Contact:  Gigi Berardi, gigi.berardi@wwu.edu, Rebekah Green, rebekah.green@wwu.edu.

BELLINGHAM - Western Washington University's Institute for Global and Community Resilience, a program within the Huxley College of the Environment, has been awarded a $140,000 grant titled "Enhancing Resilience of Small and Medium-Sized Farms Through Extreme Event-Based Scenario Planning" by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The grant provides for partnering with farmers in three counties (Whatcom, Skagit, and San Juan), as well as farm advocacy and educational organizations in the region, to develop a ranked set of farm resiliency indicators - a set of measureable indices to test the ability of the region's family farms to withstand four likely events or rapid changes: global climate change, seasonal flooding, urban/rural encroachment in farming areas, and uncertain energy prices. The final product, a Farm Resiliency Business Planning Tool, will be available for use within the region and beyond.  

"This is the Institute's first large grant, and we're excited that it's sufficiently multidisciplinary to involve other departments and programs on campus, as well as other Huxley faculty," said Institute director and WWU Professor of Environmental Studies Gigi Berardi.  "Diverse food systems, family farms, farm business viability, community self-sufficiency is something we all can support."

"Acknowledging and understanding threats and disasters to such systems will help us in building resilience. It will help us in improving prosperity for farmers and farm suppliers, but also in increasing food security - knowing how much and from where our food is coming from - for consumers."

Berardi is collecting additional information overseas in the next few months as she conducts fieldwork in eastern Kenya, the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, and in central Italy, at a Center for Civil Protection at the University of Florence.

"There is much opportunity to partner with colleagues at similar institutions, the threats - urban encroachment, development pressures, uncertain costs of production, and unfavorable swings in weather and climate - are facing farmers everywhere. Farmers need to prepare for such uncertainty, and consumers need to support production that is appropriately valued. It's time that farming actually counted - something farmers have been saying all along," she said.

For more information on this grant or on the work of the Institute for Global and Community Resilience, contact Berardi at gigi.berardi@wwu.edu or IGCR Research Associate and Grant Manager Rebekah Green at rebekah.green@wwu.edu.

WWU's Huxley College of the Environment is one of the oldest environmental colleges in the nation and a recognized national leader in producing the next generation of environmental stewards. The College's academic programs reflect a broad view of the physical, biological, social and cultural world. This innovative and interdisciplinary approach makes Huxley unique. The College has earned international recognition for the quality of its programs.

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