Meeting & Agendas

Savannah opened by inviting all attendees to update the group on the status of their respective operations/institutions. Pati with the Bastrop Cattle Company stated that they are selling their usual quantity of beef and finishing up the calving season; they’ve had a particularly young herd this year and have been dealing with a lot of birth issues. Wet weather has complicated matters since it makes it more difficult to get to their animals, as has the fact that there is not enough large animal veterinarian support in the area. Discussion ensued on the reasons for declining numbers of large animal vets. Pati has also been named a ranching representative for the board of the Colorado Brazos Basin Authority. This group works oversees the administration of grant monies for research into water issues and advises the state water board. Currently they are focusing on issues related to water runoff. Joy with the Sustainable Food Center then addressed the committee; their fiscal year ends on June 30, so they are primarily focused on planning for the upcoming year. Their group is undergoing some strategic changes as an organization, primarily a shift in focus from direct service work to larger systemic issues. Any service work done in the future will be related to the production side of things. Edwin then spoke; he is just back from a conference on Power Procurement and the Good Food Purchasing Program; this event addresses how large public institutions can do their food purchasing in a responsible way. Twenty groups from around the country attended, representing $1 billion in purchasing power; the hope is that together they can exert downward pressure on the food supply chain to bring about sustainable change in the way food is produced and delivered. His office has also been working at the local level with the University of Texas, the Austin Independent School District, and the Austin Convention Center to improve their food purchasing systems. Finally, his office is working on a Food Policy Scan – staffers are compiling a list of all state, county, city policies that impact the food system. Their goal is to create a searchable, cross-referenced document to aid generally in policy research and more specifically in modifying and improving City of Austin policies. Sue with the Texas Center for Local Food continues to work on expanding their market size; their biggest focus right now is on building the Elgin Local Food Center (they need to raise $800,000 by September to access local matching funds). They have been invited to apply to the Moody Foundation for funding as well. One interesting new project involves consulting with a local housing development to make recommendations for edible planting to improve food access for their future residents. Also, Sue has been invited to be on the advisory board for the national Good Food conference in New Orleans next March. Hilary with Natural Resources Conservation Service is currently busy administering programs and funding applications for assistance on conservation work. She recently attended a Soil Health conference and workshop in Victoria, where they toured some row crop farms and a grazing operation; high-intensity, low-frequency grazing strategies were among the topics discussed. She would be interested to see some of these strategies applied locally. On a related note: the group discussed different ideas on how to bring together all parties involved with or interested in local food production (mailing lists, Facebook pages, etc.) – all agreed that improving communication and sharing knowledge and resources locally would be beneficial for everyone. Marissa with ACC Sustainable Agriculture CE program then updated the group on farm operations; major projects included putting up more fencing for the sheep, completing the lambing season, and focusing vegetable efforts on a small area by the greenhouse. They are also working on improving soil conditions and composting and have planted a hedgerow. Nicole with Texas State University spoke about their composting program which collects all food waste from the cafeteria and composts it; they are also researching recipes to influence pest control and nutrient density. The TSU student farm, which had ceased operations for a while and was subsequently moved to a location in the Hill Country, is a focus right now as well. The soil there is not optimal so the department is working on ways to amend and improve these conditions. A colleague is working on the annual Small Producers Initiative coming in August. Rob with Coyote Creek Farm then updated the committee on their operations; they are preparing for summer and making moves to stay as efficient as possible. Alex at UTRGV joined in via video chat from Miami, where he is attending the International Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture workshop. The UTRGV program deals with sub-tropical agriculture research and practices and is especially interested in helping local farmers transition to more sustainable methods. They are currently working on field trials related to cover crops and tillage for large scale operations in both vegetable production and dryland grain farming. Alex has also been trying to build their program; they have recently added a new Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems (with four concentrations) as well as a new Master’s program in Agricultural, Environmental, and Sustainability Sciences. He and Savannah have been working closely to align both program’s lower level coursework. On a related note: they have just completed an extensive two year study showing that agriculture-related careers are one of the best ways to achieve upward mobility for people in the Rio Grande Valley. Alex reiterated how pleased he is to be a member of the group and looks forward to working together to achieve common goals. Pati was curious to know more about the study regarding agriculture jobs (who commissioned it, which areas of the state or nation did it cover, etc.). Alex said that it was done by an organization called “Jobs for the Future”; the Rio Grande Valley was one of 10 regions selected by the grant to study. As far as Alex knows, they have not studied other regions of the state.

Savannah gave a status update on the proposed award programs: the two programs have been approved by ACC’s Curriculum and Programs Committee and the ACC Board of Trustees and are currently in the office of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board awaiting approval. The next step will be to submit the programs to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for accreditation. She passed around the final copies of the approved AAS and AS programs (haven’t been many changes since the Advisory Committee last saw them). Savannah has also recently served on the THECB advisory committee for the Agriculture Business and Management field of study, part of the their efforts to streamline articulation between two-year and four-year institutions. Savannah mentioned that she’d like to shift some courses (Entomology and Soil Science, for example) from a Workforce Education designation to an accredited Academic Course Guide course; she found out through her work with this advisory committee that those courses used to be accredited classes, but that since several four-year institutions stopped accepting them for transfer they fell out of the ACGM. She would like to try and gain support to move them back to the ACGM for inclusion in the ACC accredited degree programs.

Marissa noted that a lot of the classes offered under the AAS program are the same as classes currently offered in the CE program – it would make sense to combine efforts and offer only one section that would cover both types of students. The impact to the currently offered CE certificate would be minimal, and the change is anticipated to happen in early 2021 (most of the applicable classes wouldn’t start until that time). The question was raised about how the expenses for the professor would be handled, through CE or through the accredited side; Brandon indicated that the accredited side would pay all personnel costs.

Savannah outlined her goals for the upcoming year, including those from the requirements of the NIFA grant. First off, the grant requires that ACC develop 14 new credit courses in this field of study; there are currently 12 new courses so Savannah would like input on the other two classes to be developed and perhaps offered as electives (on a side note: these two new courses would only need to be approved by the ACC Curriculum and Programs Committee). Another goal would be to enroll at least six to twelve students this fall, and to retain 50% of those students into the spring semester. The goal would be to serve approximately 40 students by the end of Spring 2020. The next courses to be offered (after the Intro to Sustainable Agriculture and Horticulture) would be the Animal Science, Agronomy, and Soil and Water Conservation classes. All twelve new classes are now in the ACC catalog system, although only the Intro to Sustainable Agriculture and Horticulture classes are available for enrollment. Committee members wondered what outreach efforts had been made to local high schools; Savannah indicated that she had visited with Bastrop High School and Elgin High School but that it was hard to get a read from those visits on who would actually be interested in pursuing a career in agriculture (i.e. how much a given high school student’s agricultural interest level is tied to cultural norms, etc.). ACC will continue to develop relationships with these schools. The question was also raised about potential recruitment in more urban areas (Travis County, for example), since students interested in agricultural careers aren’t necessarily from rural areas. Savannah agreed that Travis County and other more urban areas would definitely be a target, but that Elgin’s somewhat remote location had proven to be a bit of a hindrance to student recruitment (at least as seen in the CE program). Brandon mentioned that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if the fall program launch was “light” in order to give Savannah a chance to get her feet wet with teaching on top of her other duties. Nicole mentioned the teacher certification program at Texas State as a possible source of recruitment help, as agriculture teachers going out into the workforce all over the state could spread the word about the ACC programs. Scouting organizations might be another avenue of recruitment. Dr. Jaimie Davis from the UT School of Nutrition, who is starting a school garden, might also be a good person to bring alongside ACC’s efforts.

Savannah stated that there are grant-funded scholarships available for the degree programs ($1000 per semester per student); these would ideally go to Hispanic or other students from underserved groups. The grant also asks that a Career Day be provided, and Savannah thought that the Harvest Festival in October would be an ideal way to tie it to another event already taking place. If there are any advisory committee members who would like to help with this event, please let Savannah know (the date is TBD). Finally, the grant also provides for several $1000 stipends to allow students to work a summer internship, but there might not be any viable summer positions in Texas due to the heat. Savannah was interested to find out if the grant would allow the monies to be used for a project during the semester, or perhaps at a summer internship in a cooler climate. The internships could start as early as next summer and the committee members agreed to be thinking about potential positions for that time frame. Brandon also suggested that Savannah might get some leads on internship opportunities through her USDA fellowship sessions this summer.

For discussion, Savannah presented a list of possible courses to add to the catalog to reach the 14 required by the NIFA grant. Computers in Agriculture was one that seemed to be favored in her exposure with THECB; Pati mentioned that it could include anything from spreadsheets to use of drones for herd monitoring. Another course of interest might be the Range Management and Forage Pasture Management, although she and Marissa have had a hard time finding someone to teach these types of courses. The instructor for these courses would need to have a bachelor’s degree in an agriculture related field and three years of work experience. The group is welcome to keep this list and comment at our next meeting.

• Next meeting scheduled for Monday, September 30th at 1:30pm – 3:30pm.