Welcome, Krystle - Is your sustainable ag career oriented to education, research, industry, or non-profit outreach, or is your career oriented to making a living thru market farming? These tracks effect the kind of resources that people can suggest. Market farming and organic farming have advanced exponentially in the last 15 years. Farmer training programs and apprenticeships can help you get your own organic farm up and running with a greater degree of confidence. Twenty years ago hardly any land-grant college offered extensive practical training in actual farming skills. The assumption was the students will either return to their family farm, they will work for industry, or they will pursue advanced degrees for careers in teaching and research. Nowadays that has changed and a number ag colleges offer farmer skills training thru student farms and CSA programs. Did you want to read the papers and books of key players to learn their philosophy and approach, or did you want to try and catch them as a conference speaker? Sustainable agriculture has grown so much there are literally hundreds of people who can help you get oriented. The sustainable ag and organic farming confereces are a good place to meet people and see what's going on. Here's a few starting points for background reading and pondering on sustainable ag: Resource Guide to Organic & Sustainable Vegetable Production ATTRA - National Sustainable Ag Info Service __2.3 Literature on Organic Agriculture __2.4 Modern Literature on Organic Farming __2.5 Literature on Sustainable Agriculture __2.6 Literature on Alternative Farming Systems http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/vegetable-guide.pdf Alternative Farming Systems Information Center National Ag Library __Sustainable Agriculture Web Resource __Sustainable Agriculture: Definitions and Terms. 1999 __Tracing the Evolution of Organic/Sustainable Agriculture http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/pubsindex.shtml Future Horizons: Recent Literature in Sustainable Agriculture Univ of Nebraska-Lincoln, Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems http://ianrwww.unl.edu/ianr/csas/extvol6.htm Best regards, Steve Diver http://www.attra.ncat.org Krystle Chung wrote: Hello everyone,   ***************************************************** To unsubscribe from SANET-MG: 1- Visit http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html
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