First Generation Farmers is a nonprofit community farm located in Brentwood, California. We work toward our mission of facilitating food access along with our new and beginning farmers through our core sustainable agriculture programming, implementation, and...
First Generation Farmers is a nonprofit community farm located in Brentwood, California. We work toward our mission of facilitating food access along with our new and beginning farmers through our core sustainable agriculture programming, implementation, and...
Hmong American farmers occupy a unique place in the history of Minnesota’s local foods movement. Since Hmong refugees began resettling from Laos and Thailand to Minnesota in the 1970s as political refugees after the Vietnam War, many families have relied on their...
The Farm Beginnings® Collaborative is a national alliance of independent regional groups of farmers and farmer-training support organizations working together to promote Farm Beginnings, a farmer-training model that is community-based, rooted in sustainable principles, and farmer-led.
Farm Beginnings® is a farmer-led training program for new and beginning farmers. It was started by experienced farmers, and farmers participate at all levels—as steering committee members, classroom presenters, on-farm presenters, and on-farm mentors.
Farm Beginnings® offers new and beginning farmers a means to establish strong relationships with local farmers, businesses, resources, and consumers within a community network that supports and strengthens the local food and farming system.
Farm Beginnings® programs support sustainable farming by promoting farming practices that are ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, and achievable for new and beginning farmers.
FarmsNext is a full-season farm internship program combining hands-on training and skill-based education in sustainable agriculture for aspiring farmers and ranchers.
It is an immersive experience that leaves students with a deeper understanding of sustainable agriculture, a foundation of entrepreneurial skills, and practical knowledge to plan for and start their own farming operation. Students live and work full-time on a host farm, receive ongoing training, and learn in-depth skills from their mentor farmer.
FarmsNext offers opportunity for hands-on training in the following:
• Organic vegetable, herb, seed, and flower production at various scales.
• Marketing techniques, including direct marketing through farmers markets, restaurant sales, and CSA programs.
• Raising livestock, including cattle, goats, poultry, sheep, and hogs.
• Farmstead dairying, including cheese making, with cows and goats.
• Farm-based education and agri-tourism opportunities.
Rogue Farm Corps trains the next generation of farmers and ranchers through hands-on educational programs. We work to support our local agricultural economy and serve as a model for other communities.
RFC’s land-based network includes farms and ranches in Oregon’s Rogue Valley, South Willamette, Portland metro area, and Central Oregon. Led by dedicated mentors and agricultural professionals, RFC offers opportunities to learn organic vegetable, herb, seed, and flower production; animal husbandry; and a diversity of marketing and distribution techniques.
FarmsNext is an introductory farm internship program designed for the student with little or no farming experience. FarmsNext is an entire season of hands-on training and skills-based education in sustainable agriculture. This immersive on-farm experience combines field training with a mentor farmer, classroom learning with agricultural professionals and expert farmers, farm tours, peer discussion, and independent study.
FarmsNOW is a two-year advanced farmer-in-training program designed for the student who has a solid foundation of farm experience and the goal of managing a farm operation. FarmsNOW is for those seeking mastery in the art and business of farming. This program will propel beginning and intermediate farmers to the next level of planning, designing, and running integrated farming systems.
Gila Farm Cooperative is a group of refugee farmers resettled in Central Arizona. The 27-acre farm where Gila Farm Cooperative primarily raises crops is located in Pinal County, just south of Phoenix.
Gila Farm Cooperative was founded in 2011 with support from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Phoenix. The IRC has been working with refugee farmers in Arizona since 2007 through the New Roots Farm and Food Security program, which promotes economic empowerment, household food security, and self-sufficiency of refugee and asylee farmers.
Gila Farm Cooperative’s farmers hail from Bhutan, Burma, Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, Iraq, Liberia, Sudan, Somalia, Togo, and Uzbekistan. They bring with them decades of experience working with the land and growing diverse crops. The farmers have left behind countries torn by war, oppression, political upheaval, and natural disaster to pursue life in the United States. Many of them find peace and joy in farming, an activity that provides continuity with their former lives.
Gila Farm Cooperative is committed to sustainable, local agriculture and does not use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides on crops.