“American farmers are a dying breed,” a Newsweek cover story tolled last spring. The splashy headline was eye-grabbing, but the narrative of aging farmers and agricultural decline is closer to myth than fact. More and more young people are joining the time-tested profession, bringing new technology, ideas and environmental consciousness to farming.
Just who are these millennials heading into the fields, and why are they doing it? It’s a question Young Invincibles, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit focused on youth engagement, along with Global Prairie, a digital media and marketing firm in Kansas City, will be asking on a nationwide listening tour, FarmNext: Giving Voice to the Next Generation of Food Producers. The group will host its first meeting at University of California, Davis today, followed by stops at Kansas State University, Virginia Tech and Iowa State University. It all culminates in a summit at the nation’s capital this fall.
NationSwell will be following the conference as it hops around the country, bringing you stories about young farmers’ perseverance and innovation in the face of challenges. We’ll focus on how we can incentivize young people to do the crucial work that stocks our markets with food; how drones, mapping and the latest inventions are changing the business of agriculture; and how America as a whole can bridge the divide between rural and urban communities.
“I think we’ve seen the millennial generation as a generation that has been let down by traditional institutions, whether that’s the real estate market, Wall Street, government,” Tom Allison, Young Invincible’s policy and research manager, tells NationSwell. For young people, “there’s a cultural search for something authentic, and you can’t get more authentic than reconnecting with the land, growing your own food and becoming part of the ecological system in a way that maybe has been lost in previous generations.”
These 80 million teens and twentysomethings — idealistic, socially, tech-savvy and penniless, if you believe what the media says — compose a growing share of the country’s workforce. Agriculture’s no different. While some indicators, like the average age of the “principal operator,” may appear to show farmers are getting older, those aren’t exactly accurate. “A lot of times a family might designate the oldest person in the family, out of respect and tradition, even if Grandpa isn’t necessarily doing as much work or making the business and ecological decisions of the farm,” notes Allison, whose family operates a small vineyard in Virginia.
Most other numbers reveal a millennial-driven business. The median age for non-management farmhands is 37.4 and for miscellaneous agricultural workers it’s 34.1 — both far younger than the median age for all occupations: 42.3. Another way of measuring the age of the workforce, the share of jobs held by millennials (16 to 34 years old), reveals that in fields like agriculture and food science, 41 percent of jobs are held by young adults.
Those figures are expected to grow. While the number of students majoring in agricultural studies remains low overall — 1.8 percent — its growth is skyrocketing, with a 39 percent increase over the past five years.
“There’s attributes that make us uniquely adapted to the agricultural industry,” Allison says. “We have collaborative approaches to work. Even though it is one person toiling in the soil, it really takes a whole network across the industry: the folks selling the equipment through the food chain pipeline to the buyer. Young people are also so adapted to technology. Agriculture relies more and more on predictive analytics to inform decisions on what to grow and when, GPS or drones to identify problems in the field that are too big or too small for one person or a crew to identify and big applications for food chemistry.”
Farming is not as easy or romantic as it sounds, as Allison can attest. It’s “not exactly Norman Rockwell,” he says. There’s days in late spring when you light a fire at the end of your row of vines to ward away a frost, tend it all night, then have one flock of birds eat your entire crop the next afternoon. There’s days in late summer when the salty sweat burns your eyes under 100-degree heat. But even for all the hardship, the rewards of harvesting something from the soil are attracting a new group.
“The numbers are there,” Allison adds. “Young people are getting into farming, both because they care about it and because there’s a lot of opportunities there.” Which is good news for the rest of us, since our dinner depends on it.
Tag: food
This Urban School District Is Promising Free Meals For Every Child
A bologna sandwich: That’s what students of Shelby County Schools in Memphis, Tenn., received for lunch if they forgot to bring the $2 or so to pay for their food.
Nothing: That’s what some impoverished students (80 percent qualify for free lunch) would rather sit with in the cafeteria than be revealed as the “poor kid” to their classmates.
“We see kids every day that don’t go through the lunch line because they don’t want to be identified as that kid who gets a free meal. That stigma is huge,” Tony Geraci, the executive director of Shelby County Schools’ nutrition program, tells The Commercial Appeal.
But come this school year, that will all change. The school system will be serving three meals to every single student in the district — breakfast, lunch and dinner — all for free, regardless of how wealthy their family may be.
It’s due to a federal program that’s changing the way cash reimbursements for school lunches are distributed. Rather than judging individual families in relation to the poverty line, the government is now looking at the economic well-being of entire cities. Known as the “community eligibility provision,” the program kicks in once 40 percent of the school district’s population is considered low-income (largely based on signups for food stamps). Reimbursements in Memphis will now doled out based on how many meals are served in a cafeteria rather than how many poor kids attend a school, creating an incentive to serve additional meals.
Nutritious meals had been (and continue to be) correlated with academic performance. One 2002 study undertaken by a Harvard Medical School professor found that students “at nutritional risk” missed more days of school and expressed more anxiety and aggression — areas that all showed improvement six months later when a free breakfast program was implemented. It may sound simplistic, but a plate of chicken or lasagna could the difference between kids who pay attention to their teacher and the ones who focus on their empty stomach, a divide that largely falls on economic lines.
America’s subsidized school lunch programs date back to World War II, when many young men were rejected from the draft due to the lingering physical consequences of childhood malnutrition. The National School Lunch Act, passed in 1946 as a “measure of national security,” got a major update in 1998 when Congress agreed to start paying for snacks for youngsters in certain after-school extracurriculars. Launched experimentally in 2010, the latest expansion goes even farther, ensuring there’s food on every child’s plate at every meal. It’s part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s signature “Let’s Move!” campaign to end childhood obesity.
Supporters say the latest plan is essential to preventing hunger in classrooms in Memphis and across the country — Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, parts of New York City and elsewhere. Not only does “community eligibility” eliminate stigma for children who’d otherwise qualify for free or reduced lunch, it also ensures that other students — the ones who didn’t file their annual paperwork, others who may be just above the poverty cutoff or some of the growing number of homeless youth — don’t fall through the gap. For several kids, not eating a healthy meal at school means not eating at all.
“Kids won’t be going home and saying, ‘I’m hungry,’ and their mother just says, ‘I don’t have anything for you to eat,’ and not enough money to go to the market maybe,” one student in Baltimore, Adria Johnson, told the local news station when her district qualified. All together, nearly 6.4 million students across 13,800 districts are now being fed by the expanded criteria. In Memphis alone, parents will save $1.8 million they previously forked over for lunch.
“Stigma really overshadows a lot of the great things we do,” Geraci says. “For once, we’ll be able to have a program where we can say, now it’s time to learn, now it’s time to eat, now it’s time to play. That’s huge for this district.”
This Kitchen Serves Up More Than Just Meals; It’s Giving Hope
The Town Kitchen in Oakland, Calif., appears to be your average food-delivery business, but it’s far from that. Not only is its menu of sandwiches and salads unique, so are its employees: They’re all underprivileged youth.
Its owner, Sabrina Mutukinsa, came up with the idea after operating a cupcake company and mentoring low-income kids. Combing her two great loves — food and empowering youth — she created The Town Kitchen, where the daily special is opportunity for a better life.
Since The Town Kitchen opened for business in early 2014, Mutukisna and her head chef, Jefferson Sevilla, have been hiring youth on an event-by-event basis. By the summer, however, they plan to have a full-time staff of 43. Mutukisna hopes to offer college credit to participants.
Not only do workers, ages 15 to 24, learn to deliver food efficiently, but they also receive other marketable skills, such as web design and bookkeeping. And while Sevilla handles all of the cooking right now, once the employees achieve their food safety certification, Mutukisna plans to have them do almost all of the prep work, reports the East Bay Express.
“We want them to have transferrable skills, not just start a jam company,” Mutukisna says.
The for-profit business’s success depends upon the quality of the food and the performance of the workers, so Mutukisna has high expectations, but she’s also hoping to garner the support and goodwill of the community because of The Town Kitchen’s mission of helping others.
So the next time you’re looking for lunch, find out what a difference your dollar can make.
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What’s on the Menu at These Correctional Facilities? Local Food and Job Skills
Comparing bad food to prison grub is becoming a thing of the past. That’s because several new farm-to-prison programs are incorporating locally-grown food onto jail menus at several facilities across the country.
As more and more of these initiatives sprout up, the hope is that not only will they improve the health of inmates, but reduce recidivism rates as well. Here’s a look at some leading the pack.
San Diego’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility
The Farm and Rehabilitation Meals (FARM) program, which began this year, designates three acres of prison land as a community garden for the inmates. Twenty prisoners work the land and are assisted by prison staff gardeners and volunteers, according to Sustainable Cities Collectible. The garden’s fresh fruits and vegetables are added to the inmates’ meals, and the surplus is donated to local food banks.
The program cost $4,000 to start and was funded solely by private donors. The prison hopes that working in the garden will give the prisoners agricultural skills to help them find jobs upon release.
Vermont Department of Corrections
In 2012, the Vermont Department of Corrections started a partnership with Salvation Farms. Through it, locally-grown potatoes and apples have been added to jailhouse menus, and inmates have participated in the food-processing experience. Since then, 141,000 pounds of food has been planted, grown, harvested and processed by the inmates. Of that, about 2,000 pounds has been consumed by prisoners, with the rest donated to food banks, schools and other local institutions.
Montana Women’s Prison
Using local beans, breads, cereal, eggs, meat and milk, this facility spends about $60,000 a year on local food — 30 percent of its food budget. Started back in 2007, the prison’s local food program has grown to include an on-premise greenhouse, which boosts production and trains inmates in gardening and food production.
With these programs, prisons are equipping inmates with more than just a high quality meal — they’re giving them a second chance.
To learn about more farm to prison programs, click here.
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Forget Calculus and Gym Class. At This High School, Students Are Trained for Workplace Success
What is the purpose of high school?
At Camden County High School (CCHS) in Georgia, the school employs a “career technical” approach: using various academies aimed at different career fields to create a pre-professional, engaging environment for its almost 2,800 students.
All freshman are enrolled in the Freshman Academy, where they’re introduced to the curriculum and get acclimated to the school, as well as take most of the traditional academic core. From there, students pick one of the five career academies to enroll in, where they receive first-hand experience from people in that respective field, reports the Atlantic.
In the Government and Public Services Academy, students can follow the law and justice curriculum and take a class with Navy-Kings Bay NCIS official Rich Gamble. In Gamble’s class, students are trained in appropriate investigative procedures and court room preparation.
For those students looking for more technical work, there’s the Engineering and Industrial Technology Academy. This field includes a wide variety of careers, but CCHS covers many, including woodwork, welding, auto-repair, electrical work, computer-aided design and robotics program. Learning doesn’t just take place in the classroom; students actually sell products and perform services for the community, too.
Within the Health and Environmental Sciences Academy, students interested in the medical field can bring textbooks to life as they diagnose and care for dummies. The models are also used as test prep for certification exams.
There’s also a Fine Arts Academy (which covers all facets from theater to cooking) and one for Business and Marketing, where students learn the keys to success in the corporate world.
At CCHS, students are shown that there’s more to high school than just surviving class: a thriving career.
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32 Surprising Things That You Can Compost
Chances are, even if you’re a recycling-all-star, you’re probably new to the wild world of composting. This practice, which turns common household items into all-natural, nutrient-rich mulch, is beneficial to the environment in countless ways: from reducing the need for fertilizer to fighting climate change. While many surprising things can be tossed directly into a compost heap (old latex party balloons, for one), some items might only decompose when placed in advanced composters, and others will cause more harm than good.
Since it’s the new year, and you’re all about making resolutions to better yourself (that is, to eat more whole grains, hit up the gym), why not resolve to improve the health of the earth, too? This tip sheet will help you determine what items can stay out of your trash and become composting treasure.
Compost this
- Fruit and vegetable scraps (including banana peels, citrus rinds, moldy lettuce and even jack-o’-lanterns). Tip: Breaking things down in a blender first can speed up the composting process.
- Stale or moldy bread, crackers and cereal. Tip: These items can attract unwanted pets, so bury them deep in your pile or use a composter with a lid.
- Wine, beer and liquor.
- The liquid from canned fruits and vegetables.
- Old herbs and spices.
- Coffee grounds and paper coffee filters.
- Tea and teabags.
- Jam, jelly and other fruit preserves.
- Balloons, gloves and condoms made from latex.
- Hair and nail clippings.
- Feathers and fur from pets.
- Old ropes and ripped up cloth made of natural fibers, such as wool or cotton.
- Cotton balls and swabs made from 100 percent cotton.
- Natural corks from wine bottles.
- Plant trimmings and clipped grass that’s free from toxins like pesticides or weed killer.
- Unwanted potting soil.
- Finely chopped wood chips and bark.
- Leaves, twigs, pine cones and evergreen needles. (Your Christmas tree can also be composted — provided that you can break it down in a wood chipper first.)
- Hay and straw.
- Matches, toothpicks and bamboo skewers.
- Compostable utensils and dishware. Tip: Break these up into pieces.
- Shredded plain paper (think: bills and credit-card-statements), notebook paper written on with pencil or pens with soy- or vegetable-based inks, cardboard and newspaper.
- Used paper towels, napkins and tissues, as long as they haven’t been used during an illness, such as the flu or a cold, or used to clean up chemicals.
- Dry pet food.
- Hamster bedding.
- Dead plants and flowers.
- Nuts and their shells (except walnut shells, which can be toxic to some plants).
- Algae, seaweed and kelp.
- White glue (such as Elmer’s), papier-mâché and masking tape.
- Cellophane, but make sure it’s the real plant-based variety and not plastic wrap.
- Natural loofahs and sea sponges.
- Wood ash from your fireplace.
Skip this
- Meat, fish and bones, which produce foul odors and attract rodents and bugs. Tip: Your local recycling or composting facility, however, might accept them.
- Eggs and dairy products such as cheese, butter and yogurt, which also attract pests.
- Oils, grease, salad dressing and peanut butter. These items don’t break down easily and could upset the liquid balance of your compost.
- Cigarette butts that are made of plastic.
- Store-bought soaps and shampoos, which contain dyes, perfumes and chemicals that will contaminate your pile.
- Black-walnut tree leaves or twigs and oleander leaves, which are toxic to plants.
- Pet waste or cat litter, which may contain disease or parasites that could be passed on to humans.
- Diseased or insect-ridden plants. They can regrow in your compost pile and be transferred back into your garden.
- Weed seeds and invasive weeds, which can sprout in your compost pile.
- Glossy magazines, colored paper, wrapping paper that may be coated in wax or other synthetic materials and paper that’s covered with inks or dyes (for instance, the ink from Rollerball pens and Sharpies are toxic). Recycle these items instead.
- Used personal products such as diapers, tampons and feminine napkins.
- Coated cardboard, paper cups, milk cartons and juice boxes, since they’re often lined with wax, plastic or other synthetic chemicals.
- Leather goods, including belts and gloves. In theory, they’ll decompose, but it will take many, many years.
- Charcoal ash from your grill, which could contain chemicals.
- Baked goods, cooked grains, rice and pasta, which can be a breeding ground for bacteria and attract pests.
- Dryer lint or vacuum cleaner contents. The tiny plastic or synthetic fibers shed from clothing or carpets could contaminate your compost.
How Deep-Fried Food Can Reduce Our Fossil Fuel Addiction
You’d expect that oils from McDonald’s deep-fryer traps, fat from slaughtered pigs and cattle and the grease caught in city sewer traps would be pretty much useless, right? But two researchers are investigating how to recycle all those leftover oils and fats into biodiesel motor fuel, an alternative that can reduce our dependence on oil.
After a decade in the lab, two Minnesota chemical engineers are designing a plant that will convert yellow and brown grease into fuel. With so many experiments, they’ve found a way that’s cheaper and more energy-efficient than the alternatives, like soybean-based biodiesel. Kirk Cobb and Joe Valdespino, the brains behind Superior Process Technologies, a little-known chemical company in Minneapolis, will soon have their ideas put into practice at a full-scale refinery near downtown Los Angeles that can churn out 20 million gallons of biodiesel annually.
“Our process is superior to the traditional method,” Valdespino tells the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “It saves energy. It increases yield. It enables you to use cheaper feedstocks,” he says, referring to the raw material inputted to machines.
Biodiesel took off after major environmental legislation in 2005 and 2007 and a farm bill in 2008 that contained several incentives. At the last count by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the country has roughly 100 producers, with most output clustered in the Midwestern states of Texas, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Most of them rely on soybean, canola and corn oils for their raw material — about 2.2 billion pounds worth just in the first half of this year. Animal fats (403 million pounds) and other recycled grease (535 million pounds), on the other hand, lag behind in the industry.
Cobb and Valdespino are hoping greater efficiency will change that. The pair became friends fifteen years ago while working for a paper company in Savannah, Ga., where they converted resin from the pulp of pine trees into profitable adhesives, plastics and inks. After 24 years on the job, Cobb left to work on biodiesel at Superior Process Technologies in 2004 and hired Valdespino in 2007.
Since then, they’ve been laying the groundwork for a tactic that diverges from the rest of the field. Other refiners add sulfuric acid to remove fat, but that reaction creates water which contaminates other key compounds like methanol and must be removed — a “really messy” and “very limited” business, Valdespino says. Their company adds glycerol at around 450 degrees, enough heat to evaporate the water and skip the extra step of eliminating impurities.
“People misconstrue higher temperatures with higher energy use,” says Cobb. “That is not the case.” Cobb says the plant will be able to do the job better — using six times less energy than the standard method — and provide diesel to large customers like airliners and the Navy at lower prices.
Almost all the industry’s innovation had been fueled by hefty support from the federal government, but most of those tax credits, loans and grants recently expired. Cobb and Valdespino are hoping the incentives return, so that for once, greasy fat can actually do something good for America.
This Second Grader Saved for a Pet Snake, But Decided to Feed the Poor Instead
Eight-year-old Keaton Snell of Winter Haven, Fla., assiduously saved his allowance and birthday money for months, trying to accumulate enough to buy himself a snake. Once he’d saved $114, he approached his mom about getting the pet, but she said he needed to wait until he was 10-years-old.
Keaton wanted to spend the money this year, however, so he decided to buy food for those less fortunate.
He got the idea from his second grade class, which has been talking about ways the kids can help the community and holding a food drive. His teacher, Lori Davis, tells the News Chief, “We’ve been having conversations about the less fortunate, and Keaton is particularly sympathetic about it. He came to me and said, ‘I want to spend $114 on food for the poor,’ and I thought that’s a lot of money, but it was totally his idea and it shows how deep in his heart he feels about this.”
Keaton started by raiding his pantry to give to others. His mom, Shannon Snell, says “I kept telling him he can’t give all of our food away. We need some, too. So it came to the point where he was like, ‘Mom, just take me to the grocery store, and I’ll buy the food.”
Shannon made a deal with her son that she would match his contributions. Keaton ended up donating 72 cans, which will stock the food pantry at The Mission, a Winter Haven, Fla., church organization that feeds the hungry and helps the homeless.
Keaton’s classmates were donating an average of about two cans per person, but when they saw all the cans he brought, it inspired them to give more.
Davis says, “He came into school with two bags overflowing with cans. The other kids saw it, we talked about Keaton using his own money and they all got really excited about it. They started bringing in more cans and we saw the school count rise a lot.”
So far, the school has collected 3,000 cans of food. As for Keaton, he may not yet have a pet snake, but his teacher rewarded him with one week during which he doesn’t have to wear his school uniform. “He went above and beyond,” Davis says.
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Things Are Heating Up in This Los Angeles Kitchen
You’re heard the warning about having too many cooks in the kitchen. But for Mott Smith, it’s a warning that might be better unheeded.
As the developer of the new L.A. Prep, Smith has designed a space for co-worker cooks. Opening next month, this 56,000-square-foot former warehouse has been transformed into 50 fully licensed, professional kitchens — complete with a chef in each one, according to Next City.
The L.A. County Department of Public Health mandates that all food producers (except those on the smallest scale) utilize restaurant-style kitchens to meet strict health codes. Businesses run into problems, however, when they want to expand. Normally, they have two options: (1) expanding to a larger kitchen that can cost thousands of dollars or (2) become a “gray market” operator and use restaurant space at night.
That is, until L.A. Prep popped onto the scene. The place will give cooks access to upscale kitchens without the crazy overhead normally associated with it. Chefs can bring in their ingredients on day one and walk out with goods ready for sale.
Leah Ferrazzani is one of the first tenants scheduled to move into the space. Her company Semolina Artisanal Pasta previously ran out of her home’s kitchen. Limited by space and time, Ferrazzani is optimistic about her move to L.A. Prep, as she estimates that it will double her production from 45 to 90 pounds per day.
L.A. Prep will be the first of its kind, occupying the middle ground between cottage production (at-home production that is sold directly to consumers) and large-scale industrial food markets. While it took some finagling with the Health Department, Smith was able to get approval.
Right now the health department is starting to see that there are a lot of ways that they can still keep people safe but also be more open-minded about the way they regulate things,” Ferrazzani tells Next City.
For Smith, L.A. Prep represents the opportunity to expand innovation.
“I’m passionate about experimentation and innovation in cities,” Smith says. “Everything I’ve done is about opening up the marketplace at the entry level…making it easier for small businesses to do their thing, innovate and realize that awesomeness that is implicit in L.A.”
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Despite Pests and a Lack of Experienced Help, This Woman Found Success Raising Organic Produce
When it comes to food, Sasha Kanno is involved in pretty much every aspect of it. A resident of southern California, she’s been working for many years to bring the organic food movement to the region. Between her numerous gardens and her new nonprofit Long Beach Local, Kanno is a pioneer in the field of sustainable agriculture.
With no prior experience in farming, Kanno’s interest was originally piqued by watching YouTube videos, Sustainable Cities Collective reports. Farming became a job, though, after she attended the EcoFarm conference in Monterey, Calif.
From there, she served as the director of the Wrigley Garden – a community garden in Long Beach, Calif., — and went on to co-found Wrigley Co-op Food.
Then came Long Beach Local. The nonprofit biodynamic farm doubles as a training and education center. Its one-acre lot (Farm Lot 59) grows a variety of specialty crops and flowers without a boost from chemicals or pesticides. Farm Lot 59 also boasts egg-laying hens and beehives.
Her work isn’t just for residents, however; she also helps local businesspeople. Every Thursday, Kanno sits down with chefs from the area to plan their menus, and her gardens service six restaurants in Long Beach. Furthermore, she runs a rooftop garden for Michael’s Restaurant Groups, which uses the fresh produce in their restaurants.
When it comes to challenges, there are only two things standing in her way: quality assistance and the bagrada bug. Since Kanno’s work runs on volunteer service, she’s at the mercy of whoever is interested.
“Labor is my biggest challenge,” she tells Sustainable Cities Collective. “It’s hard to find people who are experienced.”
In regards to the bagrada, the insect entered the California scene in 2008 and is especially fond of organic produce, eating just about any crop, while also reproducing quickly and efficiently.
“There’s no organic eradication,” Kanno explains. “The first year it wiped me out. I literally cried.”
Fortunately for Long Beach, Kanno and her crops did survive and continue to thrive. Clearly, neither man nor bug can stop this woman.
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