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"After decades of working with farmers and ranchers across the country, University of Missouri economist John Ikerd wanted a way to convince others that what he was seeing - thriving family-run operations making a profit, working in harmony with the environment and helping to improve their communities - was no fluke. To him, the 'new American farm' was a place where producers considered the ramifications of their practices on their financial, environmental and community goals, truly making farming and ranching a feasible, even noble way of living. Ikerd wanted to share their stories and dreamed of a project where he could plunk a stack of farm profiles in front of every skeptic he encountered and tell them that those farmers were finding ways to make sustainable agriculture work and, more broadly, were redefining the American farm.

Ikerd began working with former New Farm magazine editor Craig Cramer to develop a framework for the project. Cramer drew up a simple, yet thorough architecture for the profiles and began assembling a long list of potential farmers to feature before taking on a new assignment at Cornell University. The SARE program took Ikerd's vision and Cramer's groundwork and got to work."

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