Food Systems

Staple Crop Assessment Within BIPOC Communities of Washington State to Support Regional, Culturally Relevant Food Systems

While some barriers have been removed over the last few years, BIPOC communities, including immigrant, refugee, tribal, and farmworker communities, have not fully participated in USDA Programs. Gaps still exist within the agricultural system that limit access to land acquisition, farming education, and capital for small to mid-scale BIPOC farmers which limits culturally relevant food […]

Strategic Development of the Organic Agriculture Systems Major at WSU Everett

The goal of this project was to develop innovative approaches to delivering the Organic & Sustainable Agriculture major (previously known as the “Organic Agriculture Systems” major) at the new WSU Everett campus. This major focuses on sustainable approaches to agriculture, and its initiation at WSU Everett provides opportunities to train competent, sustainability-focused students for agricultural […]

Participatory On-Farm Agroecological Education: Assessing the Effectiveness of a 14 year Farmer-University Partnership

Recent decades have seen a growing recognition that diverse, small, organic, and sustainable farms have been underserved by standard public agricultural research and extension paradigms (FAO 2011, IAASTD 2009, IPES 2016). Following the publication of the seminal USDA report “A Time to Act” (1998), a state legislative initiative established a Small Farms Program (SFP) at […]

Production Cost Estimation of Establishing a Cider Apple Orchard in Washington State

This project addresses the BIOAg priority of economic analysis by investigating the cost and returns for establishing a cider apple orchard in Washington. The enterprise budget will include specialty varieties used for quality hard ciders, and a comparison of hand harvest with machine harvest using currently available equipment (raspberry harvester). The goal is to support […]

Development of Washington Organic Producer-Level Database on Crop Yields, Sales Value, and Price

The continued growth in the organic food market presents many Washington growers with the difficult decision of whether to switch from conventional production. While a cost and return estimate (enterprise budget) is a fundamental tool for the considering a new enterprise, information beyond a net return estimate for the “typical” producer is more crucial for […]

Agroecology of Urban Food Farming: Engaging scientists, producers and educators in collaborative BIOAg research planning

This proposal outlines the planning phase for the Agroecology of Urban Food Farming(UFF) project (previously submitted) which will analyze the effectiveness of BIOAg practices on soil quality, food security, and socioeconomic resilience in Vancouver and Portland. This is consistent with WSU BIOAg program priorities of soil quality, food system resilience and sustainability in economically challenged […]