The impetus for Climate Change and Agriculture: Promoting Practical and Profitable Responses arose from work initiated by Adam Markham, executive director of Clean Air - Cool Planet and Professor David Wolfe of the Horticulture Department at Cornell University, in conjunction with the American Society for Horticultural Science, for a symposium at the centennial meeting of the society, in Providence, RI, in September, 2003.

Entitled Impacts of Climate Change on Horticulture, the day-long session brought together, for the first time to talk about climate change, internationally recognized experts from a variety of disciplines related to agriculture and horticulture. The consensus of the presenters and the reaction panel was that further steps needed to be taken to make American farmers aware of the issue and the steps necessary to mitigate climate change and to adapt to changes already occurring and certain to occur in the future.

After a survey of state Cooperative Extension Service offerings on the issue, it was determined that an effort be made to encourage CES agents and educators to help inform farmers. Under a grant from the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, lead by the Tellus Institute in Boston, working with Clean Air - Cool Planet, and in cooperation with Vernon Grubinger at the University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Professor Wolfe, a pilot education program was completed. That program included testing of teaching tools, two attitude and awareness surveys, and a half-day educational sessions for CES personnel, organized by Professor Wolfe, as part of the annual meeting of NYCES in Ithaca in October of 2004.

Using lessons learned and data from the Hunt grant surveys and the educational sessions, the team of Grubinger and Wolfe, along with Erika Spanger-Siegfried from Tellus and Bill Burtis from Clean Air - Cool Planet, applied to the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program of the USDA for funding to hold trainings for CES staff in the Northeast USDA district.

The two trainings being held, in Baltimore and Hartford, for the Climate Change and Agriculture: Promoting Practical and Profitable Responses program are, we hope, the beginning of continuing efforts to help individuals, organizations, institutions, and communities involved in agriculture avoid the worst that climate change could mean, and successfully cope with what is unavoidable.