40 farmers under 40
Meet the new crop of American farmers -- young and energetic idealists who are bringing local, sustainable food back to the table.
By Matt HickmanTue, Jul 21 2009 at 8:30 AM EST
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FARM AID: Singer Jason Mraz is the proud owner of a farm in California. (Photo: Bil Zelman/Zelman Studios) Who do you picture when you think of an American farmer? A leathery-handed AARP type who rises at dawn, works the fields all day and returns home when Sally Mae rings the supper bell? If so, you aren't too far off. According to the USDA, the average American agrarian is a white male aged 55 or older. And some studies show that the presence of young farmers, 18 to 35, is actually in decline.
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They're urban, they hold advanced degrees and they're often female. They sprout up in not-so-bucolic places like Brooklyn, Oakland, Atlanta and Indianapolis, and they sometimes work as educators, eco-entrepreneurs, yogis, journalists, filmmakers, activists and doting parents on the side. They're passionate and adventurous. And most notably, they're focused on sustainability and community building.
The following list features 40 American farmers under the age of 40, compiled with help from dozens of people in the farming industry — from farmers themselves to those who help them in the nonprofit sector to those in the media who cover them. They aren't in any particular order (farmer No. 5 isn't necessarily better than farmer No. 15, for example), and in no way should this list be considered scientific. Think of it more as starting point, a beginning to a larger conversation about the collective hope for the future of American farming.
Straw hats off to older farmers — they're the agricultural backbone of this country — but it's also time to acknowledge that Young MacDonald has a farm, too. These 40 up-and-coming farmers are happily working the earth from Roy, Wash., to Tivoli, N.Y., and the crops they grow are just as diverse as their backgrounds. Without further ado, let's meet the gang ...
1) Jason Mraz, 32"Mraz Farms"
San Diego, Calif.
Singer/songwriter Jason Mraz has produced a bounty of melodic pop-rock songs since hitting it big with his sophomore album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005. (His 2008 follow-up, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things., has sold 2.5 million copies.) But reggae- and folk-inflected ditties aren't the only sweet crops Mraz harvests — the Virginia native is also an enthusiastic avocado farmer. After buying five acres in an agricultural area of San Diego, he settled in and began farming the pear-shaped, green-skinned fruits. He also installed a solar-power system on his farm to let the sun fuel more than just his plants.
Mraz has said he eats two to four avocados daily as part of his mostly raw-foods diet, but he's not against making a little green on the side, too. "I do sell my avocados," he told CNN during a 2008 interview. "I mean, they don't have a sticker on them that say that these are from the Mraz Farms, but I moved into an area that all of us are avocado farmers. ... Believe me, our kitchen is just like decked out with them. We're constantly washing them, we're eating them and we're giving them to all our friends."
2) Zoë Bradbury, 29Langlois, Ore.
Born onto a small sheep ranch on the Oregon coast, Zoë Ida Bradbury grew up in hoodie sweatshirts and rubber boots — birthing lambs in the spring, watching salmon spawn in the fall, and taming plums, blackberries and tomatoes into canning jars all summer. Her love of food, farming and rural life got its foothold early and carried her full-circle back to her native southern Oregon, where the 29-year-old now runs her own farm, growing mixed produce and berries for local markets with the help of her family and a team of draft horses.
Her work in sustainable agriculture has engaged her with several nonprofits, including Ecotrust, the Agriculture and Land-based Training Association, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. She's a regular contributor to Edible Portland and her work has also appeared in USA Today, Oregon Coast Magazine, The Oregonian, Grist.org, Draft Horse Journal and Stanford Magazine. She's also the author of the online blog Diary of a Young Farmer. Before breaking ground on her own land, Bradbury spent three years co-managing Sauvie Island Organics, a diversified fresh market farm where she oversaw production and apprentice training for a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program.
Bradbury did her undergraduate work at Stanford University, where she studied ecological anthropology with a focus on sustainable agriculture. Her honors thesis took her home to Floras Creek, Ore., and then on to Chile, where she took a hard look at the struggle to sustain family agriculture in both hemispheres. She recently completed her master's degree with a focus on rural development, food systems and community change.
3) Ian Cheney, 29Brooklyn, N.Y.
New England native Ian Cheney and his friend Curt Ellis are Wicked Delicate, a Brooklyn-based production company/advocacy project. The duo's latest creation, Truck Farm, is a food/film project starring a gray 1986 Dodge pickup bequeathed to Cheney by his grandfather. This is no ordinary pickup truck: Truck Farm combines "green roof technology, organic compost, and heirloom seeds to create a living, mobile garden on the streets of Brooklyn." A solar-powered time-lapse camera captures the crops' progress as they grow in the truck bed/garden throughout the summer. For $20, New Yorkers can join the Truck Farm CSA program and receive a DVD of the Truck Farm film — plus part of the season's harvest, of course, which includes lettuce, arugula, parsley, basil and more.
Cheney holds both bachelor's and master's degrees from Yale, where he was a co-founding member of the Yale Sustainable Food Project. After graduate school, he co-created and starred in the Peabody Award-winning film King Corn (2007) and directed the documentary TheGreening of Southie (2008). He travels frequently to show his films, lead discussions and give talks on topics of sustainability and agriculture. He's also an astrophotographer and contributing blogger for the Huffington Post.
4) Jason Mark, 34San Francisco, Calif.
Jason Mark, a writer/farmer active in the sustainable food movement, spends half his time co-managing Alemany Farm, a four-acre organic fruit-and-vegetable garden in San Francisco. The farm's mission is to boost food security in low-income communities, provide environmental education to children and adults, and grow green jobs.
The rest of his time, Mark serves as the editor of the environmental quarterly magazine Earth Island Journal. Aside the Journal, his writings have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, The Progressive, Utne Reader, Gastronomica, E, Grist.org and Alternet.org. He's also a co-author of Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots.
5) Owen O'Connor, 246) KayCee Wimbish, 33
Tivoli, N.Y.
KayCee Wimbish and Owen O'Connor founded Awesome Farm in January 2008, an idea they first hatched while working together on a vegetable farm. Although they originally planned to start a tempeh business, their concept eventually blossomed from fake animals into real ones, and Awesome Farm was born.
O'Connor and Wimbish currently raise 70 ewes along with their 115 lambs, 1,200 meat chickens and a flock of laying hens. Wimbish, a former second-grade school teacher, is originally from Tulsa, Okla., while O'Connor grew up in Dutchess County, N.Y. Aside from day-to-day farm operations, O'Connor is also working on a project to make grass digestible for humans.
7) Vernay "Pilar" Reber, 37Richmond, Calif.
Vernay Reber has been working full time in commercial agriculture since the age of 18. She began in huge greenhouses growing wholesale, worked her way up to a pesticide applicator, then eventually to a grower responsible for acres of annuals.
She loved the pace of agriculture, the fact that she could turn out a greenhouse full of plants in a month, and the complex set of problems she had to solve, from getting the plants seeded to getting them onto a truck to be sold. But something inside told her that the system was broken, and that pesticides were a major part of it.
So she enrolled in the University of California-Santa Cruz's agroecology program with hopes of somehow finding work in organic agriculture after graduating — but she ended up back in commercial greenhouse operations. While Reber was working for a company in Salinas Valley, a chemical applicator's wife gave birth to a baby with cornea blindness, then a few months later a woman working in production had a baby born with the same disorder.
Two weeks later, Reber quit and started Sunnyside Organics, where she grows 400 or so varieties of veggie and herb seedlings for 75 garden centers and two farmers markets. In-season, Sunnyside employs six to nine workers, including both at-risk youth and "happy Berkeley kids." Sunnyside has become a catalyst for people to grow their own food, supporting more than 15 school gardens and nonprofits that promote gardening with plant starts.
8) Caitlin Arnold, 249) Chandler Briggs, 25
10) Roby Ventres-Pake, 19
Vashon Island, Wash.
Island Meadow Farm sits on 10 acres of sloping woodland nestled in the middle of Vashon Island, Wash., in the heart of Puget Sound. Its farm stand is a local landmark for small Vashon Island farms and for the island's first-ever CSA program. With more than 100 years of continuous farming history, the property has known many different hands and grown countless pounds of produce. Since becoming "Island Meadow" and a certified organic farm in the early 1990s, it has developed from a Seattle Pike Place Market farm into an island-serving farm stand stocked nearly year-round. It's known for its excellent salad mix and pastured chicken eggs, and recently added a mobile Hoop House.
Caitlin Arnold, Chandler Briggs and Roby Ventres-Pake (pictured above, left to right) came into the 2009 season with a combined six years of experience apprenticing on other Northwest farms. The three manage Island Meadow together, growing a wide array of produce and eggs for the local farmers market, restaurants and, of course, the farm stand. Driven by their desire to provide fresh, healthy food for the community on Vashon Island — and by their rejection of destructive practices driven by convenience and profit — the three are working hard to live up to the Island Meadow name and grow some amazing food.
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Comments
Hector
05/07/2011 13:36 PM
I would like to nominate Brenton Johnson for this category. He started in his backyard and currently serves the area with his farm, Johnson's Backyard Garden. Here's the website:
I'm sure they'll be more than happy to show you around if you drop by!
Nirinjan Singh
12/22/2009 23:56 PM
So many comments that there are not any minorities on the list. It's only a showing of 40 farmers in the whole USA, what out of 1000's of organic CSA's and farms. I did not see anyone from Michigan, that does not mean there's a bias against Michigan? NO
I'm sure they'll do another list later. You can only have so many people at a time. If you watch the doc, you'll be happy that there are 'minorities' in the film. We're all people trying to make a difference, why must other's divide.... More
Guest
12/03/2009 15:47 PM
We have started anew farm using organic farming or natures way.look frour crops this spring
Anonymous
08/28/2009 18:10 PM
It is very refreshing to see young people involving themselves with farming and all it involves, but from the standpoint of a true Kansas boy, a 10 acre farm is a vegetable patch, and one would have a difficult time supplying the amount of crops needed to sustain people let alone livestock on the farms highlighted here.
Christina
09/28/2009 12:38 PM
There are several great, scientifically and agriculturally based resources that show otherwise. One in particular is the book 'Deep Economy' (http://www.billmckibben.com/). Also plenty of examples of "small" farms making a powerful difference ( http://tinyurl.com/ybbfp3u) in sustaining communities in.... More
Anonymous
09/08/2009 22:50 PM
"but from the standpoint of a true Kansas boy, a 10 acre farm is a vegetable patch ... "
Isn't that the point?
I agree
09/08/2009 20:34 PM
From SEK here and agree with ya 100%. Nothing about these people is farming.
Meg R
08/26/2009 16:32 PM
Sorry to ask, really, but would the single famers please raise their hand? I'm a city girl looking for a farming guy. I see them all the time at the Chicago farmers market, but most of the time, they are not the actual farmers, but rather the helpers who live in the city. Quite a bummer.
Anonymous
08/24/2009 11:34 AM
I know everyone loves a list but this is a little silly.
Anonymous
08/05/2009 14:55 PM
I nominate Rebecca Moore and Carla Larmore who farm on Waldron Island - a non-ferry serviced island in the San Juans of WA State.
nonprofitscandal
07/29/2009 22:42 PM
What a scandal to see him #4 Jason Marks have any credit in the development of our program Alemany Farm.
First of all he is not the who established Alemany Farm program and nor is he a Co-manager of anything. The Alemany Community program has not hired him on nor has the Recreation & Park department. He is a lonely volunteer band from coming to the garden and representing the program; who also caused disruption in the community and for other organizations/that truly did the.... More
Paul
07/28/2009 06:58 AM
Looking back to the days that we relied on the small country farmer to provide our fresh fruits and Veggies I realize those days are not gone. Very happy to see the movement is starting to take "root" so to speak. We all can be more supportive by doing our part in learning to grow in our back yards anything that we can use on the table in our own homes. With all the worries of the economic growth, we should all learn to be self reliant, "grow your own", where you can. I would like to see.... More
Sara
07/26/2009 19:04 PM
It's great to share what these young people are doing. My husband and I (only 21 and 22) are in the early stages of farming ourselves and we now have a handsome flock of 10 chickens. Of course gardening can be done without animals, but the presence of animals makes it worthwile and sustainable (manure/fertilizers don't have to be imported from elsewhere!). I love having the hens around. They are free-range and very tame little pets who also happen to provide us with eggs.
I agree, it.... More
Anonymous
07/26/2009 02:18 AM
Grass digestible for humans? Is this a joke? Sorry the credibility of this list just dropped a few notches.
Nirinjan Singh
12/23/2009 00:12 AM
He siad he's working on that project, not that you can eat grass. Reread please.
Anonymous
07/26/2009 02:03 AM
Animals are not necessary for the soil. I have been farming the same ten acres for the last fifteen years without a single domesticated animal on the place. The only animal waste this place has ever seen is a little humanure from the composting toilet spread around the base of some fruit trees, and that was just to get rid of it, the trees didn't need it. Polyface farm is a good example of sustainable meat farming, not a good example of sustainable vegetable farming. I choose not to raise.... More
Courtney K
07/25/2009 13:26 PM
Kinda disturbing that the kids from Awesome Farm are part of the daily slaughter of animals. There's no such thing as humane meat...these kids should know better.
Anonymous
07/27/2009 21:17 PM
Hey, meat is good stuff. Lots of protien and all. Just can't quite get it from your veggies...unless you eat lots of the bugs too (which is a good idea, by the way) or if you eat LOTS and LOTS of just the right veggies. 'kids should know better?' YOU should know better--plants have feelings too (according to another group of weirdos). If you got hungry enough you would eat anything, yea even the rear-end of a pig--raw--with its **** still slathered on.
Thanks for the comment--its fun.... More
Clarabell
07/25/2009 10:18 AM
An inspiring article but I have serious reservations about including sheep farmers in an article of this nature, even if they are being raised in a more ecologically conscious manner. Sorry, it just ain't green to raise livestock--the world has changed from what it was when my grandparents were farmers, and with it should come a new consciousness about sustainability and a reassessment of our meat- and animal product-based diet.
Carla
07/26/2009 00:49 AM
To those who question farming animals as vital, a diversity of animals and their waste is as important to soil fertility as a diversity of plants. Think Permaculture, or visit Polyface Farm in Virginia. I love these young farmers, and I'd love farmers of different nationalities also. I want to see them all.
amy
07/23/2009 19:47 PM
this article was awesome and inspiring and the young farmers featured here really got me excited about their projects and their passions. it was such a good feeling until i scrolled to the inevitable downer comments. i mean, the very first thing you think after reading this is that this is total whitewash? get a grip, people. black, white, asian, whoever, these people are doing something worthwhile and cool. i didn't even notice they were all white. maybe you guys have some personal race.... More
Araceli
08/08/2009 14:32 PM
Emily, it's no big deal to you that the farmers are all white because it is something that you don't have to think about -EVER.
While its great to see all these 40 under 40 farmers on the list, could we possibly see some POC representation? Who would it hurt? How would it make this list more representative of the farmers out there who are not white?
Just a thought :)
No "downer" comments here, just want to tell it like it is.
regina
03/27/2011 23:05 PM
Uhh...not to point out the obvious, but in reality almost all the farmers in america are white....just sayin. Besides, it is a little silly to focus so hard on race when the article has nothing to do with race.
heather marie locke
07/24/2009 22:22 PM
DUDE IM GOING TO MAKE MY OWN FARM NOW! word!
super inspirational, i loved reading it as should everyone who stumbled upon it
hdlugozima_2
07/23/2009 14:13 PM
Hi readers, Fortune magazine just post an article about our 40 farmers under 40 article and 6 lucky farmers are highlighted in their issue. Check it out!
http://tinyurl.com/mbk6bv
Congratulations to farmers Reber, Joffe, Man. Freed, Mraz, and Bradbury!
The team at MNN
Gilberto
07/23/2009 12:18 PM
Very interesting. We should come back to the "clean" and preserve wellnes
hdlugozima_2
07/23/2009 10:41 AM
thanks for the great discussion, folks. We're collecting nominations for a new feature on farmers who are making a difference. You can leave the nominations at the end of this article:
http://www.mnn.com/food/farms-gardens/stories/40-farmers-under-40-nos-31-40
or email us at .... More
The Dame
07/23/2009 06:01 AM
This is so inspiring! I am 30 and living in the city and its soul destroying, all I dream about is having my own acres to live off and be away from city life. This article has really helped me to keep hope, thank you :)
jp
07/22/2009 18:25 PM
seriously, did it not occur to anyone working on this article to take steps to make sure you didn't accidentally *completely* ignore everyone who isn't white? they are out there, they really are. i really appreciate you doing this article but you do the sustainable agriculture movement a great disservice by ignoring them and their valuable contributions.
Chandler
07/23/2009 01:25 AM
Robert Servine (#34) probably considers himself person of color. However, I do agree that more young farmers of color could have been included in the article.
Pete
07/23/2009 07:20 AM
Why must everyone always bring this PC crap into everything. Does it really, really matter that these people are doing something totally amazing ? or is it just another springboard that a certain group can use to start bitching about people's colour. Come to Africa if you want to see people of colour.......................
Imogen
02/03/2011 09:07 AM
It's not about being "PC" but being inclusive. Stop being so selfish and self-righteous. It doesn't take but a second to think: Hey! Why not include more people, so we can inspire more people. Why do you have to be so negative? Instead of sounding open-minded and really appreciative of this info, you sound really closed off and as if you WANT to offend others. Make a friend, stop being so mean.
Pritha RaySircar
07/22/2009 17:55 PM
riously folks, I understand that within the USAD women farmers are considered minorities, (http://bit.ly/ohloe) but really? Not a single Black, Asian, Latino/a, Vietnamese, Laotian, or whatever farmer under 40? Anywhere? Can that truly be?
Perhaps the Urban Food Justice movement (and it's farmer activists) might not be as sexy as avocados grown by an altrock raw foodist or a doc film making, food policy fellow.... More
Jim
08/05/2009 21:35 PM
First of all, most farmers have plenty of color, but in the weirdest places. I assumed that Vernay Reber was Hispanic. There were several Jews. Yes, I see a lot of Asian farmers around my market that could have been included. The South still has some African-American farmers too, which should have been included.
What is more interesting is WHY there aren't more farmers "of color." The article could have delved into the economics of farming and the over-educated nature of the whole.... More
Anonymous
08/07/2009 14:13 PM
"the over-educated nature of the whole "organic" scene"
How much education is enough?
I personally think that you can never have too much education, but I'm probably one of those "overeducated" ones myself. I confess the error of my ways and stand ready to enter a Maoist re-education camp.
HAHAHA!
Amy Boland
07/22/2009 18:09 PM
...at least not in my town. If the people selling me stuff at the Mpls Farmers Market are any indication, there are an awful lot of recent immigrants from SE Asia who are farming. Maybe they don't have a cool enough hat to wear for their photo and that's why they weren't included in the article.
Anonymous
08/24/2009 11:36 AM
Excellent comment! And very true here in New York as well as in Minnesota.
Anonymous
07/27/2009 21:33 PM
Can't everyone just overlook the fact that there are different races and skin colors and just get on with it. The Civil War is over--we should be past this point. If you select a handful of farmers and they are all white, who cares! All black? Who cares. Asian, Latino. Get on with it. Sure, if you don't care what color people are, then you should have a more diverse group of people in this article. But still, look at the individual not the group.
Imogen
02/03/2011 09:12 AM
We're a beautiful rainbow of people.
Maybe I want to be inspired by seeing people who look like me! or seeing people who are different ,work together! I think this is just white people being mad because they just don't understand. EVERYTHING is catered towards whites: commercials, inspirations, etc, unless it's specifically targeted towards whites. "People of Color" not seen as part of the whole, but as small minorities "who don't really deserve to be counted in our group" and it sucks..... More
rose
07/21/2009 16:01 PM
As a long-time organic gardener (over 30-years) and supporter of local-grown produce and meat ... I am delighted to read this, for it affirms the hope that I hold in my heart (and in my earth) for our shared future.
Anonymous
07/21/2009 15:58 PM
Roy, Washington in the building! Woot!
erin.p.fielding
07/21/2009 13:32 PM
I love that there are so many female farmers on this list. I had no idea. I do tend to think of farmers as males...go girls!!!!
Daniel
07/21/2009 12:56 PM
Lots of people on this list (Jason, Molly, Emily, Pillar, Amy) went through UCSC's Center For Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems program: casfs.ucsc.edu
The program is now in its 41st year and going strong!
We're on the tail end of a fundraiser to build permanent housing on the farm for apprentices, and we are very grateful to all those who contributed. Find out more at growafarmer.org
Sacha
07/21/2009 11:39 AM
Who knew plowing and sowing could be so sexy?
GoingGreenDC.net
nancy
07/21/2009 10:54 AM
Zoë can harvest from my garden any time...
ash
07/21/2009 10:34 AM
i...loooove jason mraz. AND avocados. what could be a better combination? sign me up...
Elizabeth
07/21/2009 10:20 AM
These 40 farmers are awesome! I wish I knew more about farming... I'd be happy if I could just get a small herb garden started.
Sean Roberts
07/21/2009 10:14 AM
It's interesting that farming has become romantic again. Dirt is good.
Momof2
07/21/2009 10:08 AM
People who think nothing of eating Burger King all day, are freaking out & demanding all kinds of new guidelines around farming that are killing sustainable farming practices. The new food safety legislation going through Congress is aimed at factory farms..but it'll affect these farmers. i read a story about it here:
http://tinyurl.com/n63jbb
