The Agricultural History Society established the Effland-Grim-Reid Award for Public Engagement in Agricultural History in 2022. The award recognizes an individual, group, or organization that makes a significant contribution to broad public understanding of agricultural history or demonstrates creativity and innovation in practice, either through an exceptional activity or for a body of work characterized by professionalism and leadership within one or more communities or institutions.
Public engagement with agricultural history can take many forms but at its heart, this award aims to recognize public-facing activities that incorporate agricultural history as an essential component of the undertaking. Examples include but are not limited to documenting agricultural contexts in community history, contextualizing public policy, or supporting preservation of intangible cultural heritage that might be evident in management of agricultural landscapes, cultural practices, or traditions such as agricultural fairs. Other forms might include curation of a museum exhibition or archival collection, government service, cultural resource management, film and media production, historical interpretation and preservation, non-governmental policy advising, historical translation, non-academic publications, and historical consulting. Historians working in all types of institutions and in communities from local to international are encouraged to apply. The award may be given for an exceptional example of a public engagement activity or for a body of work reflecting sustained, high-quality public engagement.