Return to table of contents

At last! The guide you have been waiting for, whether you knew it or not. It has been over two years since we began compiling this information. We started by asking farmers and ranchers what resources, organizations, and suppliers they rely on to be successful, and then added, filled in details, and searched for more. We also talked to people at government agencies and non-profit organizations. This booklet is what we came up with: hopefully it will help direct farmers, ranchers, and the people that work with them to helpful information, useful tools, and new ideas.

Initially, we thought we would also include information on sustainable farming practices, things like crop rotation, cover cropping, management intensive grazing, organic production. But that could be an entire series of books, and many have already been written. So instead we will have to direct you to page 23, where we have eight pages of titles for you to get started on your research. We are working to compile these books in our own library and make them available to producers and educators around the state.

This guide isn’t complete, but hopefully it’s a good start. We have already been putting it to use in the ASAN office, referring callers to things as diverse as beekeeping organizations (p. 14), feed suppliers (p. 32), and organic certifiers (p. 20). We hope that you find it helpful as well.

What’s missing? We haven’t included information for consumers, like places to buy local foods and all the organizations that promote healthy eating and food security. We’re saving that for another guide, so keep an eye out for it.

This is a work in progress - we could have spent two more years compiling even more information, but why hoard what we’ve got already? We will regularly update the version on our website. As we print newer editions, we expect the number of pages will increase, so please let us know if we need to add something to the list.

Thank you to the many farmers and educators for all their input. Thanks also to E’licia Chaverest and Ericka Soumare from the Small Farms Research Center and Dove Stackhouse from Sand Mountain CSA, who helped research and compile the information.

We hope that this is the guide you’ve been looking for, whether you’re a new producer, curious about different farming systems or concepts, or just plain curious. If you like what you see, please consider joining ASAN - we’ve got plenty of other projects and would appreciate your support in getting them done!

Karen Wynne, Executive Director, and Russell Stackhouse, President

Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network

 

Duncan Chembezi, Director

Small Farms Research Center, Alabama A&M University