Young Farmers
Thanks to the Greenhorns for sharing this:
Young Farmer from the Hunger Coalition in Atlanta, GA - Featured in Farm Together Now
New Survey of 1,000 Young and Beginning Farmers Reveals What the Next Generation Needs
Download Report (PDF)
The National Young Farmer’s Coalition released a study today showing that the nation’s young and beginning farmers face tremendous barriers in starting a farming career. Building a Future With Farmers: Challenges Faced by Young, American Farmers and a National Strategy to Help Them Succeed surveyed 1,000 farmers from across the United States and found that access to capital, access to land and health insurance present the largest obstacles for beginners. Farmers rated farm apprenticeships, local partnerships and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) as the most valuable programs to help beginners.
“If Congress wants to keep America farming, then they must address the barriers that young people face in getting started,” says Lindsey Lusher Shute, Director of the National Young Farmers’ Coalition. “We need credit opportunities for beginning and diversified farmers, land policies that keep farms affordable for full-time growers and funding for conservation programs.”
Report findings include:
- 78% of farmers ranked “lack of capital” as a top challenge for beginners, with another 40% ranking “access to credit” as the biggest challenge.
- 68% of farmers ranked land access as the biggest challenge faced by beginners.
- 70% of farmers under 30 rented land, as compared to 37% of farmers over 30.
- 74% of farmers ranked apprenticeships as among the most valuable programs for beginners.
- 55% of farmers ranked local partnerships as one of the most valuable programs, and 49% ranked Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) as a top program.
Lack of capital was found to be the biggest challenge for beginners. Although the USDA’s Farm Service Agency offers loans to beginning farmers, current loan rules often disqualify even experienced farmers with good credit and small loans are hard to come by. For real estate transactions, FSA loans take too long to process — up to thirty days to qualify and up to a year to receive funds – and the $300,000 loan limit doesn’t go far in many real estate markets.
Land access was the second biggest concern. Farmers under the age of 30 were significantly more likely to rent land (70%) than those over 30 (37%). Over the last decade, farm real estate values and rents doubled making farm ownership next to impossible for many beginners.
“In Nebraska the main barrier to new and beginning farmers is access to land. Unless an aspiring farmer inherits land, it is very difficult to have access to it,” says William A. Powers, farmer and Executive Director of the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society.
The National Young Farmers’ Coalition recommends action at the local, state and federal level to help beginning farmers. At the local level, communities can create market opportunities for farmers by starting Community Supported Agriculture groups and shopping at farmers markets, as well as protecting existing farmland through zoning and the purchase of development rights. States can preserve farmland and even offer tax credits for farmers that sell their land to beginners. At the federal level, Congress can include the “Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Opportunity Act” in the next Farm Bill, which supports many of the specific recommendations in the report.
Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, is calling for hundreds of thousands of new farmers nationwide. Over the past century, the total number of American farmers has declined – from over 6 million in 1910 to just over 2 million today. For each farmer under 35 there are now 6 over 65 and the average age of farmers is 57. The USDA expects that one-quarter (500,000) of all farmers will retire in the next twenty years.
The ‘good food’ movement is inspiring many young people to farm, both from farming and non-farming backgrounds. These farmers have the potential to offset the numbers of retiring farmers and keep family farms active, but land tenure and lack of capital are getting in the way.
“Young farmers are poised to redefine the American landscape along with our food scene”, says Severine vT Fleming, Director of The Greenhorns, “We are strong of will, and determined to make farming sustainable in this country.”
“With the release of reports such as this one, the agrarian revival, this influx of young and beginning farmers, gains status – we’re not just a few people spread across the country, we’re a well organized, politically active group that can be documented,” says Tierney Creech of the Washington State Young Farmers Coalition. “We know who our senators and representatives are, we vote, and our friends and families vote. We need USDA and government support to succeed and we’re going to let the nation know that.”
Download Report (PDF)
Congrats to City Slicker Farms
City Slicker Farms, one of 20 farms featured in our book Farm Together Now, just celebrated their 10th anniversary! Over 200 guests showed their support last week at the David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley. “With a decade of experience, City Slicker Farms has demonstrated how growing food in the city is a powerful way to bring the community together to address the lack of healthy food in the neighborhood,” said Barbara Finnin, City Slicker Farms’ Executive Director. “Tonight’s event shows how strongly our mission, to empower West Oakland community members to meet the basic need for fresh, healthy food by creating sustainable, high-yield urban farms and backyard gardens, resonates with folks throughout the East Bay.” The event honored ten local heroes who have made a difference in the first decade of City Slicker Farms’ work. The honorees include: City of Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel, City of Oakland Director of Parks and Recreation Audree Jones-Taylor, Barbara Christian, Charlotte Banks, Deidre Wan, Empress Diamond Akhanki Buchango, Fulton Brinkley, Jim Martin, Max Cadji, Valorie Rogers Myers and City Slicker Farms Founder Willow Rosenthal.
Listen to this podcast to learn more about their work.
John Kinsman
Over the last year I have had the pleasure of interacting with veteran farmer-activist John Kinsman of Lima Ridge, Wisconsin on a number of occasions. First in Washington DC where he contributed to a short video I made with the National Family Farm Coalition based on the 7 principles of Food Sovereignty developed by the Via Campesina network:
Then in April at the annual protests against the Chicago Mercantile Echange led by his group Family Farm Defenders:
And most recently in the form of a live lecture/interview at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum:
In the future, look out for some of my writings on John Kinsman’s work.
*Special thanks to John Peck and Joel Greeno from the Family Farm Defenders.
Growing Power and Wal-Mart
There have been some really provocative dialogues going on ranging from Civil Eats to Grist to Justseeds and Mother Jones about the now-famous urban agriculture group based in Milwaukee Growing Power’s recent acceptance of a huge donation from Wal-Mart. Check out the article in the Chicago Tribune and the response to criticisms from Will Allen (leader of Growing Power).
This is undoubtedly an important debate to have with growing interest in urban and sustainable agriculture from all directions, including those driven primarily by profit. For a great explanation of the challenges presented by corporate “green-washing” see Heather Rogers’ book Green Gone Wrong, which was reviewed on this blog over the summer.
Food Films
For those of you looking to learn more about food politics, the last couple of years has been rich with relevant documentaries. A new online archive presents some of them in their entirety such as:
- The Coconut Revolution By Dom Rotheroe
- Bullshit By PeA Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalain
- Death On A Factory Farm By Tom Simon and Sarah Teale
- Who Killed The Honey Bee? By James Erskine
- King Corn By Ian Cheney, Curtis Ellis and Aaron Woolf
- Paraguay’s Painful GMO Harvest By Tanya Datta
- The Genetic Conspiracy — Following the Trail By Manfred Ladwig
- The World According to Monsanto By Marie-Monique Robin
- Monsanto — Patent For A Pig By Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine
- The Future Of Food By Deborah Koons Garcia, Lily Films
- David vs Monsanto By Bertram Verhaag
Hay and Solidarity with Oklahoma
For Immediate Release from our friends at Family Farm Defenders:
Fri. Aug. 19th, 2011
Contacts: John Kinsman Family Farm Defenders #608-986-3815 | Randy Jasper, Family Farm Defenders #608-553-2203 | Joel Morton, Farm Aid #617-354-2922 | Lorette Picciano, Rural Coalition #202-628-7160 | Willard Tillman, executive director, Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project Farmers Co-op #405-201-6624 | Ralph Paige, executive director, Southern Federation of Cooperatives #404-765-0991
Oklahoma is in the grips of its worst drought since the 1920s, and in response Family Farm Defenders, with support from Farm Aid, Rural Coalition, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the Southern Federation of Cooperatives, are organizing an emergency Midwest hay lift.
This rapid response mirrors earlier solidarity efforts which delivered over a dozen Wisconsin tractors to Federation farmers in Mississippi and Louisiana following the destruction of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Wisconsin farmers were compelled to take action after hearing first hand accounts of parched farmland and starving livestock from their Oklahoma colleagues attending the Farm Aid Concert in Kansas City, KS this last weekend.
“If we can get enough hay to some of these farmers to save their animals it may help to save their farms. Desperation sales of livestock are usually a disaster. In the past farmers from other parts of the country rushed hay shipments to help Midwest farmers suffering from a drought. When other farmers face the prospect of being driven off the land we need to do something in solidarity,” said John Kinsman, president of Family Farm Defenders.
“Oklahoma family farmers, and especially, African American and American Indian producers, are very grateful for the support of the producers of Family Farm Defenders and other groups who have stepped up to save our farms in this time of need,” said Willard Tillman, Executive Director of Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, who is coordinating distribution in OK in cooperation with Randall Ware of the Kiowa Nation.
Livestock auctions in Oklahoma are being overwhelmed as ranchers get rid of their animals before they starve, and these desperation sales are hurting prices for other livestock producers nationwide. Predictions of depressed crop harvests across the Panhandle are also wreaking havoc in the commodity markets.
Teamster truck drivers are being recruited to deliver the hay to Oklahoma from Wisconsin as soon as tractor-trailer trucks can be secured. Hay and other feed supplies will be delivered to 2620 Coltrane Rd. in Oklahoma City.
Any type of quality hay – small bales or large round/square bales – is welcome. Those wishing to donate hay should contact John Kinsman #608-986-3815 or Randy Jasper #608-553-2203 for the exact time and location for drop off.
Financial contributions are also welcome to support the hay lift effort. Send checks to: Family Farm Defenders, P.O. Box 1772, Madison, WI 53701 with “hay lift” in the memo line. FFD is a registered charitable organization so any gift is also tax deductible.
You can also make an online donation towards the Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project’s Disaster Response via the Rural Coalition website: http://ruralco.org/
Recent FTN Reviews and Press
Camping, Summer 2009 while visiting the Acequia Institute in San Luis, CO
It feels like a pretty long time ago in the summer of 2009 when we were wrapping up our farm interviews and starting to edit down the transcripts that ended up becoming Farm Together Now. And now…It seems like the press is slowing down but some great short reviews and blurbs have come in this summer we wanted to draw your attention to. The rest of the reviews are compiled and linked to here.
- Taking Root bloggers reflect on the Seattle FTN book event “What was unusual and heartening about the event was that Daniel Tucker, one of the co-authors, used the talk not merely as a plug for the new book, but as a platform for a discussion about the myriad ways that people can contribute to fixing our food system. In fact, he only briefly introduced the book and read a short excerpt before he turned over the remainder of the event to a panel of people who were all deeply engaged in rethinking our food system…As someone who spends a great deal of time thinking about food, I left the talk with a new sense of how enormous this thing we call “the food system” really is. It’s no wonder that finding problems is so easy and that finding long-term, sustainable solutions can seem so difficult. How can we possibly understand the problems and take meaningful action on issues as varied as water rights, the commodities market, public and private housing policies, transportation, social justice, access to food, the environment, defense, international aid, production of nearly everything we use, and education? I’ve asked myself over and over about how I can be part of finding real, workable solutions. What I’ve decided is to take my cue from the panelists and use my own interests as a gateway to the larger discussion…”
- Food Politics blogger Marion Nestle shouts out FTN and says “The book should inspire anyone to get out and farm.”
- Slow Money Texas blogger Evita Montes discusses FTN and AquaRanch
- Smile Politely interview with Daniel as a preview to a reading of FTN at the Common Ground Food Cooperative
- Rocky Mountain Land Library Recommends FTN
- EJ Magazine interviews Daniel on the process of making FTN
- Earth Eats host Annie Corrigan’s Indiana Public radio interview with Daniel about FTN during a visit to Bloomington (Listen here – scroll to 7:21 – or read the transcript here)
- In My Back Yard host Lisa Bralts on Urbana-Champaign’s WILL AM 580 interviews Daniel about FTN (listen here)
- A few Amazon.com Reader Reviews have come in too:
- Ryan says “I love picking up this book! They say “the best argument is a good example,” and this book really shows why. Every time I read one of its stories I am awed by what people are doing in this country. I love living in the city, but reading this really makes me want to be a farmer. The authors show that I can do both! All the photos are incredible, just like the people they feature…”
- Thomas says “A unique book with an awesome design: Inspiring profiles of people from across the country engaged in the politics of food in the most meaningful ways. Very accessible and very rich. Full of beautiful photographs. This book gives us insight into the work of a range of people from Dairy Farmers in Wisconsin to Urban Gardens in Oakland.”
- Erin says “The interview style of the book as well as the amazing photography make this an intimate and moving look at how local initiatives can make a difference. One goal of Farm Together Now is to illustrate that an even greater impact can be made if we work to farm together. After reading this book that is exactly what you’ll want to do!”
