Cultivating the next crop of farmers
A small group of teens learning the hard work of feeding the nation
Eighth-grader Teo Heitzman and his schoolmates arrive at Camino de Paz School and Farm in Santa Cruz at 8:15 each morning to work on the school farm. There, he and his fellow students in grades 7-9 grow a variety of crops, including lettuce, beans and corn. They also raise sheep, angora goats and chickens, and prepare food to be sold at the Santa Fe Farmers Market.
Heitzman is one of many young farmers who might one day feed New Mexico. And that could make him a unique talent.
While the Washington Post reported in an article by Caitlin Dewey that there was a resurgence of young farmers between 2007 and 2012, it also said that this is not nearly enough to replace the older farmers who will ultimately leave the agricultural industry. “Between 2007 and 2012, agriculture gained 2,384 farmers between ages 25 and 34 — and lost nearly 100,000 between 45 and 54,” Dewey wrote.
The concern for the future of agriculture is particularly relevant to high school senior Jack Cameron, who participates in the nonprofit Future Farmers of America. He said that he sees many teens who don’t seem to care about where their food comes from or how it is grown. They “think that their food just comes from the back of the grocery store, and they don’t understand all of the hard work and hours put in just to grow a head of lettuce,” he said.
Another cause for concern for farmers Gordon Tooley and Margaret Yancey is that many young people seem unenthusiastic about the prospect of farming because of the work ethic required to grow crops. Tooley and Yancey own Tooley’s Trees in Truchas. Along with their young apprentice workers, they grow many species of fruit trees and provide food to people in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado.
“There are romantic expectations about farming,” Yancey said. “But what it really comes down to is a lot of really hard, physical labor, and people don’t really know what that means until they’re doing it all day, every day in any kind of weather.”
This lack of interest and enthusiasm leaves many farmers anxious about who will feed the world in the future. Virginie Pointeau of the Santa Febased Western Landowners Alliance emphasizes another problem in the business. Through her work with apprentices, she has seen many young people who are eager to farm. The real challenge, Pointeau said, is providing young people with land. Because most of the young people entering the business were not raised on farms, they cannot simply inherit family land. The Washington Post article reported that the majority of young farmers did not grow up in agricultural families.
Yancey agrees that “the biggest issue is land access and the cost of land. Particularly the cost of land that is close to markets where they’re going to sell whatever it is they’re going to produce.” Cameron adds that young farmers also are challenged because “agriculture is not a profitable business at all. People do it because they want to be able to put food on people’s tables, but there comes a certain point where people just aren’t making any profit.”
Northern New Mexico farmer Nery Martinez said that there is a lot of help in the form of government-issued grants, “but sometimes the people who want to farm don’t know that the help exists. And it’s hard to get that help, because you need to own the land. That’s why some people decide not to keep farming: There is help, but not for everybody.”
With so many difficulties standing in the way of future growers, a pivotal step in paving a pathway to success in agriculture is to improve education about the industry. “I think a mandatory agriculture class [should be implemented], just like PE or art is mandatory in order for someone to graduate,” Cameron said. “I think that if people are immersed in an agriculture class, it will spike interest.” Cameron chose to leave the Santa Fe school district and attend a school in Moriarty because there are no serious agricultural programs in high schools in Santa Fe.
In Santa Cruz, Camino de Paz is a unique middle school that immerses its students in farm life for four hours each day. The school’s mission is not necessarily to persuade its students to pursue careers in farming, but to use the farm as a tool and teaching method to assist with academics.
“In math in particular, the farm really connects [the academics] with the actual world and lets you see how it is useful,” Heitzman said. Students learn and use math when working on the marketing aspect of farming. “They’re doing a cost analysis on how much profit you get from certain products,” Heitzman said. And they incorporate chemistry into their work while in the kitchen. “We’re working on how food processes and the chemistry of that,” he said. “For example, how apples oxidize and how to prevent them from doing so.”
In addition, Yancey said “increasing the number of established farmers who are willing to teach to young people” will help. And she believes that farmers need to set up a better system of succession. Pointeau said that when a farmer leaves the business, he or she should find a way to connect with young farmers who are prepared to take over. This will eliminate the struggle for land that sometimes prevents young people from starting businesses.
Whether veteran farmers and youth will begin connecting and acting on these ideas is unknown, but Cameron said it’s important for both sides to understand the importance of agriculture in our daily lives.
“For the rest of human life there will always be a need for a farmer,” he said.