the irresistible fleet of bicycles

It seems cliché to talk about agriculture being in a critical time but there are few ways to describe the current situation except for critical.

In the thirty plus years of my farming career, there have been drastic changes in agriculture. The tenacious grip of industrialized agriculture; the process by which agricultural land is mined for raw products, has been at the expense of soil, water, communities and people. Agri-business has turned agriculture into an extractive economy where the natural resource, the soil, is exploited to produce commodities from which a few transnational corporations profit.

The overuse and misuse of nitrogen and phosphorus has created the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The lack of conservation and natural resource management has eroded the soil so the rivers and streams no longer run clear. The concentration of animals in buildings directly contributes to the overuse of antibiotics in foodstuffs, ultimately affecting the health and well being of humans. Rural communities have shut down because of the lack of economic activity that once sustained the countryside.

The litany of sins against agri-business can go on for many more pages. It is hard to imagine after having painted this very bleak picture that there could be optimism about the future. I can and do hold an optimistic view of the future because there are many young people taking on the task of raising food for people to eat. There needs to be many, many more. It is the responsibility of my generation of farmers, those of us that have been paving the way for a new and different agriculture, to now take on the task of nurturing the next generation of farmers. The next generation of farmers that will care for the land, their communities and the people.

It is not an easy task to pass knowledge, experience and skills to the next generation, especially in the absence of an intimate relationship with farming. In the past many families were on the land. The day to day and season to season decisions how to make a living from the land were transferred within families, between generations and within the agricultural communities. Waking up everyday to the rhythm of a farm instilled in one the sense of being a part of something bigger than oneself, a sense of participation and of purpose. With so few people having the privilege of growing up on a farm, there is a great deal that must be learned, not only how to live in or near a rural community, but also how one goes about creating a career of growing food. How does one become a farmer?

Over the past years, many farmers have opened their farms and homes to those newly interested in agriculture. Many of these internships, apprenticeships and on farm experiences tantalized and teased those eager to farm. In many parts of the country, as the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), organic and sustainable farming and urban agriculture movement has matured, opportunities for learning not only farming skills but also business skills have equipped potential farmers with a set of knowledge to strike out into the world of farming. But this doesn’t seem to be enough.

There continues to be much work ahead of us. Infrastructure for marketing, processing and distribution needs to be built so the workload can be shared. In my many years of farming I feel strongly that it is hard enough to do the physical work of farming, but then to add on marketing, processing and distribution, the task becomes overwhelming. Burnout is a result of overwork.

There are two major impediments to farming as I see it, 1) access to land and 2) access to capital. When my husband and I started farming, we had his family to help us. We had the sweat equity and they had the land and machinery. We wanted to start farming and they had the access to capital – they were able to share our risk for the essentials to begin a career in farming. Family provided equipment such as tractors, disks, and cultivators to name a few as well as moral support. This traditional method of passing on the farm rarely exists today. Times have changed and even for close family it is hard to help a daughter or son establish themselves in the farming community.

Those of us currently farming have a responsibility to help establish the next generation of farmers if we are going to have a food system that grows food for people to eat. We need to give high priority to “grow” farmers. There are examples all over the United States, many successful and some not so successful, where new farmers are tilling, planting and harvesting crops. There is a need to replicate and provide support at the national, state and local level for beginning farm programs.
I have done a little research to find out what programs and opportunities currently exist. There are pages and pages of programs from all over the United States; programs for immigrant farmers, programs for minority farmers and programs for small farmers. The questions that arise in my mind flow like this; “are these programs working?”, “is there documentation that shows how many start up farmers there are?”, “where are the numbers that quantify new farmers starting businesses?” and lastly, “what are the indicators that inform us whether or not these programs are successful?”

Everywhere across this country, I hear the same thing, there is not enough food supply to meet the demand for local food. As new markets open – schools, hospitals, nursing homes – is there the capacity to supply these emerging markets? As fuel prices continue to soar and we are forced to find our food closer to our communities, are there enough farmers to meet the demand?

Farmers and their families are an integral part of a rural community. They help define the culture of rural. Rural culture is a part of what makes our country strong. Farmers who are growing for local and regional food systems are part of an interdependency that creates resiliency in our rural economies. I for one, am committed to making sure that there are ways that the next generation of farmers can become established to take over the work that needs to be done.