This team supported the Great Lakes Basin Comprehensive Farm Planning Network to deepen and strengthen outreach and organizing among farm groups. The team also increased the number of whole farm plans completed in the basin. The Network used the team’s support to evaluate and educate farmers and agency personnel about the different types of whole farm planning models—it published stories about whole farm plans in six states and Ontario.

Two new issues of the Network’s newsletter, The Whole Farm Planner, and a booklet, Whole Farm Planning at Work: Success Stories of Ten Farms, were published and distributed to over 1000 farmers and interested individuals in the basin. The communications and outreach activities aimed at both network members and non-network members will help turn education on whole farm planning into the adoption of new farm-site practices. The project estimated that a total of 8,230 farmers became involved in some level of whole farm planning as a result of their connection to the network.