District,Young Farmers Network, and University of Rhode Island.Through this program, the organization will leverage the experience and relationships of program partners into meaningful outcomes that would otherwise take years to achieve. Technical assistance and training for urban and rural farmers and will launch them onto their own farms. It will move urban farmers onto larger plots of land. It will lead to new behaviors that increase production and strengthen co-operative marketing while improving sales and boosting Rhode Island's economy. Support for an expanded apprentice program will increase the number of people who are prepared to begin their own farm businesses. Effective management of incubator space, combined with execution of a broadly supported land transfer strategy will create many new independent farms in a state where land values are astronomically high. Feed Rhode Island: Growing Sustainable Farms will help SCLT create significant change quickly in Rhode Island.

OBJECTIVES: Feed Rhode Island: Growing Sustainable Farms seeks to increase the number and success of limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers in the state of Rhode Island. Through this program, Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) will leverage the experience and relationships of program partners into meaningful outcomes that would otherwise take years to achieve. SCLT will accomplish this goal by leading an experienced team to undertake four objectives:Objective #1: Provide training and technical assistance to beginning farmers.Technical assistance and training for urban and rural farmers and will launch them onto their own farms. It will move urban farmers onto larger plots of land. It will lead to new behaviors that increase production and strengthen co-operative marketing while improving sales and boosting Rhode Island's economy.Objective #2: Manage multiple incubator sites in urban and rural RI.Effective management of incubator space will provide beginning farmers with training and access to land so as to create and expand their businesses at a pace they could not achieve otherwise.Objective #3: Offer on-farm apprentice training.Support for an expanded apprentice program will increase the number of people who are prepared to begin their own farm businesses.Objective #4: Facilitate a Land Transfer Working Group.Execution of a broadly supported land transfer strategy, in combination with effective management of SCLT incubator space, will create many new independent farms in a state where land values are astronomically high.