Julian Mangano is a Land Advocacy Fellow with Young Farmers and a farmer at Della Terra, a small, bio-intensive farm in Castorland, NY.
I have been involved with small-scale, organic farming for the past six years. I own and operate Della Terra Farm where we grow cut flowers, diversified vegetable crops, and herbs, using permaculture practices, and a bio-intensive growing technique. There is a never ending amount of learning, adjustment, and adaptability that is essential for successfully growing food. Every year is a new beginning, but every year also comes with the fortune of growing and becoming more knowledgeable about how that “new beginning” should be navigated.
I have become enthusiastic and extremely passionate about working towards a more localized, resilient, and sustainable food system. I have committed myself to equity and sustainability in agriculture by serving on various working groups for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, specifically the Diversity and Racial Equity, and Farm Land Protection working groups. I also serve on the Jefferson County Food Policy Council, which focuses on building a stronger framework of seven food system sectors that would better support local food access, farm, and nutrition issues.
While I was in college, when confronted with the questions “what do you want to do?”or “who do you want to be?” I could only muster that I wanted to live an autonomous, self-sustainable life. I didn’t want to be stuck in any one place for the rest of my life, nor did I want to depend on systems of production and consumption that are ultimately at the root of the climate crisis. The answer became clear: I wanted to own land, and be immersed in nature. Land ownership would provide self-sufficiency, but it would also provide so much more.
But before I purchased my land in the North Country Region of New York in 2015, and started my farm in 2016, I spent six years living in New York City. Initially, my experience there had an air of excitement: there was so much to learn, observe, and engage with, but my inner spirit wanted something more. The constant traffic, the lack of greenspace, and the piles of garbage that would scatter the streets led me to deeply question the systems that keep our society in motion. Every time I would think about the inefficiencies of the different systems that operated around me, the food system would always occur to me as having the biggest impact. I began to research more about where my food came from and how it was produced. I began to better understand the food supply chain, and how fragile it is.
A recent New York State Food Supply Resiliency Report, released in March 2021, defines the food supply chain as the path that raw agricultural commodities take from the farm where they are produced, through the food processing and distribution network, to the consumer. This report explains that the domestic food supply chain has the potential to break down at any of a number of different points: farm labor for agricultural production; trucking and transportation for raw and finished products; food processing plants, plant workers, and food safety inspectors; packaging, warehousing, and storage capacity; and wholesale and retail outlets and their workers.
Largely, the potential for breakdown in our current supply chain hinges on the high average distance food travels to reach the consumer. The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service estimates processed food in the United States travels over 1,300 miles, and fresh produce travels over 1,500 miles, before being consumed. Many would argue that this distance is inconsequential. After all, it allows the American consumer to indulge in food that is out of season in their geographic region. But at what cost? The distance food travels within the supply chain directly impacts the operational practices of agriculture, favoring conventional, monocultural farming practices, which destroy the land by using chemical fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides, denigrate the living organisms and micro-ecosystem, and decrease the quality and nutrition of the food that is produced.
During my farm journey, I have been introduced to small farms across the country who are producing tens of thousands of pounds of food annually, changing the perception of what it means to farm, and using cultivation practices that are more environmentally sustainable and holistically healthy for consumers. There is a pulsation and vibrancy in the small farm movement! There are collectives that cherish the land, its history, and its longevity. I feel this momentum can be more broadly supported, specifically by the United States Department of Agriculture–but the majority of federal dollars support a food system that is considerably detrimental to our environment and health.
Unfortunately, there are many barriers that hinder the involvement of more people in agriculture, in a more resilient and sustainable capacity, the quintessential factor being access to land.
It may not cross the minds of many consumers, but research from the USDA shows that across the country, the current generation of farmers is aging out of the profession–the average farmer in the U.S. is nearly 60 years old, and prime farmland is being lost to development at a rate of more than 2,000 acres per day.
I have the fortune of owning my own land, through extremely hard work, sacrifice, and intention, but sadly this is not the case for many young and aspiring farmers. According to the National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers), finding affordable land to buy is the number one reason farmers are leaving agriculture, the top challenge for current farmers, and the primary barrier preventing aspiring farmers from getting started. More deeply, a Young Farmers’ 2022 national survey, found the issue is even more challenging for farmers of color. 59% of overall respondents named finding affordable land to buy as very or extremely challenging, while 65% of BIPOC respondents named it as very or extremely challenging. If we want to survive and thrive for generations to come, we need more farmers, specifically farmers who care about the integrity of the food they grow, and the health of their
customers.
As a Land Fellow with Young Farmers, I am working to build momentum and shift power to advocate for policy change in the 2023 Farm Bill that elevates equitable and affordable land access. This fellowship is part of the organization’s One Million Acres for the Future Campaign, an initiative to ensure that land is equitably transitioned to the next generation of farmers, by changing policy in the 2023 Farm Bill. I compel others to consider how our current food system functions, what needs to be done to make it better, and how land advocacy and stewardship can lead to mitigating a future where food access becomes even more limited and less nutritious. Here are a few suggestions of how I think we can get started:
- Write to your congress members! Express to them the importance of ensuring that the 2023
Farm Bill considers our current and future needs, specifically related to land access and support for small farms. - Dedicate yourself to being a conscious consumer! Ask yourself where your products are coming from and begin to have conviction about only purchasing items that are from within a certain radius.
- Support your local farms! Build relationships with those in your community that choose to grow food. Let them know you appreciate them and their efforts. Inquire about volunteering with them, if time permits.
My journey has opened me to a wealth of information related to the United State’s food system, the efforts that are being engaged across the country to create a food system that is more equitable, resilient, and sustainable, as well as the work that remains to be done.
As a part of Young Farmers’ One Million Acres for the Future campaign, I am asking my Members of Congress, Kirstin Gillibrand, Chuck Schumer, and Elise Stefanik, to pass a 2023 Farm Bill that makes this historic investment in equitable land access. We need to actively remove the roadblocks that are keeping young farmers off the land. Secure, equitable access to farmland is an issue that impacts us all, and the future of our food and agriculture systems. All of our voices are important in calling on Congress to create a 2023 Farm Bill that supports young farmers. To get involved with the campaign and receive action alerts, sign up here: p2a.co/land.
This is a pivotal moment to make investments in the individuals who will steward agricultural land and grow food for our communities into the future. Our nation must act now to secure affordable access to land for young farmers and farmers of color—there is no time to wait