Connecting New Farmers to Place, Agroecology, and Community through a Bilingual Organic Farm Incubator

Katherine Smith,Lynne Carpenter-Boggs,Marcia Ostrom,Donald Mcmoran

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2019.091.030

Katherine Smith, Lynne Carpenter-Boggs + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2019.091.030

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Abstract

Renewed public interest in the localized dimensions of food and farming systems offers opportunities for citizens to become more engaged in decision making about how their food is produced, distributed, and consumed, and, for all these actions, by whom. This paper explores an initiative designed to reinvigorate the production components of a place-based, regional food system through connecting diverse aspiring entrepreneurial farmers, nonprofit organizations, land grant university faculty, and food consumers around shared values. The characteristics that distinguish values-based food systems can be sets of values associated with environmentally sustainable production practices, the qualities of the food, the distribution of the food, and/or relationships with particular farmers and places (Ostrom, DeMaster, Noe, & Schermer, 2017). Based on interviews and participant observation, our participatory research with the Viva Farms bilingual farm incubator program explores the role of place, social, and environmental values, and social learning in launching an incoming generation of women, immigrant, and low-income farmers. These themes have not been previously explored in the literature in relation to the success of new entry farmer initiatives. As of 2016, six years into the program, our findings show that 77 percent of past program participants were still farming in the same region, using agroecological farming practices and employing place-based marketing strategies. See the press release for this article.

Highlights

Agriculture is central to the economy of the Northwestern United States
An apparent landscape of plenty with over US$10 billion in annual production value (U.S Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service [USDA NASS], 2017), Washington agriculture has focused on agroexports that closely articulate with global markets, encourage agricultural consolidation and industrialization, and draw an international labor force
In assessing how farm incubator programs serve as a place-based food system model to foster environmental stewardship among new entry farmers, we found it important to look at how adult learning influences adoption of agroecological practices

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture is central to the economy of the Northwestern United States. With rich soils, engineered irrigation systems, and a wide range of microclimate zones, Washington is the second most agriculturally diverse state in the U.S in terms of the crops produced. While it may appear at face value that consumers of alternative foods are primarily concerned with their own personal health, nutrition, and gastronomic satisfaction, when asked about how they view their food choices, random sample survey research with Washington residents has shown that many do see connections among their food purchasing choices and aspects of ecological, economic, and farmers’ well-being These associations emerge most clearly in relation to specific places rather than in relation to social or political movements (Ostrom, 2006). Food system values that evolve in relation to particular places and their residents may encourage collective action strategies that directly engage concerns about environmental sustainability and the wellbeing of farmers and farmworkers at a manageable scale (Ostrom 2006, 2017)

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