07-30-2008

Growing new farmers in RI

Rabbit’s Dance scenesThe average age of an American farmer is 57. Who’s gonna grow our food? RI has a lot of enthusiastic young farmers, but they face many challenges: land prices, startup costs, lack of agricultural and culinary know-how, lack of local processing facilities, a public that is disconnected from where food comes from.

But right here in Rhode Island we have the will and the ways to address these challenges. We have some incredibly generous “elder” farmers and incredibly fertile land in RI. We have pride in our state and are hungry for food grown in our Little Rhody. What we need is to support new farmers with structures for generational transfer of land and knowledge and also with business models for their young farms… the farms that will grow to feed us tomorrow.

With that in mind, Rabbit’s Dance Farm in Cumberland and Farm Fresh partnered to offer an apprenticeship program for aspiring farmers and food activists. This summer, thanks to funding from the RI Foundation, Goldberg Foundation and Starr Foundation, three interns are dividing their time between organic farming with Kristin at Rabbit’s Dance and food systems work with Farm Fresh to create a context for how farms and food are interwoven with cities and community.

  • Laura got farmers on board and then spread the word about the bustling new Woonsocket Farmers’ Market. She’s also co-running a weekly nutrition outreach program at the Armory Farmers’ Market with Heidi, a Food Stamps nutrition educator and Farm Fresh board member. (In her spare time, Laura’s the food forager for Local 121.)
  • Lindsay has been interviewing farmers all over the state to assess needs for a planned commercial-grade processing kitchen (think local tomato sauce!) and for more efficient farm-to-city delivery models. You can also find her selling Hill Orchards apples and peaches at the Hope High Farmers’ Market.
  • Hannah is the smiling face behind the Market CSA at the Armory and Downtown Providence markets. Each week she coordinates with farmers and then sorts together a well-rounded bag of RI produce, eggs and bread for our 50 member families. In its first season, the market CSA program will bring $20,000 in income to RI farmers. Hannah also volunteers with the harvest at City Farm.

More bright spots for new RI farmers: Farm Fresh is also collaborating with SEMAP on their Farms Forever program that currently runs in Southeastern Massachusetts. And the newly passed Farm Bill provides more loan programs and many target new farmers who lack significant financial resources. RI has a lot of first-generation farmers and so Farm Fresh is excited about opportunities in the impressive new Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program.

On a related note, two weekends ago Rhode Island was visited by a film crew from the Greenhorns, an upcoming movie that examines how young people are changing the food system. The filmmakers stopped to speak with Katie of Scratch Farm and Louella of Narragansett Creamery, and then meandered through the Broad Street and Hope High markets in Providence. They’ll be back next week to cover more farms and our Local Food Fest.