for Florida.. The International Programs faculty submitted a white paper to the administration in January, 1980, supporting the establishment of a farming systems project at Florida. The paper represented a summary of thinking about *how Florida might capture experience from international work with small farmers to address the State's concerns for this client group as well as for low energy systems* using a farming systems approach. Departments expressing interest in development of such a project included Agronomy, Anthropology, Animal Science, Entymology and Nematology, Food and Resource Economics, Forestry, Vegetable Crops and Preventive Veterinary Medicine.
Hildebrand taught his course in farming systems methodology during Spring, 1980. Gqeorge Clou, Dwight Schmidt and James Dean, who later played key roles in the administration and/or 6p-eration of the North Florida Project, were in the class. A preliminary Sondeo (survey) of Alachua County farms was performed by the class,, providing evidence for the effectiveness of the method. Meanwhile, Live Oak Acricultural Research Sttinwas mentioned as a possible research base for work in north Florida, where small farms were known to be numerous.
By April, 1980, major components of a farming systems project at Florida were tentatively identified by involved faculty. They included: 1) a Domestic FSR/E Project, working on problems of small farmers, scarce resource problems and energy technologies which affect commercial producers and smaller ones alike; 2) an international training center teaching students and visiting administrative and planning personnel how to conduct FSR/E work, and providing consultancy to governments and development agencies; 3) involvement in international projects, including teaching FSR/E courses in foreign countries.
During the following su--er, Art )_ans-n coordinated a full-scale survey of Alachua County's smaller scale farmers, expanding upon Hildebrand's class' farming systems work. During this time, department chairmen Charles Dean (Agronomy), Don Maynard (Vegetable Crops) and Leo Polopolous (FRED) agreed to the FSR/E Project concept in a formal memorandum to Vice-President of Agricultural Affairs Tafertiller, Dean of Extension Woeste, and Dean of Research Wood, provided budgetary problems could be negotiated. They proposed that Hildebrand coordinate the domestic FSR/E Project, joined by Edwin French, then working in Bolivia. The FSR/E domestic team would begin work in Alachua County, concentrating on problems such as vegetable marketing, intercropping systems, and minimum tillage systems. These areas were already of concern to the three departments. FSR/Z would coordinate relationships between the supporting departments.
In October, 1980, Hildebrand offered a *Strategy for
Developing a Farming Systems Research and Extension Project in IEkS." The paper listed three objectives for a domestic FSR/E Project. They were l1) determine the appropriateness of FSR/E methodology to help solve problems of small, limited resource or 'left-behind' farmers under Florida (and U.S.) agricultural conditions; 2) to the extent the methodology can be changed to fit domestic conditions or improved for foreign locations,