The National Strawberry Sustainability Initiative: From Laboratory to Field

The National Strawberry Sustainability Initiative program was managed by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Center for Agricultural and Rural Sustainabilty and funded by a gift of the Walmart Foundation.   In Phase 1 of the program, emphasis was placed on moving research from the laboratory to demonstration.  Goals of Phase 1 were to increase the local, regional and seasonal availability of strawberries, to reduce chemical, energy and water inputs in production, to reduce post-harvest product loss and improve produce safety, to increase economic value of the crop through the supply chain, and to construct meaningful measurements of sustainabilty.  Twenty grants were awarded a total of $2.6m.  Projects were required to participate in significant outreach and engage in social media.  A Phase 2 of the program was initiated in 2014 with the goal of moving sustainable strawberry production from demonstration to practice engaging growers and stakeholders in the supply chain to achieve sustainabilty goals of the program and increase local, regional and seasonal availability of strawberries in the US.  In phase 2, $850,000 was awarded.  Results of Phase 1 and projects for Phase 2will be presented.  Project results and progress can be found at the various program locations:  http://strawberry.uark.edu/;  http://wordpress.uark.edu/sberries/; https://www.facebook.com/StrawberrySustainabilityInitiative;  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC55G_p_-ZM58goZtu_OYEtA; and http://nssi.smugmug.com/.