Problem / Solution

Between foreign policy and environmental concerns and energy availability and cost, "green" energy is on everyone's radar these days, and farmers are no exception. To help get the word out about energy conservation strategies and technologies that work for small farms, the Small Farms Program is organizing a series of field days to highlight small farms with successful alternative energy strategies. In practice, the organizers are my supervisor, Violet Stone, and me!

Two weeks ago, I would have outlined Basic Field Day Organizing Strategy thusly:
1. Identify hosts & choose dates
2. Invite speakers
3. Publicize the heck out of the events!

Not so fast! I'm quickly learning that the renewable energy scene in New York is quite a muddle. Individual organizations and people are approaching the issue from every possible angle, but there isn't much communication going on between all the different efforts. No one seems to know what the big picture is. For New York, this state of affairs means that often people are reinventing the wheel instead of improving upon previous efforts. For me, it's difficult to find needed information.

Problem: lack of communication makes finding information difficult. Solution: network! Perhaps nobody knows the big picture, but many people know about energy initiatives in their areas. The most successful strategy I've tried so far was to send an email to all the county Small Farms Educators asking about farms they know of that are using renewable energy. We only need to schedule 3-4 field days, but I'm also creating a database of all the responses. I've gotten leads not only on small farms, but also on renewable energy technology companies and energy education/training programs. I'm sure that I won't learn about all the renewable energy initiatives in the state, but the database will be a good start. It'll be accessible for the Small Farms Energy Work Team to use and grow after I leave, too!