40 farmers under 40: Readers' choice
You nominated your favorite young farmers, and here they are: Forty of the nation's brightest green thumbs, quietly nurturing a food revolution from their own back yards.
By Matt HickmanThu, Sep 24 2009 at 8:30 AM EST
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Photo: Kangah/iStockPhoto After we published the original roundup of "40 farmers under 40," it became abundantly clear that, from coast to coast, America loves its young farmers (and the food they produce). So we invited you to tell us about your favorite farmers under 40 — idealistic, eco-friendly, under-the-hill agrarians who are helping you bring home healthier bacon, as well as beets, lettuce, organic milk and more. And you responded.
We dug through a bounty of votes and e-mails from across the country, then we dug up some dirt on 40 of your nominations to create this inaugural "readers' choice" edition in our "40 farmers under 40" series. We've numbered the entries to help you navigate through the list, but they're in no particular order — this is an egalitarian compilation, not a ranking. These farmers all bring their own skills, backgrounds and crop varieties to different communities, and the real winners are the locavores who get to eat all the natural grub they grow.
Like the first time around, this list encompasses a motley crew, consisting of authors, activists, educators, entrepreneurs, parents, siblings, sons, daughters, plenty of Californians, and an Iowan raising postmodern pigs on his organic family farm. The farms themselves are just as eclectic, ranging from 400-acre spreads to backyard plots, Brooklyn rooftops and everything in between.
Now, let's get farming ...
1) Charles "Chaz" Holt, 32Kingston, Ga.
Born in the late '70s on a small North Georgia dairy farm, Chaz Holt was hooked on farming from the get-go. After his family switched from a dairy to a beef-cow, poultry and hay farm, he began to understand that if a person stays in agriculture, he has to be able to evolve with the markets while maintaining a personal moral direction.
After graduating from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor's degree in agricultural science, Holt moved to the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where he served as an agronomist and crop advisor. He worked with more than 30 different crop types, ranging from cherries and hazelnuts to turf grass and corn silage and far beyond.
It was in Oregon that Holt learned organic farming methods, direct marketing to consumers, and how to spot trends and quickly meet demand. He then moved to Montana to manage Simplot Soilbuilders, a large, conventional farm-service company. After a year of disgust at the way farms were suffering as the corporate farm-service industry was still booming, Holt quit and started his own all-organic farm and farm-supply business.
For three years Holt grew along with the organic-farming industry. He was elected to the Montana Organic Association as the vice chair for two years and was one of five state "agriculture bio-based innovation" coordinators funded by the Montana Department of Agriculture to assist agriculture producers in adding value to their existing operations. He also holds a current certified crop advisor certificate from the American Society of Agronomy. From there, Holt and his family moved back to Georgia to live on the family farm in a sustainable and organic way.
2) Novella Carpenter, 36Oakland, Calif.
Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, started urban farming in Seattle 10 years ago when she first got some chickens and bees and plowed up her parking strip to plant fava beans and kale. After moving to the Bay Area, she began squat farming on a derelict lot next to her apartment in the middle of a rough part of Oakland. She's raised fruits and veggies, chickens, bees, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, pigs and goats.
Sales aren't the main point of Ghost Town Farm — Carpenter regularly gives away produce to her neighbors, barters with locals and sometimes sells to underground restaurants. She also runs an urban feed store/biofuel station in Berkeley with four other women, where they sell feed and teach classes about keeping chickens, bees and rabbits in the city. Lately, she's become obsessed with goats and goat cheese, remembering fondly the goat-milking scene in Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.
3) Alex Needham, 284) Alison Parker, 30
Marseilles, Ill.
While living in Austin, Texas, Alex Needham worked in a restaurant and Alison Parker worked for an environmental nonprofit. Both became increasingly aware of and interested in food politics, and decided to tackle their interests in a hands-on way by interning at a farm. Collectively and separately since, they've worked on organic farms from Oregon to Wisconsin to Texas to Central America. Both have also worked with urban farms and have helped with the startup of school gardens in low-income areas. Last season, they were married on the farm where they once interned in southern Wisconsin.
In 2009, Parker and Needham decided to take a leap of faith and start their own venture, Radical Root Farm, in northern Illinois. There they run an organic community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and market farm, selling to the metro Chicago area, and try to limit the farm's fossil footprint by using mostly hand tools. They grow a diversified collection of vegetables, including many heirlooms, as well as medicinal herbs. Parker teaches plant medicine workshops, and the couple also plans to make their farm into a working permaculture model, eventually teaching urban permaculture workshops in Chicago.
5) Juan "JP" Perez, 26Salinas, Calif.
Three years ago, Juan Perez (pictured, right) convinced his father, Pablo (left), to enroll with him in the Agriculture and Land Based Training Association's (ALBA) Programa Educativa para Pequenos Agricultores (PEPA), a program that trains aspiring small farmers in sustainable production methods, as well as marketing techniques. Pablo had farmed before, growing conventional raspberries and flowers on five acres of leased land in California's Central Valley. But Juan wanted to try his hand at organics, and he wanted to do it as a family. Upon completion of the PEPA program in April 2006, Juan and his father leased a small plot of land from ALBA and named their farm J&P Organics.
Juan spends most of his time cultivating, harvesting, working at farmers markets and delivering CSA boxes. He's also responsible for the bulk of the farm's marketing and direct sales. He and his family grow a wide variety of crops, including artichokes, bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, garlic, kale, heirloom tomatoes, onions, potatoes and more.
Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Juan delivers as many as 200 boxes across Monterey County and the Bay Area. He says both he and his CSA members value the personal interaction that community-supported agriculture provides. Members tell him what they liked best in previous boxes and share how they prepared their produce, and every week Juan tucks a newsletter containing simple recipes as well as a brief farm update into each box.
Juan anticipates expanding his acreage and applying his educational experience to the practice of sustainable farming. "I've been talking to my parents and the thing is, we want to buy our own farm — I don't know how many acres — and raise chickens, cows, pigs and have orchards — apple trees, peaches, cherries and pears. I can see that happening in a couple of years."
6) Stacey Murphy, 35Brooklyn, N.Y.
Stacey was born and raised in a suburb of Detroit and spent many hours in her mom's garden, picking snap peas and eating them before she could bring them inside. She has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and worked as a vehicle dynamics engineer for Ford (she also raced cars for Ford, including a Formula One car). She also has a master's of architecture degree and enjoyed working on public projects in New York City.
Murphy founded BK Farmyards in April, and this growing season is her first as an urban farmer. BK Farmyards partners with developers, homeowners and city agencies that want to transform idle land to farmland. This season, BK Farmyards has several backyard farms in Ditmas Park and is starting a CSA in that neighborhood. Next season, the company will continue its expansion of farms in Ditmas Park and is working with several developers to convert three acres to farmland around Brooklyn.
The mission of BK Farmyards is to connect landholders with farmers. Each neighborhood will have a slightly different agenda depending on the people involved. In Gowanus, BK Farmyards is working with a developer who wants to build a chef community and cafe around a working farm. In Bed-Stuy, it's working with a farmer who wants to supply affordable produce to bodegas.
7) Tricia Borneman, 348) Tom Murtha, 36
Perkasie, Pa.
Tom and Tricia Murtha met in Philadelphia 12 years ago and started on their farming journey together, learning by doing. They were both raised in suburban Philly — he across the Delaware River in Haddon Heights, N.J., and she in Bucks County, Pa., where they now live and farm. The couple met after college and fell into "farming" after reclaiming an abandoned lot near the warehouse where they lived in Philly. Tricia also worked with a couple through City Year doing organic gardening in North Philadelphia's public schools.
"We just loved it," Tricia says. "Tom would come help out after a long day of house painting and sink his hands into the soil and dream of a life working side by side. Gardening and farming spoke to our ideals and the way of life we dreamed of in so many ways."
Tom and Tricia left Philadelphia and embarked on a farming journey that took them from an internship in Connecticut (where they lived in a tiny old chicken coop), to a farm in Oregon's Willamette Valley (where they lived in a geodesic dome), to northern New Jersey (Genesis Farm), to a farm in Bucks County (where they lived in a barn loft) and finally to where they are now. Each farm they worked on was a little different: One marketed solely through farmers markets, one just via restaurants and one only using a CSA. This allowed Tricia and Tom to amass a wealth of experiences as well as the confidence to embark on their own.
The couple formed a unique arrangement with their current landowners and created Blooming Glen Farm with their help. They rent the land and the house, and they're currently working with the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture to develop a long-term agreement with the landowners.
"Many young farmers face the issue of how to get into farming if you can't afford to buy land, so we hope to create some sort of model that others can look at," Tricia says. "The land we are on is preserved for agricultural use, but the area we are in grows more houses than farmers, despite its rich agricultural heritage."
In four years, Blooming Glen Farm has grown from five to 20 acres in cultivation and boasts a CSA with more than 300 families. Tricia and Tom also attend two farmers markets and do some wholesale. The couple had five young farm interns working with them over the summer season, which Tricia found vastly important: "We can still vividly remember what it was like to be interns ourselves, and we love to share with other young people what we have learned in hope that more farms will sprout up around the country because of it."
9) Annie Novak, 2610) Ben Flanner, 28
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Rooftop Farms, a 6,000-square-foot organic produce operation on top of a three-story warehouse in Brooklyn, is a beacon for urban farmers everywhere. The new but already high-profile farm is the product of a coalition between Goode Green, a green-roof design and installation company, and two young urban farmers, Annie Novak and Ben Flanner.
After Flanner quit his desk job at an online stock-trading company earlier this year, he teamed up with Novak, a seasoned farmer, and they contacted Goode Green about setting up their own farm in the city. The company was able to hook up Flanner and Novak with spare roof space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and used a crane to haul 200,000 pounds of soil on top of the building.
Since its start in April 2009, Rooftop Farms already serves local restaurants such as Eat and Marlow & Sons, as well as a weekly farm stand. Flanner and Novak also host two apiaries on their roof, more than 30 varieties of produce, and workshops designed to spread urban farming throughout New York.
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Comments
lbm0914
09/01/2010 00:07 AM
wow all those garments are so amazing and fabulous I don't come to your blog as often as I would like, but whenever I do I see some really amazing things keep up the good work! =)
http://www.louisvuittonbagmall.com/Seasonal-Collection-category-2-b0.html
GMO
03/22/2010 10:12 AM
"organic" gardening will never sustain a mass population. Futhermore, the first story is a great example of how not to manage a business. Holt Heritage Farm is no longer operational; due in-part to mismanagement, no market and a pipe dream that was funded by grant money and deep family pockets.
I say GMO's all the way !!!!!!!!!!
Nickie Barnard
03/14/2011 16:57 PM
Don't you just love these guys who think they're smarter than Nature. In ancient Greece it was held that the only thing the Gods would not forgive was hubris. GMO - Is that Greater Money Opportunity or Gonads Menace Objectivity?
JJJ
05/24/2010 04:08 AM
Holt farms were great- is it possible that the lousy ecconomy had something to do with the failure of a business?? Give them credit for at least trying.
David28DIANNA
02/26/2010 22:46 PM
This is great that we can take the personal loans moreover, that opens up completely new possibilities.
Uncle B
10/26/2009 15:46 PM
Heart braking fall in the dollar, astounding shift in American Capital to support the Asian Manufacturing and Heavy Industries, in "Yuan" on the Beijing. Shanghai, Hang Seng markets, sending many Americans into unemployability in the new computer driven age, their strong arms at their sides, unable to cope with the "Mouse" and keyboard, and not paying enough to feed their larger appetites anyway! Astounding refusals for fair and decent health care by corporate interests, their bureaucratic,.... More
foodie4life
10/14/2009 17:15 PM
They are my favorite farmers! Viva Radical Root farm!
Jinjee
10/02/2009 02:08 AM
I am tempted to keep them my own secret, but my favorite farmers - I don't know their ages though -- are BD of BDs Organics in Ojai/Carpinteria, Robin of Mud Creek Ranch in Santa Paula, and Vince in Filmore -- but I can't tell you his ranch name because I forget, -- but maybe that's good because I get my 10 crates of oranges every 2 weeks from him which my family couldn't live without! -- We juice them and its like drinking candy! Thank God for Organic Farmers!! That's great you are giving them.... More
Hey!
10/07/2009 06:08 AM
Hey!
how onlangs doet u?
I zou u willen introduceren een zeer goed bedrijf en zijn
Het kan u al soortenMerk van Schoenen aanbieden die handtassen en T-shirts enz. kleden ........
You kan wat tijd vergen om een controle te hebben, moeten er zijn iets het interesseren
Joel_BC
09/29/2009 18:26 PM
Great stuff!
Hey, for those who are interested in farming & a rural home, there's a good, pretty young site on the internet with both on-line magazine dimensions and forums you can post on. It's called The Rural Independent.
Magazine:
http://www.theruralindependent.com/
Forums:
.... More
Manda Allgood
09/29/2009 16:34 PM
My husband and I are one of the 200 that JP delivers a weekly veggie box to and I can attest to everything here and I am SO happy to see him on this list :)
The Gourmet Girl
09/26/2009 16:38 PM
Wonderful article and encouraging for those of us that love farms and farmers. The fact that there are 'winners' from the city as well as the country should encourage anyone to pursue their dreams of digging in the dirt.
I just met a former professional chef, trained in France, who after 25 years decided farming was what he wanted to really do.
Fascinating people, that we can learn a lot from.
Thanks for the post.
meleana
09/25/2009 18:16 PM
great feature and for those of you who missed the first 40 under 40 make sure to check out farmer #40 Severine von Tscharner Fleming's thegreenhorns.net a documentary film about this subject!
hopefully next 40 under 40 will make it out to Hawaii and feature some of our great taro growers or our Oahu island gem- MA'O farms!
trevor lauten
09/25/2009 12:03 PM
i remember as a kid in ohio i use to have to help on my parents farm it is hard work, with little pay off but the end result always makes you feel good because you took care of something and watched it grow you raised it now you can eat it and nothing is more promising then that. http://www.rainbowofluv.com
Rusty Wallace
09/24/2009 20:18 PM
Wow, absolutely fabulous pics! Well done!
JIm Davis
09/24/2009 20:16 PM
Enter your comments here
Titus Peachey
09/24/2009 15:25 PM
Enter your comments here Greetings! I thought your reader's might be interested in the op-ed from the Philadelphia Inquirer on September 22, 2009. The link is here.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20090922_Battle_zone_s_lethal_har...
I also have a WORD version of the document which you could post if you would like. You may contact me at: tmp@mcc.org
Thanks!
Titus
Anonymous
09/24/2009 15:03 PM
Y'all are right, it looks "glamorous" but farming is one of the hardest jobs one can have. I know, my husband is a full-time fresh produce farmer and I work professionally with all types of farmers in my county. He does it because he has a passion for it, and we wanted to raise our children on a farm (we both were raised on farms).
Picture the "non-glamorous" parts: He's up at 4 am every day from March through November. He works until dark or after, every day, rain, hail, sleet, shine. .... More
Anonymous
09/24/2009 18:32 PM
I loved your post. I too am a wife of a organic and certified sustainable farmer. My husband works incredibly hard for very little monetary reward, thank goodness that isn't our ultimate goal. I can say with certainty that we have experienced the harshness of nature and the blessings. I wish people could understand all the hard work and passion that farmers, especially smaller famers, put into their farms. I don't think people would complain that a tomato cost $1.00 if they "really" knew the.... More
Steve Johnson
09/24/2009 13:40 PM
No doubt about it, organic farming has become the coolest, most hip activity idies can do these days! From these best farmers in the country, we can see that driving a BMW 2002, listening to country music, and farming are all now supercool!
woody
09/24/2009 12:30 PM
does anyone know how much land is enough to start a small CSA? and how do these farmers get the word out? i'm hoping to eventually make money off an organic vegetable farm that i'm starting, but i only have about half an acre.
Anonymous
09/24/2009 18:35 PM
Not positive but a 1/2 acre to an acre is a great start, just plan well! Our first farm was totally 2 acres, and we only cultivated 1/2 at any given time. You can make it work. My advice don't take on more members than you can feed.
davis
09/24/2009 11:39 AM
they're physically working all day, getting a tan and growing healthy foods. sounds lik ea pretty sweet lifestyle (not saying it isn't hard -- just saying it's got its perks!)
Anonymous
09/24/2009 10:47 AM
Thanks for the new list.
Grey Garvin
09/24/2009 10:43 AM
These farmers are amazing...and they are a great alternative to the factory farms that Michael Pollen writes of...we get great food...and we save the land around our cities.
Sean Roberts
09/24/2009 10:41 AM
It's good to see another batch of fresh, farm-loving faces -- more innovation and energy aimed at working the land. Thanks for the story.
Phil Signet
09/24/2009 10:41 AM
Forget Hell's Kitchen....maybe 40 Acres & a (Rowdy) Mule is the next big reality show? LOL I have to admit that the idea of chucking it all and becoming a farmer has real appeal right now. Though my guess is that this job is a lot harder than it looks.
