Alyssa Steward
alyssastewart12@gmail.com

Project Team: Greetings! We are a team of researchers from the Food and Health Lab at Montana State University working on a large interdisciplinary research project known as WAFERx (Water Agriculture Food Energy Research Nexus). The WAFERx project explores linkages between food, water, energy, biodiversity, and social services in the context of environmental change. Our team includes researchers with expertise in the areas of agriculture, food systems, engineering, energy, ecology, economics, and climate science. You can learn more about the WAFERx project including our activities and team members at our website: http://waferx.montana.edu
Farmer Survey on Diversified Farming: As part of our research, we are interested in understanding barriers and opportunities that farmers face for integrating agricultural biodiversity as part of farming systems. Agricultural biodiversity refers to all the different types and arrangements of plant and animal species that are part of farming systems as well as associated practices, beliefs, and knowledge. We are thus conducting surveys with farmers in Montana to understand perceptions and practices with regards to diversified farming systems.
Responses from the survey will be compiled and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. All responses will remain anonymous. We are interested in looking at variation in responses between farmers who manage organic systems with other types of producers as well as variation based on farm size, location, and types of crops grown.
We will be administering our survey at a booth at the MOA annual meeting. The survey is open to all producers in Montana. The option to complete our survey is voluntary and responses will be anonymous. We expect the survey to take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Our project has received IRB approval to administer this farmer survey from the Montana State University Institutional Review Board. We are offering $15 gift cards to survey respondents.
Sharing Survey Findings: Findings will be shared through various means including brochures, newsletters, and research articles posted on our project website: http://waferx.montana.edu. Our dissemination efforts will include reporting findings as part of the MOA newsletter.
Contact: For questions about the survey, WAFERx project, or MSU Food and Health Lab please email:

• Teresa Warne, Lab Manager for the MSU Food and Health Lab and Research Associate on the WAFERx team: teresa.warne@montana.edu
• Selena Ahmed, Associate Professor of Sustainable Food Systems at MSU; Principal Investigator of the MSU Food and Health Lab; and Principal Investigator of the WAFERx project: selena.ahmed@montana.edu

Alyssa Steward
alyssastewart12@gmail.com