A Youth Revival in Farming?

It's important to start the new year with good news, and there has been plenty of it in the gardening sector. For seed companies, 2008 was a bonanza, fueled largely by a national trend toward homegrown food. Surprisingly, it was often younger Americans adding beans and cauliflower to their electronic carts. Those of us who lecture on gardening, and are used to addressing a room full of gray heads, are seeing more brown, blond, red and black. Many of these young enthusiasts are even taking the next step and becoming farmers.

Recently I met up with my friend Fred Kirschenmann, one of the most prominent spokesmen for the sustainable farming movement. The place was the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, N.Y. (http://www.stonebarnscenter.org), where Fred is president of the board. The occasion was the Young Farmers Conference organized by the center. Both of us were warmed by the sight of the avid crowd. The conference had sold out two weeks before and is scheduled to become an annual event.

Fred pinpointed a dramatic recent shift in farming: "In 1910, 28 percent of America's farmers were under 35 and 8 percent were over 65. In 2002, it was 27 percent over 65 and 5.8 percent under 35. But now, as I travel the country speaking about sustainable, organic or small-scale farming, almost no one in the audience is over 40."

Other interesting statistics: Of the 171 attendees at the conference, most came from throughout the Northeast, but some had driven from as far away as the Carolinas. One hundred were female, 71 male, a ratio echoed in the job applications my husband and I receive at our farm. Today's young farmer wears jeans and a hoodie or a flannel shirt and scarf, carries a laptop and can speak knowledgeably about rotational grazing or the carbon-nitrogen ratios in compost heaps. Most are keenly aware that to succeed they will have to find a niche for quality products outside the arena of large, mainstream, commodities-based agriculture. In their own words, here is why they want to farm:

"I can call it a job but be outside in the sun talking to people and eating strawberries."

"I want to make it healthier and safer for people by farming organically."

"People told me not to."

"I like being connected to place, learning in a really visceral way what my world is."

"I like to be around sheep."

For many of us, young or old, it is clear that large farms, dependent on fossil fuel and petrochemicals, will soon be nonviable and that a whole new kind of enterprise must take their place. Where will all the new young farmers come from?

Now we know.