- I've worked with SARE for 15 years.
The investment that SARE makes
in research in the farming community,
it's just unbelievable.
- As both a farmer and as an
advocate of local food systems,
SARE, to me, means that we are the engine
that helps provide support
around sustainability and agriculture
for small and large farmers.
- SARE's investment in us
early on really did provide us
with that ability to
not only do systems research,
but look at systems change.
SARE does that for communities
all over the country.
SARE's mission is to advance
to the whole of American
agriculture, an innovative agriculture
that is profitable, that preserves
our land and water resources,
and that provides quality of life
for farmers and ranchers,
their communities,
and society as a whole.
- [Heather] SARE looks at
the real issues that farmers
are faced with today,
and invests in the people
that can help them solve those issues.
- [Beth] I would say a cornerstone
of our grant making approach
is that farmers and ranchers are central
to all of the grants that we offer.
From the initial farmer rancher grants
through to the larger research grants.
So researchers at institutions
need to have farmers
and ranchers working with them
with the idea development,
assigning the research,
and helping to communicate
the research results.
- SARE really puts a lot
of emphasis on the impact.
You need to show that your
work is going to impact
what's happening on the
ground, what the farmers
are doing in the field.
- Research does no good
if it sits on a shelf.
We have an education arm in SARE Outreach
that makes a wealth of
materials available online,
based mostly on grant research.
- What I think is important
is not only that SARE
funds that type of research,
but that we let that research
get down to the people
who need it and can use
it and incorporate it
in their farming operations,
or whatever they're doing
In local food systems.
- Opportunities that SARE provides,
was just night and day
because our farming
methods after that grant
have 100% changed.
- SARE was the little
engine that got us started.
- My interest has been
taking the innovative,
cutting edge work that SARE
does to see how that could be
integrated into what we do
in the agribusiness world.
- One of the precepts of sustainability,
and SARE especially,
is that farmers learn from other farmers.
Those growers are the ones that can tweak
and understand and say
this really works this way.
That's that sort of human interaction
that passes through, it's
what SARE was built upon.
- There is no one vision
for sustainability
in the United States.
Every region, every farm
has a different vision.
Our job is to listen to farmers
and listen to stakeholders in the region,
and give them back the
information they need
to make their own decisions
about what's sustainable.
- I got in the cattle
business because I love it.
My dad loved it.
There is a personal
satisfaction knowing that
I am making a lot of
people healthy and happy
with what I provide for 'em.
- Part of my goal has always
been to keep farmers farming.
To make sure they're thriving,
and SARE helps me do that.
- SARE's core values are listening
to farmers and ranchers and really getting
a sense of what are the big
challenges they are facing,
whether that's pests and
disease, or soil conditioning,
or environmental issues
in their community.
Never being satisfied with just
what those issues are today,
but what will they be
a generation from now.
