The SARE Professional Development Program, as well as some of the Kellogg grants, have been critical in legitimizing folks who are different from the conventional. If you are beginning a new program that deals with these touchy issues of sustainability, hook up with another program that was once viewed as different. The IPM program is an example. Look to some of the newer programs on campus to learn what they did that helped make them successful. Outside support can be found through state leaders, building credibility with land-grant university clientele, getting to know a variety of members of boards and working with those boards.
External support can give legitimacy.
The key to building communities of interest is finding commonalties and the resources each person can bring. Study circles, both on and off campus, are relatively well-structured attempts to look at the literature in sustainable food systems. Often a member of the study group is assigned an article to present and discuss that everyone has read. These can be community building and capacity enhancing for those who participate. Including colleagues in sustainable food systems projects, both research and Extension, is a very effective way to build community.