MORE THAN FARMING: Young Farmers and the New Food Movement

December 2nd, 2009 by Administrator

SOMETHING’S GOING ON HERE

If you’ve been paying attention to Michelle Obama’s White House Garden…

Read this: “Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House” NYT Article

Watch this:

Inside the White House: The Kitchen Garden

If you’ve noticed the increasing number of farmers markets popping up in recent years…

If you’ve read a recent restaurant menu calling out the farms where the ingredients come from…

Read this: “The Top 10 Farm-to-Table Restaurants” Epicurious.com Article

If you’ve read any of the latest and greatest food journalism…

Read these: Grist Food, The Ethicurean, Civil Eats, Cooking Up A Story, Organic Consumers Association

And if you’ve seen any of the recent food documentaries…

Watch These: Food Inc., The Future of Food, Fresh: The Movie, Ingredients

…Then you might get the feeling that there’s something important going on here.

THE NEW GOOD FOOD MOVEMENT

Something is going on, indeed. There’s a growing movement throughout this country to return to a sustainable way of farming, a holistic way of cultivating the soil, a conscious way of eating, and a more enlightened way of looking at our relationship with food. This new movement has manifested itself in various forms, each with a specific and important focus. Here they are in a nutshell:

• Local, Organic, and Sustainable Agriculture:

The people in this part of the new food movement have their hands and feet in the earth. They are focused on practicing and spreading the good news about local, organic and sustainably-produced food. They are farmers and grocers and chefs and teachers and activists and scientists who spend their waking hours caring for the earth, rebuilding the soil, providing healthy food to their families and communities, and promoting the benefits of organic agriculture.

• Accessibility to Real Food:

These people have dedicated themselves to the task of making good food accessible, affordable, and viable for all people. You can find these people creating urban gardens, proposing solutions to the problem of rural and inner-city food deserts, and pioneering farm-to-school programs. They are making sure that food stamps are valid at farmers markets, educating children about nutrition and gardening, and lobbying state and federal politicians.

• Farm Worker Social Justice

These are the people fighting for social justice from the field to your table. They advocate for fair treatment, safety, and living wages for farmers and food workers in our country and throughout the world.

• Fighting Big Agriculture:

These are the journalists, filmmakers, activists, lawyers, farmers, and organizations that are scrambling, fighting, and lobbying for sustainable food’s place at the table of U.S. (and world) Agriculture. They strike back against the misinformation campaigns of the world’s Monsantos, live in the red tape and monotony of bureaucrats, read every page of the epic that is the Farm Bill, file lawsuits, fight appeals, practice politics, and secure government funds. They are dedicated to the end goal of unmaking global institutions and corporations and governments who make sustainable agriculture, good food accessibility, and farmworker social justice impossible.

• Creating a Good Food Community:

These are the journalists, activists, organizations, and everyday people aimed at creating connections between all the aforementioned groups and spreading the message of this new food movement. Their end goal is the enlightenment of the masses and the systemic change of our global agricultural juggernaut.

THE NEXT GENERATION OF FARMERS

Also within this movement, incredibly inspiring work is being carried out by young farmers. These highly-motivated, intelligent, idealistic, and sometimes unconventional folks are both carrying the torch passed on by their predecessors, and blazing a new sustainable trail into the future. And their numbers are growing every day. In fact, our home here in Southern Oregon is especially blessed with a multitude of industrious and inspiring young farmers. Leading the way are Josh Cohen and Melissa Matthewson of Barking Moon Farm, a certified organic farm located in the Thompson Creek watershed of the Applegate Valley.

Since 2006 Josh and Melissa have been growing certified organic vegetables and producing certified organic eggs on their property in the Applegate. They run a Community Supported Agriculture program and sell their produce and eggs through the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative, at two Ashland Farmers Markets (Tuesday and Saturday), and at local grocery stores (Ashland Food Co-op) and restaurants. But leaving their ability to grow amazing produce aside, the most impressive thing about them is the work they do to expand and strengthen the sustainable farming community in our region.

AN INTERVIEW WITH BARKING MOON FARM

MD: How did you guys get started farming, and what made you choose Southern Oregon as a spot to start up Barking Moon Farm?

Josh and Melissa: We started gardening on a very small-scale in Santa Cruz, CA. Melissa got a degree in Agroecology from UC Santa Cruz and worked for a nonprofit whose mission was to support organic farming. Our love for good food and growing gardens just grew into a dream to someday own our own farm. When we were driving to Oregon to check out grad schools for Melissa, we happened upon the Applegate Valley and immediately fell in love with the land and the area. Coincidentally, acquaintances from our Santa Cruz days, Chris and Melanie Jagger from Blue Fox Farm, moved to the Applegate right around when we discovered it. Anyway, Melissa ended up going to grad school in Montana, and so it was 3 years before we made it back to the Applegate. But during those 3 years we came to visit a number of times as Chris and Melanie were getting their farm up and running. When we returned, we interned with Vince and Mary at Whistling Duck Farm, and bought our farm about a year later. We love the Applegate community. All the farmers are so supportive of each other, and so many young people are buying farms and raising families out here.

MD: As young farmers yourselves, how do you view the future of small-scale sustainable farming in the Rogue Valley and throughout the country?

Josh and Melissa: I think it is the career choice of the future. Of now. Right now. It isn’t easy work and can be very grueling both physically and mentally, and it isn’t easy to start a farm business in terms of economics either. But I think the reason there are so many amazing, persistent and passionate young people wanting to farm out there is because it is intellectually stimulating work and meaningful. I think more and more people are getting interested in where their food comes from and there is nothing more that this country needs than more healthy, young, able farmers to feed them.

MD: I am so impressed with the work you are doing off the farm with the League of Women Farmers and with Rogue Farm Corps. Can you tell us about what you do when you’re not growing or selling vegetables?

Melissa: Well, as an OSU Extension Agent off the farm, I’m continually working with new farmers. We coordinate a League of Women Farmers that meets often to network, learn and exchange information with each other. Most recently this summer, the OSU Extension was given a grant by the Organic Farming Research Foundation to host four field days for women farmers on the challenges and issues on Organic Certification in this region. We will also be training women farmers on carpentry this year, and hopefully we will do welding and tractor training next year. We have over 75 women farmers, both new and established, that participate in the group.

We also hold an 8-week business planning course called Growing Farms in which we help new farmers develop a plan for their farm. And if we can secure the funding, we will be launching a farmer incubator program in partnership with THRIVE and the Friends of Family Farmers, in which new farmers go through our Growing Farms course and then get set up on OSU Extension land to start their new farming enterprises.

Josh and Melissa: At Barking Moon Farm, we host two interns that live and work with us each season, from March through October. They learn all aspects of running a farm: soil, field prep, greenhouse, planting, harvesting, marketing, as well as all the business skills associated with running a farm such as insurance, bookkeeping, etc. We provide the interns with housing, food, a stipend, and lots of other perks.

We also are a part of Rogue Farm Corps, an internship program in the valley with about 10 participating farms. We teach parts of the Rogue Farm Corps curriculum, this year focusing on the intricacies of pastured poultry and Community Supported Agriculture. Our hope is that the interns will take all the skills they learn on our farm and begin new farms of their own in the future, or take those skills and apply in them in other managerial farm situations. While training and working with interns for 8 months of the year takes a lot of effort, we actually love this part of our farm and really develop close relationships with our interns. We are passionate about teaching and providing new skills to potential young farmers.

MD: Wow! What is it that drives you both to do what you do, every day?

Melissa: We love the work of farming. It definitely isn’t the money that drives us to farm. It really is the good work that we are doing, the meaning of it all, and the belief that we are making an impact on our community. It is pretty darn addicting as well. I just can’t stop talking about it.

MD: As a farmer, and advocate for small farmers, is there anything you would like to say to all the everyday consumers out there?

Melissa: Small-scale farmers work really, really hard for very little return, and provide the highest quality food to communities all over the world. Please thank them for what they do and give them as much of your support as you can.