The Cornell Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI) presented in November its annual Innovator Awards to three successful collaborative programs in New York state: Community Links, the Community Plant-Food Project and the Small-Scale Food Processing and Sustainable Agriculture project.

Selected by the CaRDI steering committee, the programs and projects exhibited innovations that clearly contribute to community and rural development. These programs, in their own way, provided research-based information to policy-makers and community leaders, says Eric J. Lerner, associate director of CaRDI. He explained that these projects expand collaborative relationships among scientific disciplines, between research, extension and teaching.

In addition to the Innovator Awards, CaRDI presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Paul Eberts, Cornell professor of rural sociology. Patricia Pollak, chair of the CaRDI Steering Committee and associate professor in the department of Policy Analysis and Management, presented the award to Eberts, who has retired as CaRDI's director.

Descriptions of the award-winning programs:

-- Community Links, a project developed by Suzanne Motheral, an extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County.

This project brings rural communities together to assess and develop long-term goals. For example, the program shows communities how to avoid piecemeal approaches to solving problems and develop long-term solutions, which is what Community Links is doing in the communities of Groton, Caroline and Ulysses.

"The communities see where they want to go in the future, look for a bigger picture and ask how they will get there in 10 years," says Motheral. "Communities say they want a viable downtown area, and to keep up a neighborly feeling. They also want places for young people to get jobs and stay in the community. They want to establish a high quality of life. It's a very comprehensive program."

-- Community Plant Food Project, a workshop developed by Ardyth H. Gillespie, Cornell associate professor of nutritional science. This workshop describes the role of the community food systems in rural community development and illustrates how urban markets are important in rural development and sustaining small farms. Gillespie says community-based research, through partnerships, is important for developing goals needed to foster a sustainable food system that at the same time contributes to environmentally sound rural and urban development.

-- Small-Scale Food Processing and Sustainable Agriculture, a project developed by Gilbert Gillespie, Jr., Cornell senior research associate in rural sociology, and Duncan Hilchey, senior extension associate in Cornell's Farming Alternatives Program. Small-scale food processing has become a strategy for farmers to capture more of the consumer dollar and develop more employment opportunities. But it has resulted in special problems for farmers, such as having to order supplies in low quantities, obtaining business liability insurance and not having a voice at the table during regulatory developments. To address problems unique to small-scale food processors in New York state, this project has begun to develop an association of processors.

For further information on the awards, the award winners, or CaRDI, please contact Eric Lerner at (607) 255-2833.