The goal? Sustain Minnesota's natural resources and rural communities. The players? A talented lineup of partners across the state. The University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDPs) are proud to team up with a diverse group of community partners throughout Minnesota and those positioned within the University playing field who offer a wide range of expertise.
RSDP partnerships with the College of Design (CDES) and College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) provide critical connections between Minnesota’s rural communities and the University. Researchers from these colleges lend the know-how needed to tackle the challenges that leadership in rural Minnesota have identified as priorities in their regions. In return, working with Minnesota’s rural leadership gives researchers an opportunity to see their work and expertise play out in the real-world. This game plan has led to the advancement of many exciting projects in all corners of Minnesota. Countless experts and individual partners have contributed momentum to these efforts, read about a few team MVPs, below. `
Richard Graves
Richard Graves is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Building Research and an Associate Professor in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on regenerative design, an approach that aims to work with or mimic natural ecosystem processes. He believes this fundamentally new approach is required of architecture across scales to achieve sustainable and resilient urban development. Graves feels that the relationship between CDES and RSDP has been rewarding for all involved.
“RSDP projects provide fantastic opportunities for students and researchers to provide their expertise to communities and co-create impactful projects with a range of stakeholders,” says Graves.
The range of projects between CDES and RSDP fit into three goal areas. The first is work developing metrics to track the value created by sustainable and regenerative designs. Second is efforts that specifically focus on building solutions to provide sustainability to all communities. Lastly, creating regenerative and resilient communities not only to be sustainable, but also to respond and adapt to a dynamic global environment.
Hikaru Peterson
Hikaru Peterson is a University of Minnesota researcher and professor. She teaches food systems, food marketing economics, and agricultural markets and policy at CFANS. She started her position with the University in 2015, but her connection with RSDP goes back even further. In her previous role at Kansas State University, Peterson was involved in several rural grocery projects, one of which was in collaboration with a grocery store in Randall, MN and RSDP. Since joining CFANS, she has worked with RSDP on several projects, including Rural Grocery Survey, Farm to Rural Grocery to Wholesale, Somali grocer-led healthy food intervention in St. Cloud and Statewide Cooperative Partnership for Local and Regional Markets.
Today Peterson is working with RSDP to initiate a new project on improving food access among immigrant communities in the rural Midwest.
“Since joining CFANS, RSDP has been my go-to partner whenever my research involved rural food system issues,” says Peterson. “We share a similar vision for how our work can help improve rural livelihood related to food and agricultural practices. RSDP has a well-regarded outreach network rooted in Greater Minnesota that parallels to none. I also very much appreciate the RSDP's can-do, ready-to-help and collaborative attitude.”
Source: umn.edu
Photo Credit: GettyImages-Ron_ThomasE+
Categories: Minnesota, Education, Rural Lifestyle