Beginning Farmer Education

MSU has received a USDA beginning farmer grant (2021-2024) to create curricula and resources to support educators and programs for beginning farmers across the state. We will share the intent of this grant, other existing approaches that help farmers learn and engage in conversation to discuss approaches that do and do not work from the lens of the presentation participants. The goal is to glean ideas to improve beginning farmer educational platforms and develop opportunities for our educators to engage with beginning farmers and their educators. Following a description of goals of the grant, we will share some past outreach for beginning farmers in Michigan. Then we will invite the participants to share their experiences and ideas of best bet approaches to engage beginning farmers as well as educators of beginning farmer programs.