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Posted November 2nd, 2009

New support for new farmers

A three-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program will help Cornell University’s Small Farms Program (SFP) broaden its support for new farmers in the Northeast.

“Demand for local foods has created new market opportunities for farmers with both large and small operations,” says Erica Frenay, project coordinator of the SFP’s N.Y. Beginning Farmer Project. (www.nybeginningfarmers.org). “Many new farmers with little or no agricultural experience want to tap this growing market, but face daunting barriers.  Our team is here to help.”

Some of the barriers beginning and aspiring farmers face include limited access to training, capital, and land. The Small Farms Program, along with Cornell Cooperative Extension, targeted the first of these--training—by establishing the NY Beginning Farmer Project in 2006. Over 3 years, the project trained 362 new or aspiring farmers in basic farm planning and business management. “We’ve collected dozens of farm success stories from this effort, including new farms started, market channels expanded, and people who have quit their off-farm jobs to work on the farm,” says Anu Rangarajan, Director of the Cornell Small Farms Program.  The project also developed new information resources, like the Guide to Farming in NY, a set of fact sheets on the legal and regulatory aspects of farming. And, the project established a Beginning Farmer contact in every Cornell Cooperative Extension office, to help new farmers know who to call. A link to this list is on the homepage of the Cornell Small Farms website at www.smallfarms.cornell.edu.

The infusion of funding from USDA will allow the NY Beginning Farmer Project to expand, drawing on the strengths of a diverse array of partner organizations in addition to Cornell Cooperative Extension: the Greenhorns (www.thegreenhorns.net - a national young farmers movement), NY Farm Viability Insitute (www.nyfvi.org), NOFA-NY (www.nofany.org), NY FarmNet and NY FarmLink (www.nyfarmnet.org and nyfarmlink.org), the Cornell Dept. of Education, NY Association of Ag Educators (http://www.nyag-ed.org), Heifer International (www.heifer.org), and a dozen non-profits from around the Northeast that train and support beginning farmers.

With this USDA funding, the Team will:

  • Develop new online courses and how-to videos for new farmers on production-oriented topics.
  • Work with middle and high schools to develop classroom and on-farm learning opportunities to recruit young people into farming as a career.
  • Analyze the hurdles that challenge farmers with 5-10 years of experience when trying to grow their operations
  • Make training opportunities for new farmers more visible to all new farmers in the Northeast
  • Assist organizations serving beginning farmers with publicity, evaluation, training and information to enhance the success of the new farmers they serve.

If you want to stay informed about our activities, please subscribe to the Small Farms Program's monthly e-newsletter at www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/contact/newsletter.cfm

Using the Small Farms Web Site

The purpose of this web site is to provide easy access to information for small-scale farmers and those who work with them. Our focus is New York State; however, most of the information here is relevant throughout the Northeast and in other regions. We welcome your feedback. If you have any suggestions on content or general layout, please fill out our feedback form.