Young farmers need help from the state
I knew of very few farms when I was growing up, so I am sure it is surprising to many that I eventually became a farmer. I have been learning to farm since 2008, when I first apprenticed on a small, diversified vegetable farm in New York’s Hudson Valley. I moved to Connecticut in 2010 to work on a large vegetable CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, farm and have moved throughout the state to work on different farms so that I could gain more skills and experience.
I eventually started Cloverleigh Farm in 2014 on rented land. It was far from ideal, but I made it work on a lean start-up budget. Over time, I have continued to learn volumes about running a business; the challenges of farming, particularly with increasingly unpredictable weather; and the specific obstacles that face young and first-generation farmers. Each year our nation loses farms, and therefore farmers, our numbers dwindling to approximately 1 percent of the population. Having been in business for less than 10 years, I am considered a “beginning farmer” according to the United States Department of Agriculture , so my advocacy work has focused on this demographic of farmers, who need every kind of encouragement and support to succeed.
My own journey in agriculture led me to short-term leases on several properties, all the while searching for land to own and steward for the long term. It took seven years to reach this goal and has required that the stars align in such a way as to make land ownership a possibility. Preparing our country for a future in agriculture means addressing land access challenges for all first-generation farmers, with a special concern for BIPOC, or Black, Indigenous and People of Color, farmers or anyone that has been historically and purposefully discriminated against and discouraged from farming.
Recently we have started to see a resurgence in small-scale diversified agriculture as a chosen career, often by individuals with no farming background or heritage. In the National Young Farmers Coalition’s (Young Farmers) 2022 Young Farmer Survey, 78 percent of the respondents identified themselves as first-generation farmers. There is growing interest in producing high-quality food, doing physical work each day, creating a tangible product, and challenging your mind to solve problems creatively.
People choose to farm for many distinct reasons and most include some interest in making a difference and having a sense of purpose. The 2022 Young Farmers’ Survey also found that 86 percent of young farmers said they became farmers for environmental reasons. Concerns about a changing climate and the impact on food systems is a driving force for the next generation of farmers. While there is a new cohort of young people who are farming or interested in farming, the top obstacle for first-generation farmers, like me, is access to affordable and appropriate farmland. Sixty-seven percent of respondents in Young Farmers’ survey who stopped farming said that finding affordable land to buy was a barrier that was very or extremely challenging.
The United States needs farmers. We need farmland to be stewarded by farmers in order to build a more resilient food system. Severe storms, power outages, and a pandemic have proven that local and/or regional farms can respond more quickly to disruptions and continue to provide food for our communities. It is high time we focus on using what precious prime agricultural land we have in New England for producing food. We have so little land well-suited to direct food production, which means that any farmland used for other purposes is a threat to our ability to feed ourselves.
Young farmers, who often focus on growing vegetables and pasture-based livestock, are important contributors in addressing this issue. The only way we can help address local food production in a changing climate is with long-term access to affordable and appropriate farmland. We need to prioritize finding solutions to land access challenges so that these highly capable, experienced and entrepreneurial farmers can do the important work of feeding local communities: rural, suburban, and urban alike.
Growing food is fulfilling work, and I feel privileged to be able to make this my chosen career path. There are many others who want to do the same but have run into too many roadblocks to make farming a viable option. Young and BIPOC farmers deserve the opportunity to engage in meaningful work, but they cannot do it without land on which to farm. This is why I serve as a Land Advocacy Fellow for the National Young Farmers Coalition, which is making land access the priority of our advocacy for the 2023 Farm Bill. Authorized by Congress every five years, this large comprehensive bill governs all food and farming appropriations. We will be asking for $2.5 billion dollars to facilitate the transfer of one million acres of land to the next generation of young and BIPOC farmers.
As a part of Young Farmers’ One Million Acres for the Future campaign, I am asking my members of Congress to pass a 2023 Farm Bill that makes a historic investment in equitable land access. We need to actively remove the roadblocks that are keeping young farmers off the land. Secure, equitable access to farmland is an issue that impacts us all, and the future of our food and agriculture systems. All of our voices are important in calling on Congress to create a 2023 Farm Bill that supports the next generation.
At a time of increasingly unpredictable weather, water shortages in the west, severe storms throughout the country, and the dwindling accessibility of fossil fuels, it is necessary to prioritize food production by preserving and protecting farmland that is suited for the next generation. Land preservation alone is no longer enough; it needs to be affordable for a working farmer. It is time to make land more accessible for those who wish to devote their lives to the ecological stewardship of the land and the health of our communities.