In New Food Culture, a Young

Generation of Farmers Emerges

For years, Tyler Jones, a livestock farmer here, avoided telling his grandfather how disillusioned he had become
with industrial farming. After all, his grandfather had worked closely with Earl L. Butz, the former federal secretary of
agriculture who was known for saying, “Get big or get out.” But several weeks before his grandfather died, Mr.
Jones broached the subject. His grandfather surprised him. “You have to fix what Earl and I messed up,” Mr. Jones
said his grandfather told him.
Now, Mr. Jones, 30, and his wife, Alicia, 27, are among an emerging group of people in their 20s and 30s who have
chosen farming as a career. Many shun industrial, mechanized farming and list punk rock, Karl Marx and the food
journalist Michael Pollan as their influences. The Joneses say they and their peers are succeeding because of
Oregon’s farmer-foodie culture, which demands grass-fed and pasture-raised meats.
“People want to connect more than they can at their grocery store,” Ms. Jones said. “We had a couple who came
down from Portland and asked if they could collect their own eggs. We said, ‘O.K., sure.’ They want to trust their
producer, because there’s so little trust in food these days.”
Garry Stephenson, coordinator of the Small Farms Program at Oregon
State University, said he had not seen so much interest among young
people in decades. “It’s kind of exciting,” Mr. Stephenson said. “They’re
young, they’re energetic and idealist, and they’re willing to make the
sacrifices.”
Though the number of young farmers is increasing, the average age of
farmers nationwide continues to creep toward 60, according to the
2007 Census of Agriculture. That census, administered by the
Department of Agriculture, found that farmers over 55 own more than
half of the country’s farmland.
In response, the 2008 Farm Bill included a program for new farmers
and ranchers. Last year, the department distributed $18 million to
educate young growers across the country.
Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, said he hoped some
beginning farmers would graduate to midsize and large farms as older
farmers retired. “I think there needs to be more work in this area,” he
said. “It’s great to invest $18 million to reach out to several thousand to
get them interested, but the need here is pretty significant. We need to
be even more creative than we’ve been to create strategies so that
young people can access operations of all sizes.”
The problem, the young farmers say, is access to land and money to buy equipment. Many new to farming also
struggle with the basics. In Eugene, Ore., Kasey White and Jeff Broadie of Lonesome Whistle Farm are finishing
their third season of cultivating heirloom beans with names like Calypso, Jacob’s Cattle and Dutch Ballet.
They have been lauded – and even consulted – by older farmers nearby for figuring out how to grow beans in a
valley dominated by grass seed farmers. But finding mentors has been difficult. There is a knowledge gap that has
been referred to as “the lost generation” – people their parents’ age may farm but do not know how to grow food.
The grandparent generation is no longer around to teach them.
So Ms. White and Mr. Broadie turned to YouTube for farming tips. They scoured the antiques section of Craigslist
for small-scale farming equipment. “When we started, we didn’t even know what we needed,” said Ms. White, 35.
“We found out that a tractor built in the 1950s would drive over our beds and weed them.” She said that they
farmed because they felt like part of a broader movement, but that the farmer’s life was not always romantic. Last
year, their garlic crop rotted in the ground. Mr. Broadie, 36, is unable to repay his student loans. They do not have
health insurance, or know when they will be able to afford to buy land.
On a recent Saturday, Ms. White and Mr. Broadie moved to a farm owned by a couple that wants to support local
agriculture. They hope it is their last stop. That evening in Corvallis, the Joneses prepared for a party at Mary’s
River Grange Hall with friends. Among them, Jenni and Scott Timms, both 28, had quit their engineering jobs in
Houston the month before. They would like to own their own farm someday. “We see people like Tyler and Alicia
doing it, and we thought, ‘If they can do it, so can we,’ ” Mr. Timms said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/us/06farmers.html?_r=2