Regional Initiatives

The NCR-SARE listening sessions serve as an opportunity to bring together people with differing viewpoints within a community of place to share their perspectives of sustainability and agriculture. NCR-SARE’s listening sessions are conducted by the Circle of Sustainability, a committee of NCR-SARE’s Administrative Council. 

Reports resulting from the listening sessions serve as a respected information source on the status and prospects of sustainable agriculture and as such guide the Administrative Council that directs the NCR-SARE competitive grants and other programs.

In 2007, NCR-SARE released its first Diversity Call for Proposals. Future NCR-SARE initiatives will encourage more participation of members of limited resource and socially disadvantaged groups.

A growing group of people are interested in getting more local foods into the hands of more eaters -- and providing additional marketing channels for farmers to produce sustainable, local foods. To explore new ideas for creating local food systems on a grander scale, the NCR-SARE’s Professional Development Program (PDP) hosted a 2-day conference in Madison, WI, September 28-29, 2010.

To bring awareness of, recognize, and pay tribute to those who have made significant contributions to NCR-SARE, the NCR SARE Administrative Council has created an NCR-SARE Hero Recognition.   

In September 2012, NCR-SARE’s Professional Development Program began a two-year professional development and training initiative around topics of bioenergy, climate, and connecting issues such as soil carbon.