Green Jobs with Farmer Training Program

As many career farmers face retirement without children who are willing to take up the family plow, many farms are swallowed up by industrial agriculture or development.  In fact, US farmers over 65 outnumber those under 35 by 3-to-1.  Yet, even as family farms diminish, there is a growing interest from both young college grads & mid-life career changers to take up the art of farming.  However, these folks are approaching it differently than the conventional farm models.  Many, concerned with the health of their customers and the planet, are turning to starting up small, organic farms.  These farms are helping to meet the growing consumer demand for local, sustainably grown food.  Starting farming is no easy task, however.  That is why Angelic Organics Learning Center coordinates the Stateline Farm Beginnings™ program to helps people plan and launch sustainable farm businesses.  The application period for the year-long program starting in October opens July 1st, 2013.

Stateline Farm Beginnings™ is a training program that helps new farmers plan for success. Offered by Angelic Organics Learning Center and the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT), a coalition of organic, Biodynamic, and other sustainable farmers in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, the program helps people evaluate and plan their farm enterprise. Farm Beginnings™ participants learn directly from a variety of successful, innovative farmers; attend practical high quality classroom sessions, field day workshops and exchanges; and engage in internship, employment, or mentorship with an experienced farmer.

In addition to participants learning farming, business and marketing skills, they also are able to engage with a progressive, cooperative community. Janet Gamble, Turtle Creek Gardens Manager, has over 30 years experience in organic and Biodynamic agriculture.  For the past five years, Janet has been mentoring other farmers through Stateline Farm Beginnings™.  Janet explains this unique strategy of cooperative competition, or coopetition:

This whole movement has been a very open and pay-it-forward kind of community.  I feel that being an organic farmer is gratifying by contributing to a bigger picture. When you can shepherd the movement through passing the knowledge onto other people, it adds another layer of contribution.

Greg Simmons, a Stateline Farm Beginnings™ graduate, is a retired musician and owner of Marigold Hill Organics located at the Prairie Crossing Farm Business Development Center in Grayslake, IL. He is grateful to Prairie Crossing, Angelic Organics Learning Center and the many farmers whom have bestowed their knowledge on him.  He believes that the work he and

his fellow sustainable farmers are doing is re-building community and establishing important values.  He states:

Food values, earth values can all grow out of this.  There is something about this that feels healing as a farm worker.  This isn't agribusiness; this is organic vegetables. - locally grown, sustainable right in the middle of the community.

Jen and Jeff Miller had high-powered careers in Chicago, but they decided to make a change when they had their first son.  “We wanted flexibility to be with our family and wanted to start a business that we could believe in and teach our children about,” said Jen.  The Millers started a farm called Dea Dia Organics after attending the first Stateline Farm Beginnings™ class in 2006.  Since then, they have partnered with another farming family at Sandhill Family Farm.  The Millers farm at Prairie Crossing in Grayslake, IL, and their partners, Peg and Matt Sheaffer, farm in Brodhead, WI.  Together, they are able to offer a larger variety to their customers.  Both the Sheaffers and the Millers mentor other beginning farmers.  Jen Miller explains why mentorship is so crucial to success:

We believe beginning farmers are crucial to organic, sustainable agricultural growth as an industry and we mentor each day with this in mind.  That said, we think its ever more crucial to ensure that those beginning farmers are successful mentored with the really hard challenges that you face a few years into farming like scaling up, balancing farming and your family and maintaining an economically sustainable business.

Farming may not be for everyone, but for those willing to work hard, farming can offer a gratifying career that contributes to a healthier community.  The 2013-2014 Stateline Farm Beginnings™ program begins this October, and the application period opens July 1st, 2013.  To learn more about the program, visit www.learngrowconnect.org/farmer  or email Sheri Doyel, Stateline Farm Beginnings™ Program Facilitator at sheri@learngrowconnect.org.  Attendance is limited so please inquire early about enrollment. 

Angelic Organics Learning Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, is a regional leader helping urban and rural people build local food systems. We offer opportunities to grow healthy food and a better quality of life, connect with farmers and the land, and learn agricultural and leadership skills. The Learning Center reaches more than 4,000 people each year through our programs at partner farms and urban growing sites in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. The Learning Center was founded in 1999 as a nonprofit educational partner to Angelic Organics CSA farm. One of the largest CSA farms in the country, Angelic Organics provides more than 1,800 families throughout the region with fresh, biodynamic produce each week. Angelic Organics is featured in the award-winning documentary “The Real Dirt on Farmer John.”