Education

NESAWG publications educate the public about our food system and encourage active involvement. Northeast Farms to Food: Understanding Our Region's Food System and the 2004 and 2006 Updates offer a wealth of information about the Northeast food and agriculture system. Other topics include regional approaches to food systems, a study about CSA farms, and more.

Outreach tools such as our NEFOOD-L listserv, our Nefood.org social networking website, database, and special events bring citizens as well as food and agriculture professionals into dialogue and sharing. We keep food system activists and the public up to date with events, news, articles, job postings and more. NESAWG staff offer presentations, host meetings and serve on panels on a wide range of food system issues.

NESAWG’s It Takes a Region conference and annual meeting is the go-to event for the region’s food and farming network. For nearly twenty years, this annual event has drawn hundreds from all sectors.

NESAWG’s Building Advocacy Capacity training program and handbook help member and other organizations clarify and pursue their advocacy goals. Groups can contract with NESAWG for a customized training, or use the workbook on their own.

NESAWG sponsors opportunities for citizen engagement such as the Citizens Panel on the Future of the New England Food System with the University of New Hampshire's Office of Sustainability Programs.

NESAWG fostered the development of buy local and farm-to-institution programs by training over 150 cooperative extension agents and other agriculture professionals to help develop these programs in their communities, in partnership with the Community Food Security Coalition and FoodRoutes Network.

NESAWG reported on how our region’s Land Grant institutions are responding to the “Stakeholder Rule” passed by Congress in 1998. This rule encouraged broader and more transparent roles for stakeholders in the Land Grant university system. NESAWG investigated and suggested ways to strengthen stakeholder-institution engagement. See the Stakeholder Report which is available in hardcopy only by emailing nefood@nesawg.org.