Helping To Nurture the Next Generation of Farmers

One of the greatest gifts I have gotten from being a farm writer has been the opportunity to get to know so many wonderful farmers. I have developed not only a respect for the work they do, and a great appreciation for the food that they grow for me, but have formed some genuine friendships.

But sadly, that also means that when one of them passes away, I share the grief along with their family and feel that I have lost my own loved one as well. Last week I lost one of my farmer friends, Tom Ishibashi (pictured above), a third generation farmer, whose family has been farming the same piece of land for the past 60 years.

He was the last farmer in my community, in southern Los Angeles County, once home to so many farms, ranches and dairies, now all gone. I wrote a book about my community’s farm history, and he was the star of it, since his family worked this land for the majority of the 20th century and he was the last to farm into the 21st. With him, goes the last farm in the South Bay and a way of life that has all but vanished.

He taught me so much about not only farming, but also about endurance and hard work and how having a true passion for something can literally keep you alive. He will be greatly missed by our community, his strawberries appearing in early March signaled the start of spring, and he had the sweetest white corn I have ever tasted.

While it is inevitable that our older farmers like my friend Tom will be gone, farming doesn’t have to be. As I have written about many times here, American Farmland Trust is working hard to save our farmland and help our farmers stay on it.

And, there are also organizations that are working to get younger people to take over for retiring farmers and to help keep our farming legacy alive. These include the Greenhorns an organization best known for their documentary about young farmers. The Greenhorns is a grassroots non-profit organization made up of young farmers and many collaborators. Their mission is to recruit, promote and support the new generation of young farmers. They have made a documentary about young farmers and are cofounders of The National Young Farmer Coalition and published a book, The Greenhorns Guide for Beginning Farmers.

The organization they co-founded, the National Young Farmers Coalition was created by and for young and beginning farmers in the United States. They help young farmers by”strengthening their social networks, helping them hone their skills through the facilitation of peer-to-peer learning, and fighting for the policies that will keep them farming for a lifetime.”

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Gary C.

7:09AM PST on Feb 10, 2012

Thankyou.....

send a green star

Carole R.

7:49PM PDT on Oct 15, 2011

Thank you for the post.

Megan S.

3:23PM PDT on Jun 3, 2011

I'm so sorry for your loss, he sounds like a wonderful man and wonderful farmer, devoted to what he did.

I hope farming does not stay like it is... I want it to explode! I want to see, before I am an adult, biodynamic farms opening EVERYWHERE! I want to see monocultures and pesticides disappear. I want REAL FOOD to be apart of this country!

I plan on either being a restoration ecologist or owning my own vegan (maybe even raw?) cafe, and either way, I will be making sure I support local farms. Whether it's just for me, my husband, and herd of guinea pigs whom I will mother, or for my cafe, I'll make sure I make it clear that I want good food!

Nicole D.

5:52AM PDT on Jun 2, 2011

I feel truly blessed to live in an area where there are so many local sustainable farms. It saddens me that so many Americans have no idea where their food is coming from and that many products are being shipped in from other countries because of the monoculture being created on so many farms in this country. Big business has ruined so many farms, we need to support and cherish those local farms who have yet to fall victim to the agriculture industry.

Robin T.

7:33AM PDT on Jun 1, 2011

@ Tricia Hamilton Not all farmers have slaughter houses. You should really take the trouble to visit a farm of the type we are discussing here, it might open your eyes.
Judi you are so right, we need to find ways to encourage young farmers. I think this problem is world wide and all for the same reason. It is very difficult for a farmer to make a decent living, especially one starting out as the start up costs are astronomical and the returns minimal. On top of that all it takes is one bad year of drought, abnormal rains or pestilance nd you are in serious trouble. Nothing is certain when farming and that puts a lot of aspiring farmers off.
We all need to make that extra effort and support our local small farmers.They are our only hope for the future.

Make a difference, plant a tree.

Lynda G.

11:41PM PDT on May 31, 2011

It isn't just in the US that farms and farmers are disappearing, it's happening here in Australia too. Our backbone no more.

Young people leave the farms more now than ever before and the major national purchasers grind the prices they'll pay down so much for produce that it's putting many out of business.

We are also losing our farms to international buyers like China and the US, and others, European countries, Canada etc who are buying our farms for their own future food needs which begs the question, "what about us?"

It looks like we'll be importing the majority of our food before long, a tragedy given our heritage and the very thought of low quality food after what we've been used to horrifies me.

I'm not aware of any organisation like Greenhorn or National Young Farmers Coalition here, there maybe it's not a topic I know much about but we Aussies definitely need to devote some serious attention to the farming issue.

Lynn C.

10:23PM PDT on May 31, 2011

Now if we can just keep Monsanto away from their fields, maybe they'll have a chance to prosper with the renewed interest in healthy food.

Amanda M.

3:49PM PDT on May 31, 2011

Both my kids actually prefer to see farms instead of developments, and we live in a county where there is still a Future Farmers of America club at the high school. We live in a rural county where there are still many farms around (thanks in no small part to the conservative Mennonite communities here), and I'd rather see farming stay a large part of our economy, not to mention our way of life.

One example of how my kids are pro-farm: When our older daughter was almost five, we were coming home from the county seat once and saw where a developer was putting in utility lines where a farm had once stood. Our older daughter took one look at this sight and went into an absolute FROTH that lasted a good five miles! To this day, she still sneers at that sight, and I can't help thinking that if she went that insane over ONE farm being destroyed, I'm scared to death to take her up to the north end of the county seat where there is a huge swath of recent development where I remember farms standing. One look at all that, and she'd likely blow a fuse!

Our younger daughter ( age 4) is just as intense, although in a more subtle way. Earlier this year when we were walking home from dropping off her older sister at school, we saw the tractors from local farms coming to the high school for a FFA event. This kid made me stand there until the last tractor had gone by-she loves watching the tractors!

Needless to say, she got a toy tractor for her birthday this year.

Alicia N.

3:41PM PDT on May 31, 2011

thanks for sharing.

Past Member .

2:37PM PDT on May 31, 2011

Young farmers have a tough sell what with big business, government and special-interest pressures ganging up by the day. However, even city folks are reawakening to the benefits, on a smaller scale, as we see a resurgence of victory gardens, local fresh air markets, activist goals for fair and humane treatment of animals, reforestation and equal sharing of the land and its resources, etc. This is all good ... may it bloom and grow forever.

As the numbers increase and more awareness of unacceptable compromises surface, current rules, regulations, and enforcement thereof can begin to even the playing field ... hopefully before the point of NO return is reached. For this I pray/hope.