Young farmers take root in Vermont

It is no secret that sustainable farming is popular in Vermont. Perhaps less well-known is that a growing number of these farmers are young people, many of whom are new to the field. When Jay Leshinksy, director of the College’s organic garden, went to the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) of Vermont’s annual winter conference in February, he estimated that 40 percent of the people were under 25 years old.
“Sustainable farming is a complex business that requires a diverse skill set,” said Leshinsky, who believes that the industry provides an intellectual as well as manual challenge that many recent college graduates relish. If young farmers can tackle the challenges of their new career, the sense of accompishment that comes with a “tangible product” is a powerful reward according to Lehinsky. Another major draw for young people craving jobs that have meaning is the basic notion of providing food.
“Feeding other human beings is pretty powerful,” he said.
One way that farmers accomplish their goals is by marketing their products through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Families or individuals who buy a share of a CSA get a box of freshly grown produce every week for the duration of the growing season. CSA shares are less expensive than going to a grocery store to buy vegetables, and those who participate help foster a sense of community, which benefits both the farmer and the consumers.
Caitlin and Jeremy Gildrien, sustainable farmers in Middlebury, are CSA supporters.
“The farm work can be sort of lonely sometimes and exhausting,” said Caitlin, who is also the outreach coordinator for NOFA and helps to spread awareness of available resources for farmers in the region. “Having that feedback from customers … is really energizing and a really great way to … feel good about what you’re doing. Selling wholesale you don’t have that energy.”
The Gildriens grow a large array of vegetables on their two-acre farm, Gildrien Farm. Last year the couple had 17 CSA members for their farm; this year, they are aiming to increase participation to 30 members. The Gildriens rely on income from the CSA shares as well as profits earned at the Middlebury farmer’s market, where they sell directly to customers and have the opportunity to meet many community members.
Yet the Gildriens are one of just many young farm couples in the area. Kevin Brown, who attended the College briefly from 2006 to 2007, and his girlfriend, Margaret Evans, are starting a similar farm just south of Middlebury in Pittsford, Vt. Brown originally started Groundworks Farm on his grandparents’ land in New Hampshire two years ago. He moved the operation over to Vermont about a year ago when, through an old family connection, Brown and Evans happened upon a significantly bigger property than his land in New Hampshire. The farm’s proximity to Middlebury was also a plus.
Brown would like to see Groundworks Farm become a year-round, organically certified vegetable, meat and dairy farm serving the Pittsford community. Although this is Groundworks’ first season in Vermont, he already has CSA members in Poultney, Brandon and Rutland, Vt., as well as deliveries into Middlebury and as far away as Cambridge, Mass.
Groundworks differs from more traditional CSAs in that it offers its members more than one kind of share. Instead, a person can buy either a vegetable share, which is a bushel of assorted vegetables a week, or a chicken share, which is one whole chicken every other week. In addition to the two shares, Groundworks will also sell home grown pork and fresh eggs at an additional cost.
Currently Groundworks has a CSA of 30 members, though the goal is to increase membership to 150 by harvest time in June. For Brown, gaining customers and establishing Groundworks in the community is the hardest part of starting a sustainable farm.
“More than the actual work of it, it is the human relationships that need to be cultivated [that are most difficult],” said Brown.
To do so, he and Evans have been distributing fliers, setting up a website and a blog, as well as using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to gain attention.
“Everybody just finds stuff online now and there are a lot of older farmers who don’t even want a website and I think that they’re really missing out on a lot of marketing potential through their website,” said Brown.
The fact that young farmers are using the Internet is just one of the advantages to coming into the profession with fresh eyes. Leshinsky believes that young first-time farmers have “an innovative look at farming and dealing with problems because they aren’t stuck in the old way.”
Not only are Brown and Evans taking advantage of technology, they are also looking for innovative farming techniques. For example, the couple hopes to use “chicken tractors,” small, transportable square pens that enable chickens to spend time outside without getting lost.
“We’d read about it and we decided to give it a go and it turned out to work really well,” said Brown. “You might think that it would increase labor because you have to go out there and move them around every day, but then you don’t have to shovel out their manure and you don’t lose as many because they’re healthier when they’re outside.”
Another aspect to farming that young people are trying to bring back is a sense of community that Leshinsky says has been lost in the last 75 years.
“Absentee-owner farms don’t have community, and students value sense of community,” said Leshinsky.
The CSA farming model has gained momentum and is a testament to the fact that many young farmers want to expand the farm’s role beyond being a provider; direct contact with buyers means farms can play a larger role in the community.
But being young also has some disadvantages in the world of agriculture. Though acquiring land was not a problem for Brown and Evans, it is usually the biggest concern of most new farmers. Leshinsky believes that lack of availability is an important cause of the problem, as well as the added strain of starting out a business with a huge debt or mortgage. Currently the Gildriens are struggling to expand their two-acre farm because affordable land is very hard to come by.
Other aspects that prove challenging for young farmers focus on the details. Deciding what sort of products to buy, learning how to order seed and confronting the day-to-day problems are all difficult. Yet one way young farmers deal with these challenges is to seek help from one another.
“[Young farmers] tend to be open to exchange of information with other young farmers,” said Leshinsky.
John Franklin, the young farmer chair for the Vermont Farm Bureau, echoed this sentiment.
“[Many young farmers] have discussions with each other and figure out how things work together,” said Franklin. “That way everyone can be more efficient.”
Franklin added that young farmers are still knowledgeable about their profession, but they “just haven’t met the obstacles” that older, established farmers have.
The Vermont Farm Bureau is one of many available resources for young farmers in the region. NOFA has many workshops, ranging from technical problem-solving to general advice, to help farmers of all ages. The organization even works to make it possible for farmers to accept food stamps at farmer’s markets, making local food accessible to a larger portion of the community.
Besides offering plenty of supportive organizations, Vermont, as an agrarian state, is simply very accepting of farmers.
“Vermont physically makes it so that farms need to be smaller, and the state government and people of Vermont have embraced that,” said Caitlin Gildrien. “There is a lot of support from a lot of different places.”
Brown also appreciates Vermont’s reputation as being pro-agriculture.
“The state has marketed itself so well that if you’re selling a Vermont product out of state people automatically assume that it’s awesome,” said Brown.
But even with all of the help offered to the state’s young farmers, all that really matters in the end is whether or not farmers can produce good food that people want to buy and serve to their families.
“Without the first step of doing a good job, the rest doesn’t get you too far,” said Caitlin Gildrien. “We are hoping that when time goes on, people will be happy and come back [to Gildrien Farm].”