Farming Is For All
KC Farm School at Gibbs Road
I call myself a re-generation farmer, rather than a first-generation, because the vocation only skipped my mother before I picked it back up again. I tumbled into it through a desire to work outside doing something meaningful and stayed in it as I learned more about all the issues we face as a species and a society. I realized that farming addresses all of the improvements I hope to see in our world. Along the way, I get to be involved in the most necessary and basic of human activities.
I have now been working in small-scale, diversified vegetable production for 9 years. I focus on no-till, regenerative and organic methods to supply CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members, farmers markets, locally-owned restaurants, and food pantries. I am currently the Farm Director at KC Farm School in Kansas City, Kansas, Wyandotte County.
I am one in a movement, one of many, many young people across the country and the globe who are rising to the needs of the time through food production. We scramble to gather knowledge about how to produce food and preserve it, how to carry seeds between generations, how to build economy around community. So much was lost in such a short time, so little passed on from those before who ached for an easier, more comfortable life for us, out of the fields.
And as we work hard to feed our communities, we also work hard to organize, knowing our voice and our labor is stronger together. The National Young Farmers Coalition (youngfarmers.org) was founded in 2010 to “shift power and change policy to equitably resource our new generation of working farmers.” Everyone is welcomed into this work even as the resources of the coalition are focused on farmers “young” in their careers, typically under 10 years of growing. Folks have started over 45 chapters in cities and regions around the country. These chapters gather to serve young farmers in their respective areas in the ways they see fit for their members–social support and networking, resource and skills sharing, policy advocacy and lobbying, and partnering with other community efforts to grow more farmers and more food.
The national organization envisions “a just future where farming is free of racial violence, accessible to communities, oriented towards environmental well-being, and concerned with health over profit.” This work focuses on policy change, land access, climate action, water access, immigration and labor justice, USDA access and accountability, business services, and chapter development and support.
This is a big time for NYFC as the 2023 Farm Bill approaches. Now, in 2022, is when the possibilities and hopes for the Farm Bill funding are developed, to be voted on and implemented next year. And we are in dire need on so many fronts!
- There is a massive generational transition happening, and just not enough young folks farming to take over the family vocation. In addition, as some growers are shifting to practices that involve more hand labor and less mechanization in an effort to be more resilient in the face of global warming, there are not enough skilled laborers prepared to join in that work–for example, many small scale farms in the Kansas City metro area are hurting for crew! Then, willing crew are struggling to make it through the hotter and hotter summer days. We need funding for information and accountability around laborer safety and well-being. We need funding for education to bring more apprentices into this field.
- As cities boom in population, especially in the Midwest, land for food production is becoming increasingly difficult to access, afford, and keep. Retiring farmers are incentivized to sell to the highest bidding “developer.” We need tax incentives for keeping farmland in farming and fund matching for new, young farmers trying to find land of their own so they can compete with the big money of development businesses.
- Each year, the USDA recognizes more of the diversity of growers and growing methods. Specialty Crop farms, especially in urban cores, not only create a more crisis-ready food system (as we experienced since the 2020 Pandemic), but address all parts of making climate-smart cities: water capture, treatment, and storage; carbon sequestration; livability; air quality; fossil fuel dependence, etc. For example, the KC Climate Action Plan rates actions on the following co-benefits beyond reducing greenhouse gasses: health and well-being, environmental quality, accessibility, affordability, cost-savings, green job development, energy security, economic growth, and resilience. The plan marks whether an area of action is “mitigation” or “adaptation.” We farmers know that responsible production can aid in each and every one of these efforts in significant ways while feeding people! We need financial and legislative pressure put on cities and states to encourage regenerative and bio-diverse producers in all the creative ways they work. We need incentives for farming methods that are not just halting, but reversing, global warming (e.g. Indigenous methods, prairie restoration, integrated grazing, bio-diverse production, etc.).
- In such a plentiful land, there is so much hunger. We have plenty of food and farmers want to feed people, but there needs to be access for everyone! We need expansion and protection for the SNAP and WIC programs that help all people get the food we are producing.
- While regulation can help create safety and consistency for consumers, sometimes the legislation is out of touch with the real demands of food production, focusing on the wrong part of a problem. Especially in urban and suburban areas, it can be a long process of paperwork, council meetings, votes, zone changes, and constant clarifying just to grow and distribute food your neighbors can eat. We need simple, straightforward, and honest policy to aid farmers in growing and distributing the safest food possible, right in their communities, right when it is ready.
- In all of these matters, young farmers of color face even more obstacles as historical legal discrimination continues to impede their access and progress. The FSA has finally begun to take a deep look at the discriminatory lending practices still happening across the country today and NYFC has highlighted this in every conversation with the USDA, pushing for more equitable laws and practices. We need as many farmers as possible. Each person should know they can have funding making up for the years of lost wealth and capital throughout U.S. history, and equitable access to the funding available now.
- Farmers of all ages need mental health support, especially in a country without strong healthcare access for this vocation. In 2022, the CDC reported that agricultural workers have one the highest suicide rates of any industry and the trend is expected to continue. Some rural counties in the U.S. have only one social worker licensed to help with these crises trying to serve counties full of farmers! We need funding for mental health services for farmers in crisis and to keep them from getting to that desperate point.
Whether farmer or not, every person in this country needs a Farm Bill that acknowledges and addresses these realities. We need to be able to feed people in the face of urbanization and sprawl, climate chaos, shifts to renewable energies, and pandemics. We need farming to be a viable vocation for more young people, a career that does not have to lead to financial ruin or burnout. We need urban, suburban, and peri-urban farming to thrive alongside rural farming. The future of us as individuals and we as a society depends on it.
If you are a farmer or rancher, keep it up! Keep connecting and growing and producing, and take care of yourself while you’re at it. If you’re a young farmer, wondering whether you’ll make it or not, you’re not alone; you are part of a great movement of people responding to the problems we see in the world. Reach out to those who have been farming for a while and ask for help. We need you.
If you’re an aged farmer wondering if your impact will last, please find us young farmers to mentor and encourage. Your wisdom and experience is invaluable. We need you.
Whether you’re a producer or not, consider becoming a member of the National Young Farmers Coalition. Find a local chapter to join and support (we would love to have you at any of our KC Young Farmers events). Find out who is on your state agriculture committee and make sure they listen to the next generation of farm laborers. Invite farmers to your discussions on climate action and compensate or trade with them to recognize it is time out of the field for them. Support organizations like the Kansas Rural Center and KC Farm School who are giving all they’ve got to grow common ground around food and farming.
Go to your neighborhood association and city council meetings when a vote is up about agricultural production; encourage those influential representatives to get to know the needs of farmers in their area and do the important work of advocating for them. Go to your local farmers markets for your food shopping and buy local when you’re at the store; join a CSA and tell your friends about it. When you speak to young students about potential careers as teachers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, and musicians, remind them that they could be farmers, too! Everyone eats, everyone depends on farmers, everyone has got to collaborate to support them.
While the solutions needed go beyond the Farm Bill, it is a great foundational step toward shifting and expanding the way we feed ourselves as a country. Together, we can do this – address climate change, feed communities, and build resilient, localized economies. We can and we must!
See you in the field! - Lydia
Links from Lydia’s Article
KC Farm School at Gibbs Road - https://bit.ly/3UhLaW8
KC Climate Action Plan - https://bit.ly/3BKkPbM
KC Young Farmers Coalition - https://bit.ly/3Lsj4U4
KS Young Farmers Coalition - https://bit.ly/3qHAKkS
National Young Farmers Coalition - https://bit.ly/3QL5n3n
FSA look at discriminatory practices - https://bit.ly/3S7HZOK