Who we are

We are young farmers in the Hudson River Valley organizing to support each other in starting and sustaining viable agricultural businesses.

Our mission

We believe in the transformative potential of small business, local agriculture and cooperation to build a durable and prosperous agricultural economy in the Hudson Valley and beyond.

We are coming together to better understand the needs of young and beginning farmers in this region and to address and advocate for those needs.*

We work together on building collaborative infrastructure, mobilizing to shift regional and national farm policy, increasing access to resources (land, grants and loans, healthcare), consolidating information and creating spaces where young farmers from all backgrounds can share, learn and gather.

By building a functional network for resource and information sharing we can all share in the resilient local economy that will support this region for years to come.

We are just beginning to explore the many aspects of regional young farmer organizing, it is a learning experience . Join us and we can learn together.

* “young” and “beginning” are relative terms.  This is not meant to be narrow or exclusive but to address issues affecting this current  generation of first career farmers. If you think this coalition might benefit from your perspective, contact us, it’s almost certainly true!

 

 

After several initial meetings in the fall of 2011 we are currently spending the winter meeting in smaller focused working groups listed below. If you’d be interested in joining any of these groups please write to the contact person associated with each description. For general contact or to be added to the group listserve please email Jordan at jalschmidt@gmail.com.

Winter Working Groups

Collaboration
This group focuses on identifying areas where collaboration among regional farmers would be most helpful and facilitating collaborative projects and resource sharing.
We are working on re-imagining and building networks for sharing among young growers and on facilitating information and infrastructure sharing between farmers who are newer to the area and farmers who’ve been here a long time. Through collaboration we hope to increase collective resiliency, help manage risk, ease the capital intensity/debt burden for many different types of farm start up, share skills and resources between new and established farmers, and collectively troubleshoot practical and financial problems.
Contact: Dayna Locitzer (daynalocitzer@gmail.com), Michael Grady Robertson (gradyrobertson@gmail.com)

Policy
Local and national farm policy directly affects the ability to establish and sustain successful farming operations.  This group works on mobilizing young farmers to understand and advocate around agricultural policy. We are supporting each other in learning about policy and in developing clear and concise teaching tools and resources. We are organizing ourselves to advocate directly for necessary political change, to use our experiences effectively in communicating with local and national representatives.
Contact: Ginny Moore (treehugginny@gmail.com), Wes Hannah (wes.nyfc@gmail.com)

Network Building
This group is organizing gatherings that allow young farmers to support each other, have fun, enjoy our work and community and practice often neglected self-care.
Contact: Donald Arrant (donaldarrant@gmail.com)

Book Club/Study Group
This is a list of people interested in adding reading talking, sharing stories to our physical work. Anyone can suggest a topic and meeting date anytime.
Contact: Jordan Schmidt (jalschmidt@gmail.com) to be added to list.

Mentoring
This group is actively facilitating younger farmer-older farmer relationships in this region. We are building a program in which more experienced growers are compensated to provide beginning growers with vital support  in planning and starting a farm.
Contact: Allie Comet (allie.comet@gmail.com), Aileah Kvashay (clovevalleycsa@gmail.com)