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Published November 2022
“Wiconi Waste Resistance Farm: a Lakota agroforestry and permaculture demonstration farm” Michele Tyon, an Oglala Lakota woman from Porcupine, SD, is a landowner and great grandmother who owns Wiconi Waste Resistance Farm. She is regenerating her land through agroforestry and permaculture practices implemented after becoming a SARE grant recipient. She is focusing on food sovereignty by growing her own food and preserving her culture by reintroducing endangered native plants and medicines that were used by the Lakota people for centuries. Michelle is helping the elders with similar land grow food through demonstrations, social media, and sharing crops. “No money, no problem. How to build a roller crimper on a budget.” Ryan Schmid has been a research scientist with Ecdysis Foundation since 2018. He credits his upbringing on a family farm for honing his interests to work with farmers and ranchers to develop practical solutions to their problems. When not building roller crimpers, his time is spent investigating services provided by arthropods in agroecosystems. “SARE Project Update: Enhancing producer resources to build small meat processing capacity and local meat demand” Dr. Amanda Blair received her PhD from Purdue University in 2007 where she focused her research in the area of meat science. In the same year she joined the faculty at South Dakota State University where she is currently a Professor in Animal Science with a research and Extension appointment. Dr. Blair’s research is focused on understanding the effects of pre- and post-natal management strategies on growth, body composition and meat quality of beef cattle. Her Extension programming is focused on connecting producers with the processing and product sides of the industry as well as enhancing consumer understanding of meat production and products. In addition to her work with SDSU, Amanda ranches with her family near Sturgis, SD raising and marketing Angus cattle. SARE Featured Speaker “Start Small, Dream Big” Eliza Blue, Plainsong Farm & Fiber Eliza Blue is a folk musician, writer, environmental advocate, and rancher residing in one of the most remote counties in the contiguous United States, Perkins County, South Dakota. She writes a weekly column about rural life, Little Pasture on the Prairie, that is carried by 17 different print publications, writes and produces seasonal audio “postcards” from her ranch for South Dakota Public Broadcasting and Prairie Public Radio, and released her first book, Accidental Rancher, in 2020. Her writing on rural life has also been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, and she is regular columnist for The Daily Yonder, a national publication for and about rural people. Blue’s latest project, a traveling concert television show for PBS that celebrates rural culture & arts called Wish You Were Here with Eliza Blue, was recently nominated for a Midwest-Emmy, and is now filming its third season.
This segment has been funded under a Conservation Collaboration Cooperative Agreement NR226740XXXXC008 between the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and South Dakota Specialty Producers Association (SDSPA), to promote sustainable agriculture practices and environmental stewardship. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA or NRCS.