Courses and Curricula

These in-depth training manuals, produced by the University of California Santa Cruz, help instructors conduct hands-on teaching in organic farming and gardening, direct marketing, and small-farm business planning.

Includes curriculum materials, extension bulletins, resource lists, and a greenhouse energy model that were developed with the intention that educators can use the materials in full or part to deliver programming on energy management and conservation for greenhouse production.

Provides an outline of how management recommendations are developed and how a ground-based active sensor can be used. It contains 24 case studies (exercises) ranging from using historical techniques to overcome production barrier to calculating soil organic carbon maintenance requirements.  A CD containing data sets is included with the book.

This Extension educator curriculum focuses on successful strategies for increasing the adoption of sustainable practices on reservation lands. 

One of the most comprehensive and adaptable curricula in the country for training natural resource professionals to, in turn, teach small-acreage landowners how to care for their soil, air and water while maximizing the land’s value.

"Direct Marketing of Specialty Food Products" is designed to provide business owners with strategies and tools to help sell directly to consumers. The program includes video interviews of food entrepreneurs who are using social media tools to market and sell their product online.

Women farmland owners are a vital segment of the conservation partnership across the country. According to Women Caring for the Land, if Midwestern conservation partners can more effectively serve this segment of landowners before the land transitions again over the next decade, the positive impact on our land, water and air will be tremendous.

This curriculum manual is intended to give users an overview of the rationale and methodology for targeting outreach to non-operator women landowners, particularly those 65 and older who now control a significant percentage of US farmland. It also provides a number of conservation demonstration activities, which range from very simple to more complex, both in concept and execution, including cover crops.

This software program calculates the annual difference between a farm's imported and exported nutrients (N, P and K). Teaching guides and instructions for the tool's use are also available.

A collection of online curricula for K-12 youth education in sustainable agriculture.

Course on how to incorporate principles and practices of sustainable agriculture in training for southern region ag professionals, with a focus on integrated pest management.