The 2018 Farm Bill expired over six months ago, and the next one is still many conversations away. What’s the hold up? 

According to a report by the American Enterprise Institute, the largest 10% of farms receive 65.4% of all crop insurance subsidies.

Part of the issue is that Congress has not allocated any new money to the Farm Bill, so any increased spending in one Farm Bill title (such as commodity payments) means decreased spending in other areas (conservation or nutrition, for instance). 

One of the principal fault lines facing members of Congress is the tension between increased spending on the farm safety net—a group of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs that offer risk mitigation and financial support to US farmers experiencing hardship caused by natural disasters, poor growing conditions, and/or market volatility (including crop insurance and commodity supports)—and preserving the Inflation Reduction Act’s historic investment in conservation.

And that funding dispute doesn’t take into account all the great new ideas clamoring for inclusion in the next Farm Bill, including programs around land access, local food procurement, and perennial systems. If we want to see those programs implemented, the money would need to come from somewhere; limiting government payments to large-scale, conventional producers is one pathway toward finding those dollars, but it is not a solution embraced by all parties and all stakeholders.

The current farm safety net is neither environmentally nor financially sustainable.

While the farm safety net is critical to our agricultural system, it is far from perfect. The crop insurance and commodity programs pick winners and losers, disincentivize conservation practices, and demand a high price tag (more than $142 billion between 2017 and 2022) that cannot be sustained.

What’s more, these programs subsidize risky forms of commodity production—systems that are based on annual monoculture crops, overly reliant on off-farm chemical inputs, and chronically overuse tillage. 

The 2022 Census of Agriculture revealed a trend toward farm consolidation and an alarming loss of 145,000 farmers. The continued concentration of resources in industrial farms is only likely to exacerbate this trend, but the correlation is rarely discussed on Capitol Hill. 

Instead, members of Congress only hear about the important role that the farm safety net plays in helping farmers recover from disaster and revenue loss. However, these programs are primarily available only to a modicum of farms—mostly large, industrial commodity operations—and exclude most small- to mid-sized diversified farms.

According to Unsustainable: State of the Farm Safety Net, a report recently published by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC),

“Farm economists find that the largest 10% of farms with the highest annual crop sales nationally receive 65.4% of all crop insurance subsidies, and that the smallest 80% of farms receive just 23.3% of premium subsidies.

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

Most small and mid-sized farms are left unprotected.

It likely won’t surprise anyone to learn that many farmers within Pasa’s community haven’t found a crop insurance product that works well for them. For the most part, crop insurance is not designed for small or medium-sized diversified farms that grow food and fiber for their local communities. 

Only 13% of U.S. farms were protected by a crop insurance plan in 2022.

According to an analysis by USDA Economic Research Service.

Rather, crop insurance was built for large commodity-crop farms that grow products like corn, soy, and wheat in mass quantities, which are often heavily processed before they make it to our plates—if they ever make it to our plates. (Many of these crops never enter the food system and are instead turned into products like ethanol.)

This means that while many small and medium-sized diversified operations are doing everything they can to farm in ecologically responsible ways—when climate catastrophe strikes, these are the farms left without a safety net. 

The NSAC report showed similar findings:

“In theory, crop insurance extends a safety net to all remaining farmers. In practice, it does not. The Congressional Research Service reported that only 20% of farms were insured in 2019, yet that 20% accounted for more than 90% of acres planted to corn, soybeans, and cotton and 85% of wheat acres.

More recently, a new analysis published by the USDA Economic Research Service found that just 13 % of U.S. farms were protected by a crop insurance plan in 2022. In 2023, farmers in Kansas, Texas, North Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska—among the largest producers of row crops—enrolled most in the federal crop insurance program.”

NSAC

Expanding the definition of the farm safety net allows us to think more holistically about how the Farm Bill can give farmers what they need to weather the storm. 

Together, we’re bigger than our acreage.

Like most farms that benefit from crop insurance, the groups advocating for higher subsidies are large, well-funded, and well-connected. Convincing Congress to rethink the farm safety net status quo is an uphill battle, and they won’t address this problem without farmer input.

We need your stories to help legislators understand:

• Our farms’ impact on the food system is bigger than our acreage.
• Our farms are feeding our communities.
• Our farms are feeling the effects of the changing climate.
• Our farms are working hard to protect the environment. 
• Our farms deserve to be protected.
• Our farms belong in the Farm Bill. 

Are you ready to take action? 

Call your members of Congress and tell them that the next Farm Bill should invest in climate resilience, equitable food systems, and farm viability—not continue to prop up a flawed and unsustainable system.

Want to share your story? Reach out to policy@pasafarming.org to get involved!

Learn more:

Here are a couple of resources that I found useful in deepening my understanding of this issue:

• Unsustainable: State of the Farm Safety Net (National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition)
• “How Crop Insurance Prevents Some Farmers From Adapting to Climate Change” (Civil Eats)
• “Calls to increase crop references prices would help fewer than 6,000 farms” (Environmental Working Group)

The post Who does the farm safety net actually protect? appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Business Leadership Award

Masa Cooperativa

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Masa Cooperativa is a worker-owned and majority immigrant-operated cooperative based in Philadelphia that mills corn grown in partnership with local organic farms to produce masa–a maize dough used to make popular foods, such as tortillas, tamales, arepas, and other staples of Latin American cuisine. Their process is based on ancestral techniques from the indigenous people of the Americas, honoring the cultural importance and nutritional value of corn masa.

The Cooperativa’s goal is to raise the standards of commercially available masa by providing wholesome, organic masa grown and made locally. They produce masa both for wholesale to restaurants and for retail within the community. 

As a business that is majority immigrant-owned and utilizes a worker-owned model that promotes wealth redistribution and non-extractive financial management, all while serving surrounding communities and working across the rural-urban divide, Masa Cooperativa is an inspiration to other businesses. They challenge us to reimagine our food system–positing that it is not only the product that delivers exceptional taste, nutrition, and value to the community, but also the process itself–and that both are deserving of celebration.

Community Leadership Award

Truelove Seeds

Philadelphia, Pennsylvnia

Truelove Seeds is a farm-based seed company offering culturally important and open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and flower seeds. They have been a collaborative project since the beginning, now involving 75 growers who produce seeds for their catalog along with a team of staff and apprentices growing, cleaning, organizing, and shipping the seeds from their farm and office, each contributing and stewarding ancestral seeds and stories along the way. 

Co-Founders Owen Taylor and Chris Bolden-Newsome launched their first seed catalog in 2017 and have since expanded to include mentorships, apprenticeships, and a wide array of community programs, including seed-saving workshops, seed exchanges, and local farm partnerships. Truelove is a training partner in Pasa’s Diversified Vegetable Pre-Apprenticeship, graduating three to five individuals each season. They are passionate about educating young farmers on how to save seeds that are culturally relevant to them. Recently, Truelove collaborated with Pasa to facilitate our first fully bilingual event at Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. 

It takes a village to raise a community-based seed company, and Truelove would not be complete without its people! Maebh Aguilar is the Seed Collection Manager and self-proclaimed “office human.” Miki Palchick helps manage the farm and apprenticeship program. Zainab Muhammad fills most of the orders, manages packet filling in the winter, and spearheads the fermentation station and farm seed room organization in the summer. Hannah Thompson, Sarah Kim, and Chesa Thai knock out farm tasks and packet-filling projects. Chesa is also building a new database to keep the seed collection, germination tests, and crop plans organized. Sara Taylor has been a web and graphic designer, bookkeeper, and business manager.

The name “Truelove” honors the memories of Leticia Truelove, Owen and Sara’s maternal great-great-grandmother. Chris and Owen believe that seed saving is an act of true love for ancestors and for the collective future. We are grateful for Truelove’s contributions to the Pasa community and are humbled by their dedication to stewarding ancestral crops, as well as their heart for mentoring aspiring farmers and community members on their journey to reconnect with their roots through diasporic seeds.

Leadership Award

Sue Miller, Birchrun Hills Farm

Chester County, Pennsylvania

Sue Miller co-manages Birchrun Hills Farm, a first-generation dairy farm with an on-site creamery in Chester County, about an hour northwest of Philadelphia.

Sue fell in love with taking care of cows when she met her husband, Ken Miller. Since 2006, the Millers have been committed to dairy farming using conservation-minded methods. Their award-winning, handcrafted raw milk cheeses have become staples in local restaurants, farmers markets, breweries, and farm shows. In 2023, the Chester County Commissioners awarded the Miller family the Farmers of the Year award, acknowledging their dynamic business model, commitment to sustainable farming, and local food system advocacy.

Many Pasa staff members hold a deeply personal admiration for Sue. Pasa’s Farm Bill Campaign Organizer Lindsey Shapiro, shared, “When I was a baby farmer, I took my mom for a tour around our farmers market and brought her to my favorite cheese stand to meet the proprietor, Sue Miller. Sue said to my mom, ‘You should be so proud that your daughter’s a farmer.’ That moment has always stuck with me–I think it exemplifies Sue’s dedication to supporting her peers in this industry and helping us navigate the challenges of a life in farming.”

Sue previously served as a Pasa Board member from 2008 to 2017 and is remembered for her insightful contributions. She notably articulated the unique challenges faced by dairy farmers, highlighting Pasa’s role in representing a dairy community aiming to balance the health of the farmer, animals, community, and ecosystem. We are proud to be presenting this award to Sue Miller as a tribute to her commitment to environmental stewardship and in gratitude for her leadership in this community.

Lifetime Service Award

Chef Mike Ditchfield

Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Chef Mike Ditchfield has dedicated his career to educating the next generation of chefs. He upholds that the farmers he works closely with are the primary sources connecting him to high-quality food, and relays the same philosophy to his students–teaching them how to source ingredients sustainably and how to prepare cuisines that honor those ingredients. 

Recently retired from Penn College of Technology, his classes often involved trips to organic farms, trout nurseries, and wineries, as well as food demonstrations at local growers markets and harvest dinners. For many years, he played a crucial role in showcasing sustainable products by bringing students into the Pasa Conference kitchen to process whole birds, prepare farm-fresh produce, and create tasty dishes for thousands of attendees. 

In the words of Pasa’s Associate Director for Farmer Training & Development, Dan Dalton, “When Chef Ditchfield speaks about food service, farming, and the environment, he is nothing short of compelling. He’s a true community advocate, representing so well what Pasa has been and aims to be within the food system.” 

A favorite on the Pennsylvania Farm Show PA Preferred Culinary Connection stage, Chef Ditchfield’s relatable style and dedication to healthy, whole foods has made a notable difference in the lives of his students, the farmers he partners with, and foodies throughout the region.

Lifetime Service Award

John & Sukey Jamison

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

Lifetime Pasa members John and Sukey Jamison have dedicated their lives to improving the health of their land and community by conservation grazing and supplying their local market with high-quality lamb cuts. When the lack of access to meat processing facilities proved challenging to their business, The Jamison Farm, they built their own USDA processing plant to serve their own needs, as well as those of their neighbors in Western Pennsylvania. Self-proclaimed high school sweethearts, the Jamisons authored Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door: Stories and Recipes from Our Farm to Your Table, in which the couple shares the knowledge they have gained through their many years of sheep farming.

John served on the Pasa Board from 2004 to 2013 and is remembered for his witty and joyful contributions, challenging us to think holistically about the impacts of our decisions on the lives of farmers and their businesses. After John was diagnosed a year ago with normal pressure hydrocephalus, the couple doubled down on what has become a remarkable journey to recovery for John, with Sukey by his side. We are happy to report John is back on his tractor again!

We are so grateful for the many contributions the Jamisons have made to our community and for the countless ways they have touched the lives of fellow farmers, chefs, and customers along the way!

Lifetime Service Award

Ira Wallace

Louisa County, Virginia

Ira Wallace is a gardener, teacher, and author who manages Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, a cooperatively owned seed company. Ira played a role in the making of the 2014 film Open Sesame: The Story of Seeds, a compelling documentary highlighting the obstacles that some of the most notable non-GMO seed proponents face in their quest to keep seeds from being appropriated as intellectual property and controlled by powerful entities. She has served as a Board member for the Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Open Source Seed Initiative, and Organic Seed Alliance. She was the recipient of the 2016 Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2019 American Horticultural Society‘s Paul Ecke Jr. Commercial Award, and the 2019 Organic Educator Award. In 2023, Ira received the coveted James Beard Foundation’s Leadership Award.

Ira is known for her unrelenting support of new seed companies, uplifting them and providing them with a platform to share their stories. She is unwavering in her commitment to reducing competition, encouraging young farmers, and fighting for land access. She calls Acorn Community–an intentional egalitarian community on 72 acres in Mineral, Virginia, that supports radical sharing and encourages personal responsibility–home, where she is considered the godmother of cultural seed preservation. 

Since 2012, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has been a steadfast business partner in our Conference trade show, and for most of those years, Ira has also shared her knowledge with our community as a Conference speaker. Furthermore, many of our young farmers and seed savers have sought her counsel and attribute much success to her fortitude, guidance, and wisdom. We’re so grateful to Ira for her contributions to our community.

Do you know a farmer, community, or business leader committed to advancing the field of sustainable agriculture who deserves a shoutout? Fill out the Pasabilities Nomination Form!

The post 2024 Pasabilities Award Recipients appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

photo credit: Lise Metzger for Farm Aid

Even for a self-identified policy nerd like me, it can be challenging to understand the real-world implications of boring and confusing legal jargon. When reading bill summaries and policy one-pagers, I often find myself asking,

“OK, but how will this actually help my farm and my community?”

At our recent webinar, “Farm Bill 101: What Is a Marker Bill?,” we welcomed policy experts from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) to help us understand the role marker bills will play as the federal Farm Bill takes shape. They highlighted several key marker bills to watch out for. 

(If you missed it, you can watch the recording or read our recap.)

But what if you have a policy change wishlist item for your farm and you’re not sure if it has a home in a current marker bill? You might find yourself asking—is there a marker bill for that?

Together, we can begin to connect the dots. Let’s take one of the wishlist items that was mentioned during our marker bill webinar. Webinar attendee Renee, like many in Pasa’s community, wants to see more support for Black farmers and urban farmers. 

Here are a few marker bills that could help advance Renee’s Farm Bill policy change wishlist:

Justice for Black Farmers Act

The Justice for Black Farmers Act will enact policies to end discrimination within the USDA, protect remaining Black farmers from losing their land, provide land grants to encourage a new generation of Black farmers and restore the land base that has been lost, and implement systemic reforms to help family farmers across the United States.

Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA)

The ARA increases the beginning and socially disadvantaged farmer and rancher set-aside in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) from 5% of funding for each to 30% of funding combined. That means 30% of all the funds distributed through the two biggest working lands conservation programs are designated for farmers who meet the USDA definition of “beginning” and/or “socially disadvantaged”.

Unfortunately, here in Pennsylvania, those set-aside dollars often go unused, so any increases in set-asides must be paired with greater accessibility and relevance of USDA programs. Fortunately, there’s a marker bill for that, too!

Farmers Market and Food Bank Local Revitalization Act

This bill proposes increased funding for the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) which provides low-income seniors with access to locally grown food and increases Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) individual benefit levels, overall increasing funding that is spent with local farmers. Since many urban farmers sell directly to their local communities, increases in food assistance programs have the potential to impact the financial viability of urban producers. 

Like the working lands conservation programs, though, funding increases in food assistance programs need to be coupled with better outreach to make sure these funding streams work for farmers of color and the communities they serve.

Ready to put on your policy nerd hat? 

These two tracking tools are a good place to start looking for marker bills that match your farm’s wishlist: Land Core Bill Tracker and RAFI-USA marker bill tracker. 

Now that you’ve identified some meaningful marker bill opportunities, here are three ways to take action.

3 ways to take action

Tell Congress.

Call or write your legislators and ask them to cosponsor a marker bill you think would help your farm. Click here to find your Congress Members →

Here’s a simple call script to help you get started: “Hi [Representative/Senator Last Name], my name is______. I live and farm in [District #]. I’m calling to let you know about a marker bill that could help my farm.”

Raise awareness with your customers. 

Let your customers know how the Farm Bill will impact your operation and what marker bills could help. Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) created a great toolkit for communicating the importance of the Farm Bill and key marker bills to an audience of conscientious eaters.

I used this toolkit as a template for my farm’s weekly newsletter.

Reach out for support. 

Still have policy questions? Pasa and our partners strive to stay up-to-date on policy proposals, on both the state and federal levels. Reach out to us with your needs, and we will do our best to identify some current policy recommendations that address your concerns.

Connect with me or our Policy Strategist, Sara Nicholas.

The post How could the Farm Bill actually help your farm? appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Marker bills are not intended to pass as standalone bills; they are introduced to show collective interest in an idea and build momentum.

Earlier in May, we welcomed two policy experts from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) to highlight a few key marker bills and, more importantly, to discuss what we can do as farmers to support them. (Sad you missed it? Click here to watch the recording →)

Here are the three marker bills NSAC highlighted in the webinar:

• Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA): The ARA includes a broad package of climate provisions spanning research, conservation programs, local food systems, processing, livestock, food waste, and more. This bill also includes an exciting provision authorizing state soil health grants—a long-time Pasa priority.
  
• Local Farms and Foods Act: This bill expands funding and improves accessibility for important federal programs that support small and mid-sized farms with value-added production, equipment and infrastructure investments, accessing new markets, and local and regional supply chain development.
  
• Strengthening Local Processing Act: This bill will make the U.S. food supply more resilient by giving local livestock and poultry producers more processing options.

Marker bills with more congressional support have a better chance of making it into the final version of the 2023 Farm Bill, which is slated to be authorized this fall. 

Take action: 

• Call or write your legislators and ask them to cosponsor a marker bill you think would help your farm. Click here to find contact information for your Congress Members →

• You can also reach out to your House Representative’s agricultural staffer directly with your recommendations and farm stories. Click here to find contact information for relevant legislative staff → 

On May 8th, the House Agriculture Committee Chair and Ranking Member launched an online portal for Members to submit feedback on the 2023 Farm Bill. All House members are invited to submit input whether or not they are on the Agriculture committee.

The deadline for House Representatives to submit information into the portal is June 9, 2023—so act soon!

Want to help fight for a better Farm Bill but feeling a little lost?

Pasa and the organizations we partner with strive to stay up-to-date on policy proposals, on the state and federal levels. Reach out to us with your needs, and we will do our best to identify some current policy recommendations that address your concerns.

Reach out to our Policy Team: 

Lindsey Shapiro, Farm Bill Campaign Organizer and farmer at Root Mass Farm in Berks County PA

lindsey@pasafarming.org
814.349.9856 x719

Sara Nicholas, Policy Strategist and soil health enthusiast, based in Cumberland County and Dauphin County, PA

sara@pasafarming.org
814.349.9856 x715 

The post Farm Bill 101: What’s a Marker Bill? appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Happening soon: Join Lucas at Painterland Farms for a special two-day intensive on Regenerative Grazing with Ian Mitchell-Innes May 18–19.

Infrastructure Workshop & Pasture Rest Trial at Ben Blank’s Farm

This April I organized a field day for our Dairy Grazing Project—a collaborative effort led by Pasa to help dairy farmers improve, expand, or begin grazing.

Since graziers are regularly monitoring their pastures, they need flexible equipment that allows them to quickly adapt in response to the needs of the herd and the land. Farmer Eli Mack of Mack Farms and Kencove Fence Supplies shared his expertise with our crowd of 40+ dairy farmers at Benuel Blank‘s farm in York County, Pennsylvania.

Eli discussed grazing infrastructure, including moveable fencing and watering. Both of these systems are critical for success in rotational grazing. He also shared his grazier philosophy: “When it comes to building a system to meet your farm’s goals, the only limiting factor is your creativity.”

I got to see some of that grazier creativity in action after the event. I spent a little extra time with our host Benuel Blank, who grazes 35 milking cows and some heifers rotationally through his 80+ acre farm.

Ben told me about an experiment he is conducting.

He has a steep, 4 acre pasture along his driveway.

The last graze on this field was in November of 2022. Ben plans on only grazing 2 of the 4 acres in this field once in August of this year, and leaving the other 2 acres to be ungrazed until spring 2024—creating an extra long rest period (a full growing season plus two winters).

Inspired by Allen Williams‘ principles of adaptive management, which includes purposeful disruptions to the land to enhance natural cycles, Ben’s curious about how the diversity and ratios of plants will change in a pasture with a long and an extra-long rest period. 

We walked the field together, and I wrote down all of the plant species we observed from most frequent to least.

Notes from Benuel Blank’s in Farm Delta, PA (York County) taken April 20, 2023 

This field was last seeded in 2020 with orchard grass, clovers, and alfalfa using a no-till drill. 

Plant species observed: 

1. Bluegrass (observed most frequent)
2. Shepherd’s Purse (frequent)
3. Orchard Grass (some)
4. White Clover (some)
5. Chickweed (some)
6. Dandelion (some)
7. Red Clover (little)
8. Alfalfa (little)
9. Buttercup (little)
10. Aster (occasional)
11. Tumbleweed (occasional)
12. Broadleaf Plantain (occasional)
13. Violets (occasional)
14. [unidentified grass 1] — appeared to be rhizome-based (occasional)
15. Bull Thistle (occasional)
16. Fescue (occasional)
17. Curly Dock (occasional)
18. Henbit  (occasional)
19. [unidentified grass 2] — appeared lush and desirable (occasional)

Ben included a caveat that seeing out the extra-long rest period for this pasture experiment is somewhat dependent on what kind of summer we have. If it’s a dry year, and grazeable acreage is at a premium, he might have to graze the full trial pasture. When it comes down to it, the goal of the experiment is to improve the health of the herd, so once again that grazier’s adaptability to the conditions remains key. 

But if all goes well, I plan to do this plant survey again after Ben grazes his herd on part of this pasture this August, and on the full 4 acres next spring.

Stay tuned for updates and insights from this farmer-led field research!

Want to improve the health of your herd, soil, and community?

Whether you’re an experienced grazier seeking a better price for your milk, a conventional farmer only beginning to think about how grazing might support your operation, or fall anywhere in between, Dairy Grazing Project can help.

Visit dairygrazingproject.org to learn more.

Dairy Grazing Project Partners

Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, Center for Dairy Excellence, Ephrata National Bank, Mad Agriculture, Origin Milk Company, Rodale Institute, and TeamAg. This project is supported by a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The post Field Notes: Why Adaptability Is Key for Graziers appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Pre-Apprenticeship graduates

Diversified Vegetable Pre-Apprenticeship provides introductory hands-on training for people who want to explore sustainable farming as a career but have little to no prior farming experience. Our pre-apprenticeship program is hosted by local partner organizations with established farmer training programs focused on teaching sustainable growing practices. 

To graduate, each pre-apprentice had to complete 225 hours of on-the-job training and 25 hours of related technical instruction. They also had to demonstrate competency in 15 core skill areas around vegetable production and farm business.

Carlie Antes

Host site: Dickinson College Farm

Farm Stat: hundreds of pounds of potatoes harvested with a team of four in one day

Favorite farm task: harvest

Least favorite farm task: sorting tomatoes

Favorite beneficial insect, organism, or critter: Lactobacillus

How did you grow from this experience?

“I never farmed before this.

I was surprised by the strength and leadership I gained. By the end of the season, I found myself leading our students and volunteers with ease and answering the same questions I had when I started.

A college supervisor told me ‘all we can do is take care of our small part of the world,’ and I feel like I can really live by that while farming and promoting accessible local food systems.”

What’s next: Carlie is taking the next step in her farming career: starting her two-season apprenticeship at New Morning Farm.

Sarah Kim

Host site: Truelove Seeds

Farm stat: “An innumerable and growing number of seeds and seed stories I’ve learned about through the different farmers I’ve connected to.” 

Favorite farm task: seed cleaning and collecting “—but it really depends on the crop.”

Least favorite: weeding

 Favorite beneficial insect, organism, or critter: mantids

What’s a story or memory that stands out from this experience?

“One of the best memories I have of this time is actually planting Korean crops at Truelove’s acreage, one of which was Korean cosmos—my grandfather’s favorite flower.”

What’s a lesson you learned that you would pass along to someone considering pre-apprenticeship?

“It’s truly about the people you work with and the community and solidarity you build with them.” 

Shout out: “Pasa is great!”

What’s next: Sarah plans to continue farm work with Truelove and, as an artist, hopes to merge their experience in agriculture with an environmentally-focused creative practice.

Abigail Schaus

Host site: LaFarm — Lafayette College

Farm stat: “8 awesome farmworkers I managed and mentored last season!”

Favorite farm task: harvesting brussels sprouts

Least favorite: repairing holes in drip-tape irrigation

Favorite beneficial insect, organism, or critter: worms

What’s something unique you brought to this pre-apprenticeship?

“During my time on the farm, I worked to bring intersectional lenses into the conversation, providing space for all identities in a way that things about food and farm work as a safe space for dialogue, expression, and understanding.”

How did you grow from this experience?

“This experience developed my confidence in managing multiple tasks.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to learn new responsibilities, whether it be coordinating tasks for other farmworkers or controlling the irrigation system.”

Shoutout: “Thank you, Lisa, for your incredible work as pre-apprenticeship manager, and for caring about humans, soil, plants, and creatures in such meaningful, inspirational ways!”

What’s next: Abigail is currently serving as an intern for a community garden program and working toward completing her undergraduate degree in environmental studies.

Apprenticeship graduates

Diversified Vegetable Apprenticeship pairs beginning farmers with established mentor farmers to provide a guided pathway toward managing or starting a vegetable farm.

To graduate, each apprentice completed 2,700+ hours of on-the-job training and 200+ hours of coursework over at least 18 months. Now they’re embarking on careers growing a more sustainable food system.

Delilah Miske

Host farm: Katydid Hill

Farm stat: helped grow, harvest and dry about 1,000 pounds of dried medicinal plants

Favorite farm task: seeding or tractor cultivation

Least favorite: punching holes in the header of irrigation pipes

Favorite beneficial insect, organism, or critter: praying mantis and swallowtail

What’s a story or memory that stands out from your apprenticeship?

“Harvesting fresh milky oats by hand, and learning the ripeness by squeezing the latex out of the pods. That same day, I made the biggest tincture of my life using a large drum and a very large immersion blender.”

How did you grow from this experience?

“I learned how to do things that once intimidated me, confidently.

I learned all the ins and outs of running and managing a farm. From rebranding to fixing the tractor to seeding and going to markets. I got a real experience of what it takes to get locally grown goods out to a community.”

Shout out: “I am just so grateful for [mentor farmers] Ben and Katelyn and to Dan for all that I have learned and will continue to explore because of this experience.”

What’s next: Delilah is pivoting to writing work that supports farms and conservation organizations. Her ultimate goal is to find land in the Appalachian mountains, where she hopes to grow woodland medicinals like ginseng, goldenseal, reishi, cordyceps and more.

Ventura Ortiz

Host farm: Apple Ridge Farm

Farm stat: “I have worked at about 8 different markets over the past two years from all the way up in Warwick, NY to Wrightstown, PA.”

Favorite farm task: planting seedlings

Least favorite: weeding “—it feels like a never ending war against weeds!”

Favorite beneficial insect, organism, or critter: ladybugs

What experience got you interested in farming?

“I was not really connected to food or community growing up, I was a video gaming, fast food fan.

But when my family decided to move to a place with enough land to be able to have chickens, goats, ducks, and even turkeys—It made me realize I wanted to get involved, and find a farmer who could teach me how to start my own farm.”

How did you grow from this experience?

Only being 18 going into the apprenticeship, I have matured and learned so much from so many people!

I grew in many ways, from having to take on the role of teaching my fellow farmworkers to teaching myself to speak up and take the initiative to solve problems when they arise.

What’s next: Ventura has stepped into a role as head brewer at Untamed Ferments, a value-added operation making kombucha from surplus crops (started by her boyfriend Erik Sink—another apprenticeship graduate).

Michael Salzl

Host farm: nook & cranny

Farm stat: 5,000 shares worth of vegetables provided to CSA members

Favorite farm task: harvesting cabbages

Least favorite: deconstructing cucumber trellises

Favorite beneficial insect, organism, or critter: garter snakes

What’s a story or memory that stands out from your apprenticeship?

“I remember during my second year in the program, our farm had an end of summer party for our crew and CSA members. I felt a lot of pride being able to share knowledge about our farm with families who directly supported us.”

What’s a lesson you learned that you would pass along to someone considering Diversified Vegetable Apprenticeship?

“I learned that people in this network truly want to share their experiences and knowledge. It is crucial to really put yourself out there early because the experiences you make early in the program snowball, and determine who you meet and the interests you can pursue for the rest of the apprenticeship.”

How did you grow from this experience?

“This experience helped demystify the art of farming for me.

Before my experience growing food seemed like a magic trick, and now I feel like it is a crucial and attainable piece of any household or community.”

Shout out: “Dan and I would spend 99% of our check-in meetings talking about farm business, but we would be sure to chat at the end about our shared love for soccer, in particular the English Premier League.”

What’s next: Michael has accepted a position as a crew member on an organic no-till diversified farm in his home state of Minnesota, and will work towards the dream of owning and operating his farm in the future.

What’s the next step in your farming career?

Whether you’ve been farming for decades, have a year or two of ag experience under your belt, or have never set foot on a farm—Pasa has farmer education and training opportunities for anyone who’s looking to grow.

The post Meet some recent Apprenticeship & Pre-Apprenticeship graduates appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Farming can be an isolating profession.

Even though we share many of the same challenges—like extreme weather events damaging our fields, making it harder for us to feed our communities—it can often feel like we’re facing them on our own.

So when I learned through my work with National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) about plans to organize a national “farmer climate action,” I knew that I had to be involved.

I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to stand alongside my fellow farmers and say with a united voice:

“Climate change is real, it’s impacting our farms, and we need help.”

Since late last summer, organizers from across the country have been applying for permits, raising money, coordinating transportation, and recruiting farmers to bring the Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience to life in Washington D.C. this spring.

The policy asks of this movement are anchored by three foundational principles:

• Farmer-Led Climate Solutions: Value and support the expertise of farmers whose long-developed, holistic, sustainable systems address climate concerns and many related environmental challenges
• Racial Justice: Prioritize the expertise and needs of Black farmers, Indigenous farmers, and farmers of color in the Farm Bill reauthorization process and the resultant policies
• Communities, Not Corporations: Ensure that land, products, and benefits of agriculture will remain under or return to the control of those with knowledge and skill in managing and developing sustainable systems, to benefit them and their communities

The rally on March 7 set out to make Congress listen to the voices of those who are most acutely impacted by climate change. 

It featured a truly inspirational lineup of speakers who shared their stories of resilience in the face of hardship, displacement, and oppression. They painted a picture of a future in which farmers are celebrated not just for our output, but for our ecologically sound practices and for the communities we nurture along the way. They detailed a path forward that elevates the solutions of small-scale, diversified, and regenerative farms—solutions that have millennia of evidence to support their efficacy.

Pasa’s staff and community of farmers and food system changemakers showed up in force.

Fortified by a generous donation of Painterland Sisters yogurt, we cheered at Freedom Plaza, sang along to John Mellencamp, and marched to the Capitol building, passing by USDA and Congressional office buildings en route. Our chants of “What do we want? Climate Action! When do we want it? Now!” rang through the streets.

After the excitement of the march and rally, we spent the next day on Capitol Hill sharing our Farm Bill goals with our elected officials.

I was deeply appreciative of the time Pasa’s delegation of farmers spent in these meetings and the candor with which they shared their stories.

I had the privilege of attending meetings with San Sankofa of Herbal Affirmations, whose work through Pasa’s Diversified Vegetable Apprenticeship at Katydid Hill and through The Seed Farm incubator has helped him launch his own farm business. I got to sit beside Russ Wilson of Wilson Land & Cattle and Gary Bloss of Josie Porter Farm as they educated their representatives on the power of healthy soils. I listened to Sabine Carey describe how her Centre Markets initiative is building a resilient local supply chain in Centre County and supporting the bottom line of over two dozen farm businesses in the process. And I witnessed Emma Jagoz of Moon Valley Farm share the hurdles she faced in working with the USDA, while also acknowledging the relative ease of her journey compared to her BIPOC peers.

What I witnessed in D.C. this spring filled me with hope. 

When farmers take the time to share our personal challenges, they can no longer be dismissed as isolated incidents or anomalies. They must be acknowledged as products of systems in need of significant reform. 

When we share our stories, we’re no longer in it alone. Our individual struggles and aspirations become a collective movement for change.

What can you do to keep this movement going?

• Find your voice. Join Lindsey and local organizers from the National Young Farmers Coalition at our upcoming Farmer Storytelling for Policy Change workshop at the RE Farm Cafe at Windswept Farm in State College. (Free—includes a farm tour, complimentary snacks, and farmer networking.)
  
• Share your story. Do you have experience working with USDA agencies, like Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), or Rural Development? If so, your stories could help other farmers navigate these federal programs and tap into new funding streams! Consider adding your story to fundedbyFarmBill.org to demonstrate the value of these USDA services. Email me at lindsey@pasafarming.org to learn more.
  
• Learn more about the Farm Bill. Join us (virtually) for Farm Bill 101, where we’ll discuss how marker bills help rally support for the issues you care about.
  
• Tell Congress to take action. Last summer, we shared a list of “Four Key Sustainable Agriculture Policy Needs” to help you complete the House Agriculture Committee’s Farm Bill feedback form. Since then, the Senate has launched a feedback form of its own, so make sure to complete that one, too!
  
• Show your support for the Agriculture Resilience Act, one of the pieces of legislation we hope will get incorporated into the final Farm Bill.

The post A United Voice for Climate Action appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Two-wheel, walk-behind tractors like the BCS are a powerful tool-of-choice for many small scale growers, and also play a role in larger operations. In addition to safe operation and basic maintenance, attendees got to hear from established farmers about how they’ve really put these machines to work in their production plans.

“It was so helpful to learn from another farmer who started from where we are now,” 

shared participant Brittney Pheobus of trainer Dean Buttacavoli of Cabbage Throw Farm, which uses a two-wheel tractor as an integral part of their minimum tillage operation.

“We have been trying to make a decision about whether or not a BCS would be a good fit for getting our operation started.”

Now Brittney says, “I have a much better understanding of the size, scale, and handling of these machines… as well as an idea of what kind of planning to do around incorporating a two-wheel tractor into our farm design.”

The 19 participants at this full-day, interactive training included several of Pasa’s Diversified Vegetable Apprentices and Pre-Apprentices, incubator farmers at The Seed Farm, and apprentices in the Rodale Institute Farmer Training program.

After learning about overall safety—and warming up in the greenhouse over lunch from Wonder Kitchen— each participant got the chance for some supervised hands-on practice using the tiller and flail mower attachments. They did great!

Like many Pasa events, this was truly a community effort. The Seed Farm not only hosted, but helped coordinate and plan. And along with myself and Dean from Cabbage Throw, Dan Kemper from Rodale Institute and several Seed Farm incubator farmers pitched in to share advice—and wound up picking up tips from one another.

While the weather and the clocks could have been kinder to us (did I mention we inadvertently scheduled this for the first day of Daylight Saving?)—seeing this community come together to teach and learn always makes for a great day in my book.

Can a two-wheel tractor help your farm get growing?

Join us the next time we offer this training, on Sunday, April 23 at Weavers Way Farms—Henry Got Crops site at W.B. Saul Agricultural High School in Philadelphia.

The post Field Notes: Training Wheels appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding 

Whether commissioning a Pennsylvania agriculture strategic plan, launching the Pennsylvania Farm Bill, or serving on the USDA’s Equity Commission Subcommittee on Agriculture, Secretary Russell Redding steadfastly serves Pennsylvania’s farmers. Through the PA Farm Bill, he has overseen one of the largest expansions of agricultural services and programming in Pennsylvania’s history. The Farm Bill provides resources that touch on numerous sustainable agriculture priorities, for all farmers in our Commonwealth, including recognizing the vital role farmers can have in mitigating climate change. 

Secretary Redding takes time to listen to farmers and forwards the changes they want to see through the state’s evolving support for agriculture in the Commonwealth. As the NEASDA chair, his leadership sets a high bar and expectation for his peers. Since 2015, urban agriculture funding has been included in the PA Farm Bill, before many other states were really even paying attention to urban ag. At every turn, he emphasizes the importance of diversity in agriculture and ensures everyone has a voice at the table and matters in the field. At the Department, he launched a committee that promotes an inclusive working environment and we look forward to seeing how he forwards an even more inclusive and diverse team, now that he has been asked to serve again as Secretary under, now, a third Administration.

I was honored to serve as Secretary Redding’s Deputy for two years and we regularly engaged around his commitment to examine and promote ways for conventional and organic farmers to coexist. We didn’t always agree, but I never doubted his desire to make agriculture a place for everyone. We’ve been thrilled that the Secretary hired a special assistant to focus on workforce development, and helped expand the state’s prioritization of agriculture apprenticeships. We are grateful for all the ways he looks for opportunities to improve working conditions for farmworkers, the viability of farming as a livelihood, and the overt support for sustainable agriculture through his voice and his example.

Ash Richards

Ash Richards is Urban Agriculture Director at Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, managing the Farm Philly Program and the City’s first Urban Agriculture Plan Growing from the Root. Through their work, they systematically identify and address issues and challenges in Philadelphia facing the urban ag community including land access, education, and resources. 

Pasa board member Jessica Moore shared, “Ash Richards led a democratic- and community-minded process to create the Urban Ag Strategic Plan that is not only an invaluable roadmap for Philadelphia but is a needed resource to many other aligned organizations. Pasa among them, these organizations and the people they serve benefit from the plan’s ability to address challenges and support urban growers and organizations in forwarding substantive change to historically inequitable systems.” 

Richards’ work supports the self-reliance and determination of residents to grow and produce their own food and sits at the nexus of policy, planning, public services/goods, and civic engagement. They have worked for the City of Philadelphia since 2011, and prior to their role at Parks and Recreation, Ash worked for the City Planning Commission doing comprehensive and place-based planning. They also worked for the Philadelphia Water Department’s Office of Watersheds doing green stormwater infrastructure projects. They have served as a member of the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council (FPAC) since 2013 and as co-chair of the FPAC Urban Agriculture Sub-Committee since 2016. 

We are grateful for their service to the sustainable agriculture community and the many growers and their neighbors whose lives are directly impacted by Ash and their unwavering dedication and commitment to an equitable and flourishing future Philadelphia food system.

Wild for Salmon

Wild for Salmon, run by Jenn and Steve Kurian, provides a wild-caught, sustainably harvested source of protein. While their product is unique to the Pasa community, Jenn and Steve’s commitment to environmental stewardship, community-focused product sales to customers at their Bloomsburg store, local farmers markets, CSA’s, coops, buying clubs, grocery stores, and online, Wild for Salmon is a shining example of an ethical business model that builds a better world and is emblematic of Pasa’s community of farmers and food advocates. 

The world-renowned Bristol Bay fishery, where Wild for Salmon fishes, is a well-managed, sustainably run fishery where the annual run of sockeye salmon continues to increase every year, reaching a record of 75 million salmon in 2022! Wild for Salmon now donates a portion of its annual profits to help sustain that fishery for the next generation and has been active in opposing an open pit mine slated for development within its pristine watershed.

Farmers John and Aimee Good at the Good Farm CSA in Lehigh County, who first met Jenn and Steve at the Pasa Conference nearly 20 years ago and have worked with them ever since, estimate that members of their CSA community have consumed approximately 5,000 pounds of salmon during their partnership with Wild for Salmon! That’s a lot of sustainably harvested protein.

Since their first fishing trip to Alaska in 2001, when the Kurians froze and smoked a few pounds of salmon they brought home in coolers to share with their community, up until today where Wild for Salmon provides sustainable fishery products throughout Pennsylvania and ships nationally, they have remained steadfast and valued supporters of the sustainable agriculture and fishery community.  

The post 2023 Pasabilities Award Recipients appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

She also reflected on what she’s learned through working with her mentor farmers to start her own enterprise and redefine the vision for the farm—homing in on the herbs that love to grow on the rocky hills of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

What experiences made you want to farm?

I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I did grow up catching frogs in creeks. I was always very curious about the living world. My dad is a florist and landscaper, so our conversations always involved me asking him what the name of that blue puffy flower was or if something was a perennial in Pennsylvania.

That said, I got my bachelor’s degree in fine art, and after that I moved to Philadelphia. I lived there for a few years, nannying and trying to make some art on the side. But I was always trying to find ways to travel out of the city; to tend to land.

Herbs were my gateway into agriculture. 

A friend who was farming at the time recommended I look into this three-month internship at Herbpharm in Oregon, where you worked on the farm and took herbal classes. I did that and learned so much in such a short period of time, but also realized how much I didn’t know about agriculture. Something that is so important in our daily lives—food, tea, medicine—so much work and time goes into producing those things. I just wanted to learn more.

What about this farm made it feel like the right place to learn more?

Katydid Hill (formerly Tooth of the Lion) is in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, which is where I grew up.

Having learned to farm out west, in Oregon and Hawaii, my teachers out there would talk about the East Coast, and Pennsylvania specifically—how amazing the soil is. And I couldn’t believe that growing up here, I had never had that awareness.

When I learned that there was a medicinal herb farm in the county I grew up in, I just felt like I had to go and work there. I specifically moved back to the area because of this farm, to learn how to cultivate these plants in a familiar place, close to home. 

Did farming in the place where you grew up give you a different perspective on that land?

Totally. This is coal country. Growing up, I didn’t even really know it was possible to farm here —because of the rocky soil, the hills, and impact of mining on the region. 

Growing on this land has also given me such a deeper understanding of the seasons and cycles here in Pennsylvania.

Prior to farming I had no idea how in depth you can familiarize yourself with a piece of land. It seems like the more time you spend in these hills, the more they show you and the more you can learn from them.

Just within the two years here, I have seen shifts in what plants did really well compared to last year, pest pressure, and how the differences in the weather affect the growing season. 

How have your Diversified Vegetable Apprenticeship mentor farmers, Katelyn Melvin and Ben Wissinger, supported and maybe even shaped you as a farmer? 

Both Katelyn and Ben have taught me so much, from running a small business to learning how to identify plants at different stages in their life cycle, to just overall asking the hard philosophical and moral questions that come with the territory of agriculture. 

We also have some pretty steep hills here, which were very intimidating when I first started. Especially on the tractor.

But they were so supportive of me and were just like, “You got it!” And now I feel much more confident. Learning how to drive a tractor on a hill… I feel like driving straight on level land is nothing. 

They even suggested you develop your own product line.

Yeah! Katelyn and Ben presented the idea of me having my own enterprise project going into my second year of apprenticeship, where I would break down the budget, order supplies for the project, and grow what’s needed. I was thinking about how I learned about herbs, and it wasn’t until I had a direct experience either making medicine or seeing the living plants that I felt I really understood how it all worked.

Hands on learning has always been my favorite way to pick up on things, and I wanted to give that to our community.

I wanted to create an interactive project that gave people an experience with herbalism. 

I decided to develop a kit where they could make their own herbal salve and learn about calendula through direct experience with it.

An interesting and kind of surprising part of developing the new product line has been learning about the marketing side of things. That’s something I really didn’t understand before. It’s a really important part of owning a small business, and it can actually be really fun!

I think I used to feel like marketing is like this manipulative thing… But I’ve found when you’re growing a product that you’re truly passionate about, the marketing can be really genuine and honest, and like this creative outlet. 

I can definitely see that creativity at work. You made a zine to go along with the calendula salve kit? 

Yes. The zine idea started as an instructional guide about how to do the project. It gradually evolved and unfolded into writing about how calendula has been used historically, some interpretations of magic, and a little background about myself and why we choose to farm sustainably. 

So, I understand Tooth of the Lion is becoming Katydid Hill. Can you tell us a bit about the new name and vision for the farm—what sparked this change?

To put it simply: Love.

Kately​​n started this farm. And through farming, she met Ben. They fell in love, got married, and wanted to reshape the farm to show the transition to shared ownership. Tooth of the Lion was the roots that have grown into the newly reformed Katydid Hill. (Katydid was Kateyln’s childhood nickname…and we farm on a hill!) 

The new name also coincides with a narrowing of scope for the farm. We cut our crop list in half—twice. As we scale up production, we wanted to focus on tea and herbs that grow well for us. We really love chamomile, and growing a whole acre of it is pretty magical. Phasing out the crops that needed a lot of intervention has allowed us to reduce farm inputs, streamline our workflow, and really focus on quality.

Tooth of the Lion gave us room for experimenting and learning what worked really well on these hills and what crops were struggling here. For Katydid Hill we wanted to move forward the best of the best—the crops we love to grow and that also really seem to love to grow on this land. 

More about Diversified Vegetable Apprenticeship

Interested in becoming an apprentice?

Get comprehensive on-the-job training while you earn a progressive wage. Learn more and apply here.

Interested in hosting an apprentice on your farm?

Help train the next generation of sustainable producers—and gain a committed, pre-qualified employee. Host an apprentice on your farm.

Want to support our farmer training programs?

Make an investment in a brighter future for our food system and our planet. Become a Perennial Donor.

The post What Loves to Grow at Katydid Hill appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Tell Congress what you want to see in the 2023 Farm Bill

The federal Farm Bill is reauthorized by Congress roughly once every five years. It has an enormous impact on farmers’ livelihoods and how the U.S. food system works. Adding your voice to the 2023 Farm Bill conversation is one of the most important ways you can advance healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems.

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee is gathering feedback about how the current 2018 Farm Bill is (or isn’t) working. Tell Congress how the 2023 Farm Bill can support a more equitable and sustainable future.

Be sure to check the “Title II, Conservation” box!

4 key sustainable agriculture policy needs

Not familiar with the Farm Bill? No sweat! We put together a list of four key sustainable agriculture policy needs to help guide your comments to Congress. You can simply share the following messages, or you can use them as inspiration to craft your own message.

#1: Farms engaged in conservation practices are better able to withstand the pressures of a changing climate.

Soils with high levels of organic matter can mitigate both flooding and drought on farms. The benefits of healthy soils also extend beyond the edges of farmers’ fields. Take heavy rainfall as an example: Pennsylvania is the second most flood-prone state in the nation, but healthy soils better absorb water and can increase our capacity to withstand extreme weather.

Policy ask: Prioritize and increase funding for programs that support soil health.

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), and many other programs incentivize soil health practices like reducing tillage and intensive cover cropping. With increased training for USDA employees, these programs could do even more to help farmers move beyond isolated practices and implement whole farm conservation plans. This type of support is especially critical for small, mid-sized, diversified, and historically underserved farms.

#2: Conservation and farm business success can go hand in hand, but farmers need options.

There is a diverse array of climate-smart practices that support the long-term financial viability of a farm business, and have the potential to reduce costs and generate new revenue streams. 

Policy ask: Expand the scope of government-funded conservation to embrace the growing interest in agroforestry, dual-use solar, and grazing. 

The surge of farmer interest in agroforestry practices—like alley cropping, silvopasture, riparian buffers, and forest farming—should be met with a proportionate increase in support. These practices have huge potential to build soil health and climate resilience, while also diversifying farm revenue. Income-producing buffer plantings of fruit or nut crops, for instance, can intercept agricultural runoff if planted along streams. These win-win projects add income streams for farmers and also protect water quality. A Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) income-generating riparian buffer program was approved in the 2018 Farm Bill, and USDA needs to implement this program as soon as possible.

Many farmers have also expressed an interest in solar energy, but most want solar options to be compatible with ongoing farming—and not to displace existing farmland. The Farm Bill’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) should provide support specifically to farmers who integrate dual-use solar (e.g. panels that allow for livestock grazing and cultivating crops under and around panels) into their farming practices. This revenue stream can be a lifeline for many farms, especially those with marginal lands, and can help mitigate catastrophic droughts and floods driven in part by a changing climate.  

#3: USDA needs to do more to support beginning farmers, farmers of color, and other historically underserved farmers.

Widespread adoption of conservation practices is imperative, but barriers to land access and to government programs are preventing farmers from implementing more of these practices.

Policy ask: Several administrative improvements would help equitably increase access to and participation in Farm Bill programs. 

Reducing or eliminating cost-share requirements in CSP, EQIP and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) for eligible low-income farmers would allow for more widespread adoption of conservation practices. Proactive outreach by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), including publishing information in languages other than English, would help to increase the number of beginning farmers and farmers of color who enroll in these programs.

#4: We need more help. 

Even for farms actively engaged in conservation, implementation of new practices is limited by time, expense, and know-how.

Policy ask: Most farmers looking to try new conservation practices say technical assistance is what they need most. 

Cut-backs by land grant university extension programs have exacerbated the shortage of technical support for farmers in recent years. More Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) funding for technical assistance and conservation planning, either through USDA agents or through cooperative agreements, coupled with more streamlined application processes, can help fill this gap. Farmers want to be responsible stewards, but do not have the time, money, or capacity to do this work alone.

Submit your comments to the U.S. House Agriculture Committee on what you’d like to see in the 2023 Farm Bill using the key messages above—or craft your own message. We encourage you to share your personal stories and experiences!

The post Take action: Add your voice to the 2023 Farm Bill conversation appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

The Inflation Reduction Act is a huge win for sustainable agriculture—and there is more work to do.

On Tuesday, August 16, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. While it may not have lived up to the original, more sweeping climate change mitigation aspirations of the now defunct Build Back Better Act, the Inflation Reduction Act is still an historic piece of legislation and ultimately fantastic news for sustainable farmers. It is the single largest federal investment in climate-smart agriculture to date.

The Inflation Reduction Act delivers $40 billion for advancing regenerative farming practices, such as planting cover crops, reducing tillage, pasturing livestock, and agroforestry. This includes $20 billion in supplemental funding for existing popular conservation programs including the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), and farmland easement programs.

Many farmers in Pennsylvania have been frustrated by the backlogs and waits involved in enrolling in these conservation programs—to date, just 20% of EQIP and 27% of CSP applications from farmers in Pennsylvania get funded. The Inflation Reduction Act will significantly expand these existing programs to to support more eligible farmers. 

Like any bill that gets signed into law, some of the details are not yet finalized.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes more than $5 billion for providing financial assistance to farmers who faced discrimination prior to 2021, and to the USDA to pay down loans held by farmers who face financial distress. Neither “discrimination” nor “distress” are defined in the law, and will have to be. These measures were intended to override lawsuits and legal hurdles that froze an earlier attempt by the American Rescue Plan to award $4 billion in relief to farmers of color. 

It will remain to be seen whether the Inflation Reduction Act will live up to the American Rescue Plan’s attempt at guaranteed support for Black farmers and other farmers of color, who have time and again suffered from broken government promises to rectify ongoing effects of historical discrimination. We can all advocate for ensuring this funding reaches its intended recipients through appeals to our Congressional representatives.   

There is more work to do. The 2023 Farm Bill is our next big chance to make meaningful progress.

While the Inflation Reduction Act provides vital funding for combating climate impacts and natural resource degradation through sustainable farming practices, there is more work to do to ensure that these funds are equitably distributed among farmers—including farmers of color as well as new and beginning farmers. Fortunately, much of this work can be done through the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill. (Learn more about Farm Bill programs here.)

With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, farmers and farming organizations have real momentum to bolster the next Farm Bill’s climate, conservation, and social and racial equity programs to complement the Inflation Reduction Act’s impacts.

Pasa is a member of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and we are working in collaboration with sustainable farming organizations across the country to advocate for a Farm Bill that benefits sustainable farms of all scales. Over the next year, we’ll be regularly updating you about and asking you to take action to support our efforts.

Take action.

In fact, there’s something all farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates can do right now to tell Congress what you hope to see in the next federal Farm Bill.

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee is gathering feedback about how the current 2018 Farm Bill is—or isn’t—working. Let them know how the 2023 Farm Bill can support a more equitable and sustainable future. (Be sure to check the “Title II, Conservation” box!)

If you’re not familiar with the Farm Bill and its components, don’t worry—we’ve put together a list of four key sustainable agriculture policy needs. You can simply share these messages when you submit your comments to the House Agriculture Committee, or you can use them as inspiration to craft your own message.

Remember: Adding your voice to the 2023 Farm Bill conversation is one of the most important ways you can advance healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems.

The post Inflation Reduction Act invests $40 billion in climate-smart agriculture appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Being members of the Pasa team for the past six weeks has been an incredible experience as two individuals wanting to learn more about their community. We’ve both learned about what goes on in farms besides just growing fresh food.

Land & spirituality

Sankofa Community Farm at Bartrams Garden was more than just a farm. More than just growing foods. They are cultured around the African Diaspora.

We had to have a reason, a good purpose of walking onto the farm.

“My purpose was to understand more about Sankofa and to get more spiritually connected to myself. When I walked in there I felt a different aura. It felt peaceful and safe in the garden.”

— Mir

Culture & history

Norris Square Neighborhood Project is based on Puerto Rican and African culture. People in the community feel more connected to the farm because it’s their heritage and it’s their lifestyle.

Management & organization

When we visited Novick Urban Farm we learned that even though their space was small, they had two farms. They had a community garden and another garden to grow food to sell.

Organizing farms is very important. It’s important that you know which plants are which and that they are labeled. In order to have healthy and good growing food you need to have them separated and organized. You can’t have two plants that don’t benefit from each other growing side by side.

One of the main things we learned is that when certain crops don’t grow right, you have to learn from your mistakes and improve on them the next time. Learn from your losses.

Education & cooperation

In order for farms to manage farmers have to work together as a team. They have to communicate and trust each other in order to maintain a good team relationship. Our experience from going to farms like Truelove Seeds and seeing teams of farmers working together was amazing. They are respectful and take pride in growing the plants at their farm. They respect each other and are good at explaining and learning from one another.

Many of the farms we visited had youth involvement. Showing the youth how to manage farms and how to grow food is very important. It’s also better for communities to have the young ones working and being productive at farms. Training them and teaching them how to manage a garden or farm will be good for the future. It’s also making the younger generation more aware of the farm’s mission. The more the youth is educated about this the more help to the cause.

Community & policy

Learning about the experiences of others working at different farms felt amazing. We also got to work on a mapping project locating Pasa member farms in Pennsylvania on a map both digitally and on a paper map in the Philly office.

Meeting the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture and learning about the farming system as a whole was such a privilege to have had while working here.

We will be sure to take everything that we’ve learned and incorporate it all into our future as much as possible!

This internship opportunity was coordinated through the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development.

The post How Farms Grow More than Food appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Last week Pasa staff had the honor to visit Thistle Creek Farms in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania to talk with farmer George Lake–a grassfed beef farmer with nearly 30 years experience. George described how prioritizing ecological health on his farm often means less need to invest in damage control. However he also shared how the changing climate has made for some tough years recently.

Touring the pastures, we got to see firsthand how the benefits of practices like rotational grazing and integrated pest management cascade to increase the health, productivity, and resilience of the whole farm system. George is meticulous about the number of days he grazes each field, based on the vegetation, acreage, and herd size. His six-year-old granddaughter often helps move the fence lines, and George relies on a beloved trio of sheep dogs to move his herds into new paddocks. “Who else would be delighted to get out there and move cattle on a freezing Christmas morning?”

His systems were developed to minimize the use of fuel and equipment, avoid chemical fertilizers and insecticides altogether, and enhance the complicated relationship between sun, soil, grass, and animal. In recent years however, increasingly extreme weather is taking its toll.

In 2018, Thistle Creek, like many farms in the region, experienced record rainfall. Water infiltration tests of the farm’s perennial pastures indicate their soil can absorb up to 12 inches a day, unlike neighboring lands, whose bare soil washed onto their property. But sustained heavy rains made for a lot of mud.

“It was a tough year,” George said.

“What really killed us though,” he said, “was no sunlight. We really are farming sunlight.” Fewer sunny days reduced photosynthesis in the grazing forage, which reduced the sugar levels in the pastures and, in turn, the milk for nursing calves. “It was like the moms had fed them skim milk.”

Many of the farm’s sustainable practices carried them through that tough year. A visiting entomologist explained to George how refusing to spray hay fields with insecticides had likely spared them from a serious leafhopper infestation, which turned many neighboring alfalfa fields yellow in 2018. 

“We were standing out behind the barn, and he said, ‘You have a lot of lightning bugs, don’t you?’ And I said by the hundreds and thousands! My wife and I come out here at night to watch them… And he said, ‘They eat alfalfa leafhopper.'”

George believes that avoiding chemical inputs has helped increase in beneficial bugs in their soil as well. He told us:

“When we started farming, I couldn’t find any worms for fishing. That’s just how degraded our soils were from extensive chemical fertilizer application. Over the years, with a focus on soil health—the land is now teeming with wigglers.”

So far 2022 is shaping up to be a different kind of tough year, much more dry than 2018, though nearly just as hot. The temperature during our visit was well into the 90s, and the global temperature in June of this year was the sixth hottest on record. Across Pennsylvania, many counties are drier than normal or experiencing moderate drought. A focus on soil health, on farms like Thistle Creek, can help them get through a tough dry year too. But as the tough years begin to stack up, farms of all types will need increased support and resources to weather the change and continue to feed their communities.

At a moment like this, with tougher years in the forecast, it’s so vital that George was willing to share his story with us. Part of what I love about Pasa is that this organization understands the value of gathering farmers and community members together to share our hardships, our triumphs, our wisdom, and the deep joy we get out of being stewards of this earth. 

I left Thistle Creek feeling reaffirmed in my knowledge that farms like George’s are both better prepared to withstand the upheaval of a changing climate and more equipped to reverse some of its most damaging effects. Widespread adoption of these practices is no small lift, though, and will require more support from government agencies, research institutions, and the farming community at large. With the Farm Bill reauthorization on the docket for next year, we have an unprecedented opportunity to do just that.

About the author: Lindsey Shapiro is our new Farm Bill Campaign Organizer. Her time in this role will be spent meeting with farmers, working to amplify their voices, and advocating for policies that support regenerative practices.

Do you have a story to tell about climate change on your farm or in your community? Or thoughts about how the Farm Bill can help? Email Lindsey.

The post Farmer Climate Story: Thistle Creek Farms appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Last year we launched our Diversified Vegetable Pre-Apprenticeship with two beginner farmer training programs in Pennsylvania. As pre-apprenticeship heads into its second growing season, seven new training partners have signed on to offer this credential to aspiring farmers they work with. Four college-based farms have joined, along with a nonprofit that helps people overcome barriers to employment, and two programs in Philadelphia including an educational nonprofit and a farm business. 

The flexibility of pre-apprenticeship allows each training partner to implement the curriculum at a pace that makes sense for them and for the participants. 

We piloted the program in its first season at two educational nonprofit farms. The LEAF Project cultivates youth leaders from diverse backgrounds through meaningful work in the food system and operates a three-acre vegetable farm in Perry County, Pennsylvania. Grow Pittsburgh’s Urban Farmers in Training Program provides local teens with the opportunity to gain summer employment while learning about the value of growing and eating healthy food.

“We’ve been excited to implement Vegetable Pre-Apprenticeship as an innovative way to synthesize working on our urban farm spaces and sharing education in a very hands-in-the-dirt kind of way that intentionally tracks what someone is learning.”

Eva Barinas, Director of Farm Education and Production at Grow Pittsburgh

Three college-based farms have signed on as training partners to offer pre-apprenticeship to students.

Bucknell University students engage in sustainable farming and food access programs at the Bucknell Farm on campus and at the nearby Lewisburg Community Garden.

LaFarm is a sustainability initiative at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. The farm’s mission is to integrate curriculum and practice in sustainable food and agriculture for the campus community. They grow produce for the dining halls, recycle nutrients from composted food back to the soil, and serve as a home for collaborative student-faculty education and research.

Dickinson College Farm is an 80-acre, organic farm where students can gain hands-on learning experiences in sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. Student employees, graduate apprentices, and volunteers are involved in all aspects of food production and research on the farm, which provides food to the campus and local community in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Dickinson also hosts a full-time farm apprentice through our Diversified Vegetable Apprenticeship.

Some training partners work with people as young as 14, while others work with those well into adulthood.

Located outside of Pittsburgh in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, Crop & Kettle is a nonprofit that utilizes the food system to provide job training and social development for members of their community who are eager to overcome barriers to employment. Grow Pittsburgh has also expanded its participation this year to offer a pre-apprenticeship track to an adult beginning farmer cohort.

Two of the new training partner programs are based in Philadelphia. Greensgrow is an educational urban farm and demonstration garden that provides an essential connection to food and nature in Philadelphia. Truelove Seeds is a seed company focused on providing culturally-important seeds to people longing for their tastes of home. They also have many community facing programs including a farmer training program for growers aspiring to incorporate seed keeping into their work as growers and stewards of culture. 

As farms across the state are struggling with labor shortages, this program offers a valuable tool for workforce development. Pre-apprenticeship can also play a role in advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in agriculture by serving as the first stepping stone on a career path toward becoming a farm manager or owner.

The curriculum is based on the core duties, skills, and qualifications for our two-season vegetable farming apprenticeship program, Diversified Vegetable Apprenticeship, which means pre-apprentices who want to keep learning about agriculture have a built-in next step for more extensive training. Both programs are registered with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Any organization that currently administers, or is planning to administer, vegetable farming training opportunities for either youth or adults can become a Diversified Vegetable Pre-Apprenticeship training partner! Training partners manage recruitment, training, and supervision of pre-apprentices, while Pasa provides curriculum and administrative support.

Over 50 pre-apprentices are currently enrolled in pre-apprenticeship. Two participants completed their pre-apprenticeships last year, and four more are on track to graduate in the next few months. Stay tuned to our social media for profiles of the new grads and an Instagram takeover from some current pre-apprentices.

Learn more:

Read about sprouting pre-apprenticeship last year at the LEAF Project.

Interested in becoming a pre-apprentice or a training partner? Learn more about the program here, and reach out to Lisa at dvp@pasafarming.org or 814.349.9856 x725 with any questions.

Already have a year of farmer training under your belt? Check out our two-season apprenticeship.

The post Welcome to our new pre-apprenticeship training partners! appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

The month of June roared in this year with temperatures in the 90s, a sure sign of summer but also a warning sign. High heat and humidity can create dangerous conditions for farmers, livestock, and crops. A recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that outdoor workers, and particularly farmworkers, are 20 times more likely to die of heat-related illnesses than other workers. 

To consider what can be done to mitigate and reverse the effects of heat stress, Pasa held an online listening session last fall. During the session, two farm managers operating within different settings—one on an urban vegetable farm and orchard, and the other on a rural vegetable farm—shared what they’ve been experiencing as far as heat impacts on their work crews, and how they’re managing those. We also heard from a professional consultant who offered guidelines for preventing illness and death as a result of extreme heat. As we head into hotter days, here’s is some of the advice they offered. You can listen to the full recording of the listening session here.

Educate yourself and, if you’re a farm owner or manager, your workers.

Elena Velez, a consultant who advises farm owners, managers, and workers in California, takes a very practical approach to heat awareness and worker safety. She shares with workers medical information on heat stress and stroke, warning signs, and human physiology. She advises farmers to take basic precautions like wearing cotton clothing instead of synthetics, hydrating regularly, taking breaks based on outside temperature and conditions, and learning the signs of heat stress. The table below summarizes different levels of heat illness, from least severe to most severe. You can find more information about the signs and symptoms of heat illness here on Penn State Extension’s website (also available in Spanish).

Have a plan if heat illness or stroke occurs.

For many workers, Velez notes, posting emergency information and safety steps in English and in Spanish, or any other language that workers know, may be critical. Velez also spends time with farm owners and managers to help them understand potential dangers, how to address them, and basic information such as how emergency crews can find their workers in the field. Tragically, a farmworker in the Pacific northwest last year died of heat stroke when ambulance crews couldn’t locate him.

Be willing to change practices to adjust to hotter temperatures.

Ali Ascherio, a farm manager with Weavers Way Co-op in Philadelphia, acknowledges that urban farms in particular can be oppressive with heat and humidity. Shifting habits and schedules can help. Weavers Way started a safety committee that encourages pre-hydrating for staff and volunteers, taking electrolyte tablets, and cutting field work back on hot days to half a day, with other tasks performed in the afternoon. Harvest days are cut back from 12 hour days to 10 hour days, and planting trees and adding structures for shade has helped head off heat exhaustion. 

Take advantage of the natural cooling opportunities on your farm.

Jenifer Glenister, owner of New Morning Farm—a vegetable operation in Huntington County—says she’s lucky to have plenty of trees and a cool creek that workers can stand in on hot days. She acknowledges part of the problem is a farmer mindset that “farmers make the sacrifice for all of us,” and encourages a team leader to be the point person for heat awareness. She has benefited from a farm staff person with EMS training who reminds workers every day about hydrating, staying in the shade, and taking breaks when needed. They also provide lots of electrolytes, “treating ourselves like the endurance athletes that we are,” she explained.

Unfortunately, not all farms are practicing heat safety, and farmworkers continue to be asked to work hard in extreme conditions. In four states to date—California, Oregon, Washington State and Montana—state legislatures have approved heat-related regulations that protect workers when temperatures reach specific limits, requiring breaks and shortening hours in the field. In 2021, the Biden administration asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to promulgate federal rules to protect outdoor workers from heat illnesses. Pasa’s comments to OSHA include many suggestions from our farmers and experts, including incorporating heat awareness into workforce training and apprenticeships; offering more resources for safety equipment and education; supporting more trees planted and adding more structures for shade—perhaps including solar panels that both provide shade and help reduce carbon emissions that increase annual average temperatures. 

As things heat up this summer, be aware, know the signs, be flexible, and be safe. If you have other strategies for beating the heat on your farm, feel free to share those with us at policy@pasafarming.org.

The post Prevent heat-related illness on farms appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Band together with us for a fun hands-on science experiment to test your soil health

Healthy soils are hungry! There are billions of microbes—bacteria, fungi, protozoa—in just a teaspoon of soil. These soil microbes need to eat and breathe just like we do. What do they eat? Carbon.

Carbon is a common element in all organic compounds, including cotton. So when 100% cotton underwear is buried in the soil, the worms and microbes see it as food.

As a member of the Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition, Pasa’s staff is participating in the #SoilYourUndiesChallenge by burying underwear across the state—in farm fields, community garden beds, office building front yards, and rural and urban back yards. After 60 days, we’ll dig them up and compare the results: the less underwear left, the healthier the soil.

Join us in this fun-for-the-whole-family experiment to learn more about soil health near you. Check out our staff submissions below. Keep on scrolling to find instructions for participating!

Here’s our staff’s soon to be dirty laundry:

Here’s how to take part in this BRIEF community science project:

Sign up for the challenge at pasoilhealth.org.
Get a pair of 100% cotton undies.
Plant them in your soil (3–4 inches deep) any time before June 30.
Mark the location.
Wait 60 days.
Carefully dig them up to see what’s left. The less, the better.
Don’t forget to take before and after photos!

Tag @soilyourundies, @pasoilhealth & @pasafarming to share your results with us.

The post Soil Your Undies Challenge appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Every five years or so, Congress updates and passes a massive piece of legislation known as the Farm Bill. As Pasa’s policy strategist, I recently hosted a public listening session with Adrienne Nelson of National Young Farmers Coalition to share issues and opportunities, and to hear about farmers’ experiences and concerns with existing Farm Bill programs. (You can get the recording of this listening session here.)

We’ve hosted a number of listening sessions for the Pasa community on topics ranging from small meat processing and industrial hemp, to pesticide drift and agritainment law. However, the participation and tone of our recent Farm Bill listening session was different from many of our past listening sessions. The term “flog” immediately comes to mind—as in, flogging a dead horse. For many people, bringing up the topic of this giant piece of federal legislation is met with a sense that it’s an exercise in futility. So, why should you care?

“For many people, bringing up the topic of this giant piece of federal legislation is met with a sense that it’s an exercise in futility. So, why should you care?”

For starters, the Farm Bill is BIG. It directs federal spending on agriculture and nutrition-related programs to the tune of almost $100 billion per year. Even for the last two years, when pandemic-related spending has grown more abundant, that’s a lot of money. This is money that has the power to shape our landscapes, our farming practices, our energy investments, and our ability to help support others in need. In fact, 75% of the Farm Bill budget currently goes toward nutritional supplement payments to families, known more familiarly as SNAP payments.

Not to mention, this funding has the power to affect what we might consider the common good—promoting resilient ecosystems, sustainable farming operations, and to access new technologies (the federal Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) Grant Program in the Farm Bill’s Energy Title that supports solar energy on farms comes to mind). The growth of the Conservation Title—now at 7% of total spending and one of the four biggest titles in the Farm Bill—has supported many regenerative practices under programs like the Conservation Reserve (CRP) and Conservation Stewardship (CSP) programs that address soil erosion, protect stream water quality, and restore multiple natural resource benefits. 

“This is money that has the power to shape our landscapes, our farming practices, our energy investments, and our ability to help support others in need.”

And yet, disinterest and skepticism among farmers and sustainable agriculture supporters abounds, and for good reason. Farm Bills through the years have skewed toward promoting greater agriculture-industry consolidation. They’ve emphasized economic efficiency over equity or environmental protection, and have generated pollution and animal misery through support of confinement operations. Farm Bill administrators have also systematically denied funding to farmers of color.

There are many groups—including Pasa and our community—working to reshape the Farm Bill into an engine for the kind of farming we want to see. This is not an easy battle. There are many interests and forces on the other side working just as hard to ensure that industrial farming remains in place and is subsidized by Farm Bill programs.

It’s also not clear that funding levels by themselves can make a substantial difference. Yes, we’d like to see more money for conservation generally. But we’d like to see that same funding get spread around more equitably. Many farmers can’t access the largess of the Farm Bill for many reasons: they lease instead of own land; they have no access to land; they don’t know how to apply for program funding; they don’t speak or read English well; or they fear deportation. There is so much more work to do than simply lobbying for additional funding. 

“Yes, we’d like to see more money for conservation generally. But we’d like to see that same funding get spread around more equitably.”

Some groups want to dismantle the entire Farm Bill, particularly the programs that support commodity crops and insure against crop loss—an ever-escalating cost due to our changing climate and more frequent drought, flood, and hurricane-related damages. Others are content to tinker in the margins, hoping an increase of 5% in funding for conservation programs is achieved. We are realistic enough to know that the basic structure of the 2023 Farm Bill—including commodity and insurance supports—is not likely to change quickly. We’re optimistic enough, though, to know we have to start somewhere. 

Here are a few ideas we hope will get you energized, and to get you to rethink why it’s important to engage in Farm Bill advocacy: 

• Let’s increase funding that protects and improves soil health on farms and crop nutrient density. 
• Let’s lower barriers to accessing land and Farm Bill program dollars for all farmers. 
• Let’s ensure farmers of all backgrounds and experience levels get technical assistance and financial support.
• Let’s eliminate incentives for industry consolidation, and let’s redistribute more Farm Bill dollars to small and mid-sized farms. 
• Let’s ensure that new technology doesn’t displace or undermine sound regenerative practices. 
• Let’s support more urban farms, and ensure that people who live in low food access areas—urban or rural—can find and afford fresh, nutritious foods. 

We have 12–18 months to get these and other ideas in front of policymakers—I hope you’ll continue to engage with Pasa and other farming organizations to support these efforts. You’re also welcome to contact me at sara@pasafarming.org to share your ideas about the 2023 Farm Bill, or improving agriculture conservation and food-system policies and programs generally.

The post Why you should care about the Farm Bill appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Nuffield’s annual conference brings together over 120 farming scholars from more than a dozen countries representing every continent except Antarctica to share their stories, research ideas, and inspirations toward a better tomorrow not only for farmers and food, but for the wider society and world. This year there was an unexpected and distressing backdrop to the meeting—the war in Ukraine.

Our scholar group was privileged to have a video conference with Kees Huizinga, a Dutch immigrant to the Ukraine who has been farming thousands of acres there for decades. Kees spoke of the night the bombings began in his region, of the doors rattling in his home due to the shockwaves of nearby shells, and of telling his children, awakened by the onslaught, that it was war.

He sounded a desperate plea to everyone present to work and try to create real interventions in Ukraine to save not only his people, but also their farms and crops.

“The time to sow wheat is now,” Kees explained, “but farmers are afraid to work their land…their tractors are targets, and their fields have become battlegrounds.”

Everyone in attendance felt, not only the deeper reality of the terrible suffering occurring, but also the practical reality of the coming scarcity in food as the breadbasket of Europe, and arguably the world, was laid siege to. In the coming days, we would also learn that the agricultural solutions to a looming grain shortage are not as simple as some might think.

At this time, some weeks later, the situation in Ukraine remains difficult and unpredictable. Many Ukrainian farmers did miss their planting windows for wheat and other crops, and many others remain threatened by war. The ability for the country to export what might be harvested in months to come is uncertain, and the predicted scarcity in many food crops for the European and world markets later this year is now nearly certain to occur. 

As a response to these developments, President Emmanuel Macron of France recently declared that “agricultural independence” for his nation would now take priority over the sustainable farming goals laid out in the European Union’s Green Deal, and practices emphasizing production and food security would trump conservation and environmental concerns. Although this is an understandable response to this crisis, agricultural independence for the French does not necessarily address the scarcity issues that will likely arise in the Middle East and Africa this year, who are heavily reliant on Ukrainian imports and, next to the Ukrainian people, may be the ones who suffer the most from the results of this war. 

Nuffield scholars from Kenya spoke at the conference about decreasing yields in their region over the last several years due to climate change, a shift in precipitation patterns and temperatures that is in no small way being driven by farming practices that value short term, input intensive yields, over the long-term building of natural capital and resources. In this sense, the short-term policy response from Macron could, over the long term, only exacerbate food security issues, and the resultant migrations that often arise due to food shortages in Africa, for instance, may very well wind up on the doorstep of Europe. 

Ultimately, if our production systems are in conflict with the preservation and enrichment of our natural resources, are they really taking us to a place of food security? Or are we creating a future where the very building blocks of life, such as soil and water, become scarce; where farming becomes increasingly impossible and conflict becomes inevitable? 

The powerlessness everyone felt when Kees made his pleas was frustrating and real, and the French solution to coming shortfalls in commodities is understandable and perhaps even necessary in the moment, but our real hope for the resolution of such conflicts has to lie in their prevention, which may only come from a sea-change in our culture, itself. Such a change may manifest in myriad forms, depending on where we stand in society and how we interact with the world, but as farmers it must come as an agriculture focused on regeneration and union, and collaboration and peace, both with the natural world, as well as one another. Such a cultural change, like building good soil or growing a forest, requires a long-term perspective and goals, but is essential for realizing a truly secure food system and society.

Kees Huizinga is part of a Dutch foundation that provides humanitarian aid for Ukraine, which can be found at deleeuwkiev.nl.

Ukraine is one of many countries where violent conflict is disrupting food systems.

The post Farming in a time of war appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

I was inspired to join Pasa, after a decade of farming, in order to help the type of farms I believed in succeed. Of course, for a business, success is measured in profitability. But the reality is that agriculture that is not supporting the health of our water, air, and earth, is ultimately a dead end for humanity. In the same sense, agriculture that is based in dispossession and exploitation might be able to feed the stomach, but it ultimately starves the soul.

Over my six years of work with Pasa I have found many farms in our network that are succeeding on the triple bottom line that’s at the heart of our mission: being economically profitable as well as ecologically and socially regenerative. But they are not as abundant as we might like to think, and many of them struggle to survive year to year.

In late 2020, I applied to the Nuffield International Farming Scholar program. At the time of my application, the pandemic was revealing the value of small farms across the planet, as global supply chains broke down and many staple foods became difficult to source. The question arose for me: If, in a time of crisis, local food systems shine, shouldn’t they then be seen as the essential cornerstone of any larger food system?

My Nuffield application was accepted, but my project was delayed due to ongoing travel restrictions. In the meantime, my wife Emma and I opened Red Dog Market near our home in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Our market sources from local growers (including our own farm) and artisans to create a hyper-local, full-diet grocery for our community. Launching this new business has shifted my research question beyond theory, and into a realm with real, and very personal stakes.

Now, in 2022, with travel restrictions easing, I’m heading to the United Kingdom for Nuffield’s farming conference to officially begin my research visiting farms in that region. In the coming months, I look forward to sharing about my research and travels as I work to answer the questions: Can shorter, local supply chains grow more resilient food systems? Can small, regenerative farms be the future of food? And, a harder question, should they be?

The post Can shorter, local supply chains grow more resilient food systems? appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.