Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

"SARE's mission is to advance, to the whole of American agriculture, innovations that improve profitability, stewardship and quality of life by investing in groundbreaking research and education." ==History==

Beginnings Congress created the Agricultural Productivity Act in response to the need for government establishment of a sustainable agriculture program in 1985. In 1988, the first congressional appropriation was made to the program in the form of $3.9 million. In 1991, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dedicated $1 million to a joint EPA and USDA subproject of SARE entitled Agriculture in Concert with the Environment. In the late 1990s, national attention began to be brought to sustainable and organic agriculture methods. The program began to shift its focus towards marketing, local production, and the use of efficient, renewable energy sources on farms. The Secretary of Agriculture was influenced by the program to issue a memorandum pledging to make sustainability a key focus of all USDA policies and programs. In 2008, SARE celebrated its 20th anniversary. To that date, the program had funded 3,700 projects and was operating with an annual budget of approximately $19 million. ==The Four Regions==

North Central The North Central region of SARE includes: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Northeast The Northeast region of SARE includes: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. South The Southern region of SARE includes: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Virginia. West The Western region of SARE includes: Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. ==Evaluation of the program's effectiveness==

As of 2008, 64% of farmers who had received SARE grants stated that they had been able to earn increased profits as a result of the funding they received and utilization of sustainable agriculture methods. Additionally, 79% of grantees said that they had experienced a significant improvement in soil quality through the environmental friendly, sustainable methods that they were utilizing on their farms. ==References==