Lindsey Shute of the National Young Farmers Coalition on Supporting Young and Beginning Farmers

Lindsey Shute is the co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC). Headquartered in the Hudson Valley, NYFC campaigns on behalf of young and beginning farmers across the country. New farmers face a unique set of challenges like the high cost of farmland, student debt, and complex regulations. Through community building, mentoring, and advocacy, Shute and NYFC work to empower emerging farmers and safeguard their success. In 2014, the White House recognized Shute as a “Champion of Change” for her efforts.

Shute is a longtime farmer herself. Along with her husband Ben, she owns Hearty Roots Farm in Germantown, New York. Below, she discusses her experiences as a farm owner, as the executive director of the NYFC, and as a woman in agriculture.

What makes young or beginning farmers unique?

Nationwide, farmers over the age of 65 outnumber farmers under the age of 35 by a factor of six to one, and the average age of farmers in the United States is now 58. There is a shortage of young people in agriculture who will be ready to step up and grow food for the nation when those farmers retire. Between the last two censuses of agriculture in 2007 and 2012, the industry lost about 90,000 principal farm owner/operators and only gained just over 1,000 young farmers.

We need young people to inherit and take on existing agricultural operations and farms. Having young people in agriculture is also important for implementing new ideas and energizing the industry in a way that can keep it vital and part of our culture as a viable career.

Of all the issues facing young farmers, what’s the most pressing?

There is broad consensus that the number one challenge facing young and beginning farmers is the availability of land that working farmers can afford. For land access, we work with the land conservation community. In our mind, that’s the most viable way to transfer land from one generation to the next. Essentially, a land trust can conserve the land so that owners are able to make a choice to protect the land from development in perpetuity. For the young person looking to buy land, this arrangement can make it more affordable by removing the development potential.

In addition, we’ve been working to facilitate relationships between land trusts and farming communities, and we’re also working at the federal and state levels to make sure that conservation is a priority.

Is student debt another significant policy issue among young farmers?

Student loans are an issue across the board for an entire generation of young people, but with farmers, it’s difficult to make payments in those first years when you’re on a very low-income. For farmers in particular, graduating with tens of thousands of dollars of debt from college compromises their ability to get additional credit to raise capital for their farm.

What we’ve proposed is that farmers be added to the public service loan forgiveness program, which was specifically developed for similar situations where there is a national need for a certain profession. In this program, nurses, government employees, and educators are able to make income-based payments on their loans for 10 years, and as long as they maintain full-time employment in that field, they’re eligible for the remaining debt to be forgiven. We would like farmers to be added to the program to help make agriculture a career possibility for more people.

You’re based in the Hudson Valley. Is there anything unique in your work that you bring to this region specifically?

We have two chapters in this region: the Hudson Valley Chapter and the Catskills Chapter. Here in the Hudson Valley, we are both working for and as part of the community. Members of our staff are active farmers. Many of our workers have farms and are members of the Hudson Valley Chapter so we see the benefits of the chapter model first hand. We learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t work. We organize farm tours in the summer and we help our farmers make connections with their local members of Congress.

Most recently, we brought our Hudson Valley Chapter to a meeting with Congressman John Faso. Both Representative Sean Patrick Maloney and Representative John Faso are on the House Committee on Agriculture, along with Kirsten Gillibrand in the Senate. As we do with other chapters, we have to create a bridge for our farmers to have time with their elected representatives.

How do farmer training programs like the Farm Hub’s ProFarmer Program tie into your work? 

I like the approach that the Farm Hub has taken in helping young farmers learn at a medium scale. You can learn on a smaller scale, and many self-taught farmers started on a quarter acre and maybe go to an acre and they do well. But there are other farms that have the potential to be larger and to serve a different market, and many of those are run by the farmers that are retiring. It’s great and it’s unique that the Farm Hub is looking to help people move into a more scaled-up farm model.

The ProFarmer Program is also a fantastic opportunity for young people to be able to learn from a farmer [Jean-Paul Courtens] who has achieved so much in his own operation on a significant scale with Roxbury Farm. I remember fondly that before we even brought our land, he was one of the first people who came out and walked it with us.

How does your farming experience translate into your work as an advocate?

Being part of a farm family is incredibly important for me, both in order to communicate with our members and know who they are, and to be able to understand their concerns. Because of the experiences that my husband Ben and I had, and the challenges that we encountered building our farm, we felt as though there was no local, regional, state, or national organization focusing specifically on the needs of young and beginning farmers. Those experiences formed the foundation of the National Young Farmers Coalition at the outset.

Farming is also a highly regulated industry, and as farmers we understand that. For instance, there are new food safety regulations through the FDA that require a lot of water testing, which is an additional expense. We’re now in the process of doing the water tests on the schedule required by the FDA, so I know how much it costs for us to have testing done on our water. It’s really an important thing for me to be able to walk into a meeting with a member and be able to relate to them on a fundamental level. You have to live it to understand it. All of the details that go into things like water regulations can either make a policy really beneficial to a farmer, or by virtue of the paperwork alone, can really hold a farm back. It can make it almost impossible for that family farmer to function in compliance with federal and state law.

Hearty Roots Farm in Germantown, NY

How do you balance the farm and the family?

Being a farmer is part of your identity, your lifestyle, and the flow of your day. For us, the farm is like a member of our family. It’s part of who we are and what we do. There’s no real separation—we live here. Whatever time of day or night it may be, if the farm needs something, we have to be out and take care of it or ensure we have someone who can help. It’s a challenge, but it’s one that we’re glad to have.

The kids have their own garden, and this year we’re going to have a children’s garden for the CSA. We’re trying to find ways where they can slowly but surely feel more like a part of the farm operation. We’re farming at a bit of a scale now, on 25 acres, and there are big tractors with tires taller than they are, so it can be hard for them to engage. We’ve been trying to make modifications to parts of the farm so they can feel like they’re a part of it, too, and it can begin to become part of their identity.

As far as young women in agriculture, we’re leading this movement of young farmers. In the NYFC, many of our staff members are currently farming or have previously farmed, and a wide majority of them are women. Most of the volunteers and leaders in the coalition are women. We’re seeing women find leadership roles within the farm community.

Racial equality is a crucial component of your mission. What are some ways to support diversity in agriculture?

The number one thing that needs to happen is recognition of the role that farmers of color are already playing in agriculture. By that, I mean the population of highly skilled and talented farm workers that are often not counted as owner/operators because they are farm workers. We often talk about the lack of young farmers and the age of owner/operators as a major problem, but it’s a problem that could be potentially solved by giving some sort of status to these farmers of color, many of whom are highly skilled and are already farming. We need to give them a pathway to stay in the United States: to open businesses, have bank accounts, and get driver’s licenses. They offer the greatest potential to not only solve our problem of bolstering young farmers, but also create a more diverse landscape of owner/operators in the United States.

There are organizations right now that are doing important work to help farmers of color and people of color reconnect with farming and agriculture. This work is critical in diversifying the farmer landscape.

Learn more about the ProFarmer Program.
Learn more about the National Young Farmers Coalition.

Image courtesy of Roy Gumpel. 

Jeff Arnold Joins the Farm Hub as Production Manager

The Hudson Valley Farm Hub is pleased to announce that Jeff Arnold has joined the Farm Hub as the Production Manager.  A New York native, Arnold comes to the Farm Hub with experience as a vegetable farmer for Thanksgiving Farm in Harris and as a field manager for Hearty Roots Community Farm in Germantown. Arnold will lead the day-to-day operational activities of our vegetable and field crops.

Q&A With Jeff Arnold

Tell us about your background in farming and how you got involved in the profession.

I’ve had my hands happily in the dirt for almost 10 years now. My first farm job was when I was a student at Colorado State University, where I was studying horticulture and organic agriculture. I was a field worker and data collector at the CSU Horticulture Research Farm, where we had a small CSA and did some variety trials. My professor and mentor, Dr. Frank Stonaker, taught me the art and science of carefully coaxing plants from the soil, troubleshooting mechanical problems on half-century old tractors, and the value of working outside and breaking a sweat each day, all while acting as a steward of the land and the community. I was enthralled.

After that, I was pulled back to my home state of New York, where I continued learning the tools of the trade from some top-notch farmers at Hearty Roots Farm in Columbia Country and Thanksgiving Farm in the Catskills. And now, attracted to the mission and mindset of the Hudson Valley Farm Hub, I am thrilled to be taking on the production manager position.

What does a production manager do on a farm?

The production manager’s main responsibility is to make sure field operations are occurring on time, efficiently, and in accordance with the values and vision of the farm. There are many moving parts (figuratively and literally) on a diversified organic crop farm—from the crop plan to the greenhouse to the field to the packing shed and everything in between—and the production manager makes sure those parts are moving in sync with one another. Field planning, fertility management, tractor maintenance, record keeping, planting, weed management, pest/disease scouting, harvest and post-harvest handling, and maintaining a positive and dignified work environment are all in the realm of the production manager.

What are some production management responsibilities that the average person might not expect?

One of my favorite parts about being a vegetable farmer—and something people probably would never guess—is how much taste testing we get to do. A vegetable farmer is constantly sampling produce from the field to check ripeness and to get to know the varieties he or she is growing. On any given day in late July, I might be eating 20 different vegetables in the field.

How do you hope to contribute to the broader mission of the Farm Hub?

The reason I was initially drawn to the Farm Hub was its mission. Farming is incredibly hard work, and many farmers struggle with being able to meet production goals while still having the time and energy to work on social, environmental, and educational issues that they want to have an impact on as well. The Farm Hub offers the unique ability to focus in on all of these individual challenges at the same time. What I hope to offer is a bridge between the world of fast-paced production farming and the need to address many of the social, environmental, and educational issues facing farmers today.

What’s one of your favorite aspects of the Hudson Valley?

I really love the community of people here in the Hudson Valley. Everyone is really kind here. I want my kids to grow up in a community that is trying to make the whole world a better place to live, and we really feel like that we have found it here in the Hudson Valley.

We heard you like to homebrew.  

Since having kids (they are 3 and 1), I honestly haven’t had the time to embark on any home brewing projects, but I think that the malting and brewing process, and fermentation in general, is a wonderful example of the complexity of the food that farmers grow and how different ingredients can interact in remarkable ways to produce really surprising and wonderful flavor and nutritional profiles. And, this happens all by using completely natural processes. It really adds to my appreciation of the crops we grow.

Fostering the Relationship Between Food Pantries and Farms

Farmers donated over 11 million pounds of food in 2016 in New York State. In the Hudson Valley, charitable and community organizations depend on these donations to stock their year-round pantries. However, these donations often come with costs to the farmers themselves. “There is widespread need for fresh fruits and vegetables in New York’s food emergency system,” explains Susan Zimet of Hunger Action Network of New York State. “Unfortunately, it is often prohibitively expensive for farmers to donate their food due to steep harvesting, processing, and transportation costs.”

Farmers often face labor and time constraints in harvesting surplus produce. One way to mitigate this is for volunteers to undertake some or all of the work. Davenport Farms in Stone Ridge, for instance, opened its fields this fall to volunteers to pick broccoli, which was subsequently processed by another team of volunteers and distributed to local food banks. In Ulster County, much of the work connecting volunteers and farmers is done through Ulster Corps, which coordinates a gleaning team and donates all harvested produce to local food pantries in coordination with the Rondout Valley Growers Association’s (RVGA) Farm to Food Pantry Program.

Ulster Corps and RVGA are just two examples of organizations that facilitate the relationship between food pantries and farms, and that strive to ensure that donated produce reaches the most people possible. During the growing season, the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley is a major distributor of donated produce in the region with the capacity to make regular pick-ups at area farms, including at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub. This capacity is especially important when a large quantity of perishable produce (such as lettuce) has just been harvested and needs to be moved quickly.

The Farm Hub has also developed one-on-one relationships with food banks, such as People’s Place in Kingston, with the cold storage infrastructure that can store large quantities of donated produce.

Some have suggested that a tax credit to farmers could also help offset the costs of donating food. For example, a recently proposed “farm-to-food-bank” bill aimed to provide up to a $5,000 state tax credit to farmers who give away excess or unsellable produce to charitable organizations. Each year, millions of pounds of produce in New York State go unharvested, much of it edible. Weather patterns and other variables can cause cosmetic blemishes that make otherwise viable produce unappealing to consumers.

Though Governor Cuomo vetoed the bill, supporters say the bill would provide added incentive for farmers to provide fresh food for the region’s underprivileged. State Senator Rich Funke will be among the legislators that will lead the effort to pass the bill this year. The New York State Senate has already unanimously voted in favor of the bill, and as of February 2017, the bill’s prospects in the Assembly are equally positive.

Even without added incentives or help from volunteers, many farmers continue to donate produce to local food banks. Larry Eckhert, a pumpkin farmer in Rensselaer County, says, “To me, as a farmer and as a fellow resident of earth, we need to help out whenever we can because there are some truly needy people out there .”

To learn more about volunteering to help fight food insecurity in the Hudson Valley, visit:

Food Bank of the Hudson Valley

Rondout Valley Grower’s Association

Family of Woodstock

Ulster Corps

Growing Kernza in the Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley Farm Hub is pleased to announce a partnership with The Land Institute, a Kansas-based non-profit dedicated to researching sustainable agriculture. The Land Institute’s development of Kernza, a distant cousin to agricultural wheat, could have a significant ecological impact. “It’s an exciting time for the Farm Hub to be involved,” says Elizabeth Haucke, president of Plovgh, an agriculture coordinator group working with the Farm Hub on behalf of the Land Institute. “Farm Hub is part of network of farms across the country growing and providing feedback on Kernza.”

Kernza has one property that sets it apart: It’s a perennial. “In traditional agriculture, we hit the reset button every year,” explains Land Institute Geneticist Lee DeHaan to the Washington Post. “We eradicate all above-ground plant life in a field and start over from scratch. Here, we are trying to do what nature does naturally, [and] to bring those processes back into agriculture.”

Apart from reducing the need for annual tillage, Kernza has other environmental benefits. By forming an intricate, permanent root system, the grain anchors the soil and prevents erosion. It also helps fix nutrients in the soil, which improves soil ecology and can mitigate the need for chemical inputs. Like other closely related perennial grasses such as tall wheatgrass, Kernza has the potential to be a viable tool for addressing agriculture’s impacts on climate change.

Because the perennial grass also fares well in cool, northerly climates, the Land Institute and the Farm Hub are eager to learn how Kernza performs in the Hudson Valley. The Farm Hub planted a twenty-acre test plot (pictured above) with seeds provided by the Land Institute last October.

“We are very interested in Kernza,” says Jean-Paul Courtens, associate director of farmer training at the Farm Hub. As Courtens explains, “Tillage impacts soil health by reducing organic matter, soil structural integrity, and soil biota, increasing the possibility of soil erosion either by water or air.” He continues, “Many annuals are prone to drought and nutrient deficiency, as their root system are developed over a relatively short period of time.” This contrasts with perennial crops like Kernza, which live in the soil through the colder months to grow again in the spring. “Kernza increases soil health, uses fertilizer much more efficiently, and is less prone to water stress due to its extensive root system,” says Courtens.

The Farm Hub’s Kernza field last fall

Hauke and other representatives from Plovgh will visit the Farm Hub on behalf of the Land Institute in the spring to evaluate productivity and check on factors that might impact yield. The Farm Hub’s experiences where soil quality, growing practices, and weather patterns are concerned will help to inform the development of a Kernza grower’s guide. The first harvest from the Farm Hub test plot is expected to take place in late July.

Although great strides have been made in the development of Kernza for use in food and beverage markets, there are still some hurdles to overcome. For example, the edible part of wheat is the seed, but Kernza currently produces seeds only about a quarter the size of conventional wheat. In order to address this, the Land Institute is developing varieties with bigger seeds.

Zachary Golper of Ben Cuit Bakery in Brooklyn was one of the first to use Kernza in his products. He told the Washington Post “Wheat is 10,000 years old, and Kernza has only been around for 13. We’re not doing so badly.” Golper joins several others across the country in experimenting with the new super grain, and so far the results have been promising. Restaurants like the Perennial in San Francisco and Dumpling and Strand in Minneapolis have given Kernza’s flavor glowing reviews. Without as much starch as traditional wheat-based products, breads and pastas made with Kernza express the more malty flavors of sweet corn and barley.

One of the most publicized endeavors (and the first widely available commercial product made with Kernza), is Long Root Ale, brewed by Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, Oregon, in partnership with Patagonia Provisions. Christian Ettinger, the brewer at Hopworks, has high hopes for the grain, and hopes to make a 50/50 Kernza and barley beer in 2017. “It will be a huge victory to replace some of the annual grains in the beer industry with perennials,” Ettinger told NPR in a recent interview. “Kernza is not a household word yet. But it will be.”

Learn more about the Farm Hub’s field research and demonstration of resilient farming practices.

Hudson Valley Farm Hub Co-Sponsors Public Educational Forum on Impacts of Proposed Pilgrim Pipelines

On January 28, KingstonCitizens.org hosted a public forum at Kingston City Hall on the potential impact of the proposed Pilgrim Pipelines in Ulster County. The Hudson Valley Farm Hub was a proud co-sponsor of the event. The Farm Hub’s Associate Director of Community Relations Brooke-Pickering Cole also spoke at the event (see statement below).

Pilgrim Pipeline Holdings, LLC has proposed building two pipelines, one carrying Bakken crude oil south and another carrying refined products north, that will run from Albany to Linden, NJ. The project would also include four pump stations, over 200 permanent and temporary access roads, and several lateral pipelines.

Brooke Pickering-Cole speaking at the pipeline education forum

Locally, the proposed route passes through Kingston, Ulster, Esopus, Marlbourgh, Plattekill, New Paltz, and Saugerties. The pipelines would transport up to 400,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil on a daily basis and traverse 257 water bodies and 98 farms, potentially impacting up to 12,700 acres of farmland.

The pipelines would also go through several sections of the City of Kingston, including the Farm Hub’s northernmost farm field and Native American Seed Sanctuary. This Seed Sanctuary was established in partnership with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe of New York State and the Hudson Valley Seed Company to grow and preserve Native American seed varieties that are in danger of disappearing.

For more information about the pipelines and their potential impact, visit KingstonCitizens.org for their summary of the event.

For a map of the pipelines and their potential impacts on agriculture, see here.


Statement from Brooke Pickering-Cole, Associate Director of Community Relations, Hudson Valley Farm Hub
January 28, 2017

I’m here on behalf of the Local Economies Project. We are a non-profit organization based in Kingston working to build a resilient food system in the Hudson Valley. Our land-based project, the Hudson Valley Farm Hub, is an education and demonstration farm which we started in 2013 on land formerly owned by Gill Farms on 1,250 acres stretching from Marbletown up to Kingston. 

We’re here today as members of the agricultural community, as land stewards in the city of Kingston, and also as caretakers of farm property that has been targeted by Pilgrim for construction of the Pipeline.

When we think about the pipeline and the farmland along its route, we are gratified that the positive declaration issued last fall by the lead agencies calls for addressing impacts to agriculture as part of the review process. But we’re also mindful that what needs to be looked at aren’t just the narrow strips of land where the pipeline would be installed, but the fields in their entirety, and any farms downstream from the many places where the pipeline would cross creeks and streams.

A farm field, like most things, is an organism—you can’t effect one piece of it without having an effect on the whole, and in fact you probably can’t impact one field without affecting the one next to it, and maybe even the one next to that.  Soil, water, farm equipment, insects, wildlife, and the farmer herself or himself—they all work together.  So the impacts of the construction phase, and, God forbid, if there were to be a leak in the pipeline, these need to be looked at against the context of not just a sliver, but rather thousands acres of farmland from Albany to New Jersey, and of course for us here in Ulster County.

Our farm field in Kingston is over near the New York State Thruway Exit, bordered by the Esopus creek and the Thruway. This is where we are doing a seed saving project, our Native American Seed Sanctuary, in collaboration with the St. Regis Mohawk tribe of northern NYS and the Hudson Valley Seed Library. We’re growing heritage varieties of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers—to save these seeds, and these varieties—from extinction. We’ve had visitors from the tribe, groups of kids, and volunteers all hand planting and harvesting out in that field.  It’s pretty great.

As proposed, the Pilgrim Pipelines would cross the Esopus Creek at our seed sanctuary and continue into and through our field alongside the Thruway.  

We share our story with you knowing that this is just one among possibly hundreds of farm fields along the proposed pipeline. And it makes us wonder…how many other fields like this that we ignore driving down the highway have special meaning, or satisfy a basic human need like food, or work in service to the greater natural system?  

I think the answer is most of them. After all, every farm is important, whether it’s a small family farm or a large non-profit farm—whether it’s on a mountain top or next to a highway. And we think these are some of the questions we need to be asking, and the questions we hope and trust that those who are in charge of this review process will also be asking.

Announcing Our 2017 ProFarmers

We are pleased to introduce Andrew Casner, Nailah Marie Ellis, Jesus Gonzalez, Jayne Henson, and Briana Quinn, five exceptional young farmers who have been selected to enter the Farm Hub’s ProFarmer Program this spring. Under the direction of Jean-Paul Courtens, the Farm Hub’s associate director for farmer training, they will be joining ProFarmers Jess Clancy, Jesse Goldfarb, and Andrew Pezzulo, who began in 2016 and are now entering their second year of the program.

We look forward to welcoming Andrew, Nailah, Jesus, Jayne, and Briana to the Farm Hub in April!

 

 andrewANDREW CASNER
“To farm at a scale that makes organic regional food available to more folks at a lower cost—this is a big reason why I am where I am today, farming in the Hudson Valley.”

Originally from: Massachusetts.

Started Farming: In New York City’s urban farms.

Aspires to: Own a certified organic vegetable farm that is active in the wholesale market and emphasizes ecological farming practices.

Andrew’s career in farming began in New York City, when, not long after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, he began working with gardeners and composters transforming neglected sites into productive green spaces for recycling waste and growing food. He worked for GrowNYC’s Open Space Greening and Learn it Grow it Eat it programs, and in 2010 he joined the staff of Active Citizen Project’s Project EATS program, which creates urban farms to serve working class neighborhoods throughout New York. As the farm manager, Andrew established and managed the farm at a men’s shelter on Wards Island. He also trained shelter residents, volunteers, staff, and high school students in vegetable production and soil health in an urban landscape.

Andrew was most recently employed as a farm worker at Roxbury Farm in Columbia County. There, he was exposed to efficient, ecological systems of production at a larger scale. As he prepares to join the ProFarmer program, he looks forward to focusing on farming at scale and to exploring innovative approaches to food production and soil building. As for his artistic talent, he notes, “I see farming as a way to more deeply connect to the biological systems I bore witness to in painting.”

 

nailah-marie2NAILAH MARIE ELLIS
“My relationship to farming is important because it allows me to be connected to something way bigger than myself.”

Originally from: Chicago.

Started farming: As a farm apprentice in 2013.

Aspires to: Own a farm with a focus on vegetables, grains, and youth education.

 

Nailah Marie comes to farming and the ProFarmer program with a passion for food, nature, and youth education. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), she has worked as a baker, chef, cooking instructor, and volunteer teaching inner-city youth how to garden, harvest, and cook. As her talent for food began to intersect increasingly with a love of working the land and a desire to connect to her family’s past (she spent summers working on her family’s pecan farm in the South), she made the decision to pursue farming as a profession. In 2013, she began a series of farm apprenticeships. The most recent of these landed her at the biodynamic Kimberton CSA in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

Nailah Marie’s dream is to own and operate a Hudson Valley farm together with her sister, who is training to become a veterinarian. Their farm will focus on vegetable and grain production while serving as an educational platform for young people of color. She is looking forward to gaining business acumen while advancing her knowledge of farm infrastructure and organic growing methods. Nailah Marie is a member of the Black Culinary Alliance and Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR).

 

jesusJESUS GONZALEZ
“I have a strong desire to learn everything about agriculture—I love learning new things. My ideal farm has a little of everything and makes a contribution to the community.”

Originally from: New York.

Started Farming: As a teenager on the Gill Farm.

Aspires to: Manage or own a farm.


Jesus spent much of his youth on the Gill Farm with his father and mother, who are now members of the Farm Hub team. A graduate of Kingston High School, Jesus worked on the farm in Hurley during summers from 2008 to 2013, and worked as a forklift driver in Florida during the off-season. He is currently employed in the nut processing and packing division at Farm Bridge in Kingston.

With strong family roots in farming (his grandfather has a grain corn and sorghum farm in Mexico), Jesus is looking forward to learning more about growing crops organically and strengthening his knowledge of farm equipment. Another goal for Jesus is to acquire solid management skills. He plans to become a farm manager or farm owner. Jesus is bilingual in Spanish and English.

 

jayne JAYNE HENSON
“I moved to the city in search of a different life but have always felt the pull of the land and the country and the addiction of my hands in the soil.”

Originally from: Kansas.

Started farming: In childhood on her family farm.

Aspires to: Own a farm with a focus on grains, hops, and diversified vegetables with an internship program for homeless youth.

Jayne grew up on a farm in Emporia, Kansas. Her earliest memories are of family cattle drives and learning to drive a tractor on her grandfather’s lap. She was a 4H participant for 11 years, and as a young adult she took on the management of the 300-acre family farm and cow/calf operation. Jayne’s extensive experience includes planting and harvesting crops, maintaining farm equipment, and overseeing the care of 400 heads of cattle.

After college, Jayne left Kansas for New York City, where she worked first for GrowNYC and later for God’s Love We Deliver, a food access program that delivers prepared meals to clients living with terminal illnesses. These experiences, combined with her work as a residential counselor, activated her interest in the connection between food, farming, and social issues. Now, after five years in New York, she is excited to reconnect with agriculture and to learn about diversified vegetable production and organic methods at the Farm Hub. Her vision for the future is to own a Hudson Valley farm that provides internships for LBGT youth.

 

fullsizerenderBRIANA (BRIE) QUINN
“I find the puzzle of creating a farming enterprise that is both sustainable for the community you serve, as well as personally sustainable, an intriguing challenge and a way to directly connect with people.”

Originally from: New Jersey.

Started farming: As a child via backyard gardening.

Aspires to: Own a farm that focuses on vegetables, herbs, flowers, and organic seed.

 

In 2015, Brie took a bold step, leaving a successful, decade-long career in finance to become a full-time farmer. A few years earlier, as a side venture, she and her partner started a two-acre vegetable farm in New Jersey that produced and distributed vegetables, cut flowers, and herbs. This experience solidified not only her ambition to farm, but also the realization that she would need more advanced hands-on training before venturing into ownership of a larger long-term farming operation.

Brie will be moving to Hurley from Maine, where she has spent the 2016 season as an apprentice at Broadturn Farm. She is looking forward to immersing herself in field management on a large scale and developing technical skills while refining her vision for her future farm. A self-described “people person,” she loves the combination of working outside, connecting with people, and being constantly challenged. With a degree in economics from Oberlin College, she is committed to creating “a business that can provide accessibility to fresh food for people of all income levels.”

 

The ProFarmer Program is a multi-year, salaried, residential program at the Farm Hub offering classroom education and hands-on training, with an emphasis on teaching ecological farming; technical, agricultural, and mechanical know-how; and small business and leadership skills. To learn more, click here.

 

Workshop Explores Crucial Link Between Farming and Biodiversity Conservation

Insects are vital to the maintenance of a vibrant, diverse ecology and contribute to soil and crop health. Yet, due to habitat loss, invasive species, and pesticide use, invertebrate populations are in sharp decline. Solutions to the situation are being sought through the ways in which farmers and private landowners manage their lands. Because crop health is strongly linked to surrounding landscapes via the ongoing flow of organisms, farming with conservation techniques can be a win-win proposition, one that enhances ecological health and farm production.

On November 9, the Hudson Valley Farm Hub and the Xerces Society hosted an all-day workshop on the benefits of biodiversity-conscious farm management. The event attracted farmers, agricultural employees, natural resource specialists, and land managers – all eager to learn the ins and outs of a technique called conservation biological control.

“As the single largest land use on earth, farming is critical to the future of biodiversity, and biodiversity is critical to the future of farming,” says Kelly Gill, a pollinator conservation specialist at the Xerces Society and one of the workshop’s featured speakers.

According to Gill, the number of invertebrates that could be beneficial to farming is immense. Each of these insects has a particular effect on variables like soil health. Ground beetles, for instance, can consume almost any type of insect and eat their weight in prey over the course of a day. Flower flies are important pollinators and can consume up to 50 aphids per day. This list also includes insects like minute pirate bugs that excel in finding prey at low densities and predatory stink bugs that can target over 100 insect species.

The contributions these insects make to pest management have largely been overlooked since the advent of chemical pesticides. However, many farmers are now looking at how they can directly impact insect populations through conservation techniques. These include practices such as creating landscapes that nurture natural pest predators while reducing conditions favorable to pests, and adopting Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices to minimize the use of pesticides that can be harmful to beneficial organisms.

Because pests thrive in monoculture environments, the solution to the problem is often to increase landscape complexity. Farmland interspersed with wild areas, for instance, will provide the habitat that beneficial insects need to complete their lifecycle. Other conservation practices include planting native plant field borders, establishing hedgerows of flowering shrubs and small trees, establishing “beetle banks” (strips planted with grasses within a crop field) to provide shelter for beneficial insects, and planting cover crops on fallow fields.

An adult Flower Fly seen in our cauliflower field.
An adult flower fly in the Farm Hub cauliflower field.

Farmers and land managers deal with competing priorities, so the specific methods they choose to adopt will always reflect a balancing of ecological and financial considerations. Yet, while many of these methods require initial investment, the value of increased pollination and pest control through improved crop yields means that they are likely to pay for themselves over time.

One of the steps that farmers and land managers can take is to survey their property and see what beneficial insects and animals are already present, and then explore conservation techniques that are likely to boost these populations. This year, the Farm Hub partnered with the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program to begin standardized monitoring for beneficial organisms. This monitoring will be expanded to additional fields and invertebrates over the upcoming season, and will include techniques such as field surveys, vegetation mapping, and the installation of trap counts and remote sensing monitors for select insects. The goal is to understand how the management practices adopted at the Farm Hub are impacting insect communities, and with time, to determine what that means for other Hudson Valley farmers seeking to adopt management techniques that improve biodiversity on their farms and surrounding landscapes.

For more resources on biodiversity conservation, visit the Xerces Society website.

Presenters at the workshop included Kelly Gill of the Xerces Society, Jean-Paul Courtens of the Hudson Valley Farm Hub, Crystal Stewart of the Cornell University Cooperative Extension Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program, Conrad Vispo, PhD, and Claudia Knab-Vispo, PhD, of the Hawthorne Farmscape Ecology Program, and Elizabeth Marks of the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Program.

National Geographic Recognizes Farm Hub for Environmental Stewardship

The December issue of National Geographic magazine recognizes the Farm Hub and Ulster County for their environmental stewardship. As part of a full-color map called “Dreaming Big,” the magazine highlights many of the organizations and projects that, together, make the county a leader in environmental conservation, alternative energy, and outdoor recreation. It also focuses on Ulster County government, the only net carbon neutral county in the state and the only county to receive 100 percent of its electricity from renewable resources.

“We are proud that the Hudson Valley Farm Hub was featured in the spread, and we congratulate everyone involved for helping Ulster County receive this kind of national recognition,” says Brooke-Pickering Cole, associate director for community relations at the Farm Hub.

The magazine is circulated world-wide in 40 different languages and is read by 6.7 million people every month. See the full story from National Geographic here.

Small Grains: Big Potential for Hudson Valley Farmers

Throughout the 1800s, small grains like wheat, rye, and barley were big business in the Hudson Valley, feeding a hungry market of bakers, brewers, and distillers in New York City. The development of the Erie Canal and railroads in the first half of the 19th century put New York grain farmers in direct competition with those in the Midwest, and in the Hudson Valley this competition displaced almost all small-grain production in favor of other crops.

Small grains are now staging a comeback. In the past decade, expanding markets for craft beverages and artisanal baked goods have led to an increase in demand for locally produced grains. In 2014, as part of its mission to support Hudson Valley farmers, Local Economies Project, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County (CCE) and Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), began a five-year study at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub to measure the viability of small grain cultivation for local agriculture.

Throughout the country, people are increasingly invested in where their food comes from and want to “buy local.” In New York, the Craft NY and Farm Brewing Acts have eased regulations on small-scale brewers and distillers, making it easier to brew, distill, distribute, and sell craft beverages. Most relevant for farmers is that the legislation also requires brewers and distillers to source a certain percentage of their ingredients from New York farms. Currently, the legislation requires 20 percent of grains and hops to be state-grown, with a gradual increase to 90 percent by 2024. Another source of demand is GrowNYC’s Regional Grains Project, which obligates bakeries at their Greenmarkets to use at least 15 percent local grain in their baked goods.

Even without the boost offered by these guidelines, the market for small grains is projected to grow. Niche demand for small-scale artisanal baking, brewing, and distilling has expanded significantly in the past five years. New York now boasts over 200 breweries, compared to just 38 in 2003. The number of distilleries in New York has also grown, from a mere 10 in 2011 to almost 80 today. Craft beverages require significant amounts of small grains over the course of a year. A microbrewery, for example, is defined as producing less than 15,000 barrels per year, but would still need over 400 acres of barley alone to maintain production.

Farmers, bakers, millers, distillers and brewers came to the Farm Hub for CCE's annual Small Grains Day in June.
Farmers, bakers, millers, distillers and brewers came to the Farm Hub for CCE’s annual Small Grains Day in June.

With its proximity to the New York City market, the Hudson Valley is uniquely situated to reap the rewards of the increasing demand, but small grains have yet to regain a major foothold in the region. Several producers throughout the area, including Migliorelli Farm, Hawthorne Valley Farm, Lightning Tree Farm, and Wild Hive Farm, are growing in limited quantities. While the quality of the grains has been high, they are not yet produced on a scale to meet the burgeoning demand.

Jacob Meglio, brewing partner at Arrowood Brewery in Accord, says locally produced small grains can be hard to come by. “Everything is super limited,” he explains. Like many other Hudson Valley brewers, Meglio had to venture into the Finger Lakes to find organic growers with the capacity to supply his brewery. Because it has been so long since small grains have been grown at scale in the region, many local farmers would benefit from information on best practices for varieties, techniques, and equipment before they decide if growing small grains is right for them. “The incentive structure is there now as breweries are buying up local stock,” says Meglio. “We need more local farms to grow grains.”

The small grain trial at the Farm Hub is designed to test which grains (and which varieties) show the most potential for local farmers. Throughout the course of the five-year trial, which began in 2014, spring and winter varieties of wheat, rye, and barley are planted and tested for factors such as resiliency, ease of post-harvest handling, and overall quality. The trial includes end-user testing by local millers (Wild Hive Community Grain Project) and bakers (Our Daily Bread, Bread Alone).

2016 was the first year in which six select varieties were all planted in field-scale plots (1.5 acres each). Each of these is being grown simultaneously under organic management and conventional integrated pest management in order to evaluate different commercial growing scenarios. Standouts from 2016 include Medina, a soft winter wheat that is good for pastry and baking markets, and Brasetto, a winter rye that has had impressively high yields. As Justin O’Dea, an educator with CCE of Ulster County who has been shepherding this project says, “so far this year we’ve been able to hit the quality marks for all of our varieties, proving they are all marketable.”

Another important aspect of this project remains farmer engagement and ongoing feedback from millers, bakers, and distillers on these varieties as they’re harvested. For instance, in 2016, the Farm Hub hosted a small grains field day that featured a tasting and viewing of dozens of different varieties of wheat, barley, rye, oats, emmer, einkhorn, and spelt. The varieties selected for the trial also partly reflect the feedback received, including a request from bakers and millers to try heritage varieties to see what novel flavors or qualities they might offer.

The small grains trial will begin again in 2017 as soon as field conditions allow for planting, likely in mid-April. By continuing the cycle of planting, harvesting, and testing, the Farm Hub hopes to provide the information farmers need to decide if small grain production is viable for them, and to choose best management practices once they actually begin production.

Visit the Farm Hub website for more information on our small grains project. Also, see our comprehensive overview, Reviving Grain in the Hudson Valley. Annual summaries of the trial are available on CCE’s website.