For Immediate Release
Learning Communities Project
433 Chestnut St., Berea, KY 40403
December 17, 1999
Contact: Michael Straus (415) 663-8343
Hal Hamilton (606) 986-5336
NEW TAPROOT PROGRAM TRAINS
AGRICULTURAL LEADERS
The Learning Communities Project (LCP) is sponsoring Taproot, a new,
innovative seminar series focusing on agricultural change and leadership.
Taproot is the first seminar series of its kind in the U.S. and is aimed at
providing tools for individuals to make concrete change in agriculture.
The first Taproot workshop, held in Santa Fe, NM, addressed Multi-Functional
(M-F) Agriculture. This concept is widely used throughout Europe, but still
relatively unknown in the United States. M-F agriculture deals with the
numerous ways in which agriculture contributes to our society by producing
healthy food, clean water, wildlife habitat and regional economic
opportunities.
At the Santa Fe seminar Taproot participants came from as far away as Costa
Rica and Sweden. They worked together to draw systems maps of agricultural
change, and they developed skills to increase the effectiveness of their
work.
According to Jim French, an agricultural communications specialist, "The
workshop prompted me to move forward with ideas to establish a Watershed
Friendly label program." French is also a rancher in the Ninnescah River
watershed that provides water for the city of Wichita, Kansas. "The concept
implies that populations within the watershed might pay a premium to family
farmers who are using practices that protect and conserve the water
residents use each day," French added.
French attributed his inspiration to presentations made by other
participants, such as the support for farm innovation in the Catskills
watershed project for New York City. French also learned from seminar
descriptions of programs implemented in Western Europe. In Southern
Germany, for example, water authorities pay farmers to convert to organic
practices, thereby saving money that would otherwise be spent cleaning
pesticides and nitrates from water.
One of the funders of Taproot is the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "We are very
excited that we have the opportunity to support this innovative project - a
project led by some of this country's premier leaders in the sustainable
agricultural arena," commented Dr. Oran Hesterman, Program Director at
Kellogg. "We are hopeful that, through this process of learning and
leadership development, the creation and spread of a more sustainable
approach to the food system will be much more rapid," he added.
Planned workshop topics for Spring 2000 include the World Trade Organization
and Multi-Functional Agriculture. For more information, call (606)
986-5336, reply to Hal Hamilton at hhamilton@centerss.org, or visit
www.centerss.org.
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