With support from the Connect Extension Foundation, through the New Technologies for Agriculture Education project, the use of online technology as a means of conducting a community forum was tested in April 2021. Professional development on how to conduct an online forum was conducted in July 2021. Associated videos and two E-pubs will be available through Connect Extension, the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, and the University of Maryland Extension.
7. National Issues Forums (NIF)
This is a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally sponsored public forums to consider public policy issues. It is rooted in the simple notion that people need to come together to reason and talk - to deliberate about everyday problems. More information about NIF can be found at https://www.nifi.org/ Conducted by a variety of organizations, including Cooperative Extension, the forum offers citizens the opportunity to join together to deliberate, to make choices with others about ways to approach complex issues, and to work toward creating reasoned public judgment. Forums focus on an issue such as health care and provide a way for people of diverse views and experiences to seek a shared understanding of the problem and to search for actionable common ground. Forums are led by trained, neutral moderators, and use an issue discussion guide that frames the issue by presenting the overall problem and then three or four broad approaches to the problem. Forum participants work through the issue by considering each approach, examining what option appeals to them, and identifying the costs, consequences, and tradeoffs that would be incurred in following that approach.
NIF Forum topics are not specific to farm audiences but can be a tool to engage the broader community in deliberative discussion. National Issues Forums topics related to health issues include:
• How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care We Need?
• How Should We Ensure that People Have the Food They Need?
• What Should We Do about the Opioid Epidemic?
• What Should We Do When Alcohol & Drug Use Become a Problem to Society?
Recently, a new issue guide that could bring a range of participants in the food system together is titled, Land of Plenty. The issue guide, post forum questionnaire and other information is located at: https://www.colorado.edu/event/tedxcu/2017/04/10/land-plenty-nif-issue-guide
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