Tianna Neal of Starlit Roots Farm (Photo courtesy of National Young Farmers Coalition).
By Porter Mitchell
Beginning farmers come in our doors eager to learn and to make a career from agriculture. They want to feed their neighbors, continue a family tradition of farming, steward the land, and care for their rural communities. We’ve seen many of these farmers succeed, but we’ve seen hundreds begin farming only to quit after a few years. Why?
Farmers reach a point in which they need real investment to move their business from day-to-day survival mode to true sustainability. They need personalized services, investment in infrastructure, personalized education to develop a business or marketing plan, and training to access new markets—not the one-size-fits-all approach that is the current norm.
Sed Rowe of Rowe Organic Farm (Photo Credit Southern Styles and Steeds)
Jenny of Jenny Jack Farm harvests onions (photo courtesy of Jenny Jack Farm)
These critical services are out of reach for many smaller growers. They may not qualify for FSA loans, they may not have the credit to access a small business loan, they may not have family or personal wealth or property to use as collateral. Black growers specifically face an uphill battle due to decades of discrimination from banks and the USDA. Or many beginning farmers, often already saddled with student loan debt, may simply not want to take on debt in a profession not known to be particularly lucrative.
The Georgia Organics Farmer Accelerator Program is the first of its kind to fill these resource gaps. Ten farmers enter a yearlong cohort and each receives nearly $10,000 in on-farm infrastructure investment and labor stipends, plus an additional $3,000 in professional consulting from experts. Farmers also receive coaching on food safety and organic certification from the Farmer Services team.
“We’ve got the best coaches in the country for this program,” says Farmer Services Director Michael Wall who has spent the past year securing these consultants. “By going deep with these coaches, these farmers can really strengthen their operations.”
About sixty farmers applied for the ten spots available. Choosing which farmers would receive support and which ones wouldn’t was incredibly difficult. Kayla Williams, Farmer Services Coordinator at Georgia Organics, led efforts to build a complex application scoring system.
“When deciding how to choose Accelerator cohort members, we wanted to recognize the fact that race and place are two very real factors that can and do affect a farmers’ ability to succeed. By giving extra points to and prioritizing our farmers of color and rural farmers, it holds us accountable to our mission of ‘Good Food for All’” she explains. At least five of the Accelerator spots are reserved for BIPOC farmers and at least five spots are reserved for rural farmers
After lengthy inner dialogue and presenting the list of finalists to a panel of farmers and outside experts, the Farmer Services team chose ten farmers from across the state. They range from fourteen years of farming experience to three, from large scale row crop and commodity production to small market vegetable farms, from chicken and cattle to flowers and fruit, from several hundred acres to three acres. In other words, the 2020 class of Accelerator farmers represent the diversity of Georgia’s agriculture. The inaugural Accelerator class is:
Deep Grass Graziers, Fitzgerald (www.deepgrassgraziers.com/) – Beef cattle
Hearts of Harvest Farm, Arnoldsville (www.heartsofharvestfarm.com) - Mixed fruit and vegetables, flowers
Four Bellies Farm, Bowdon (http://fourbelliesfarm.com/) - Beef, rabbit, chicken, lamb
Jenny Jack Farm, Pine Mountain (https://www.jennyjackfarm.com/) - Mixed fruit, vegetables
Narrow Way Farm, McDonough (https://narrowwayfarm.com/) – Vegetables, berries, fruit
New Eden Ecosystems, West Point (www.facebook.com/westgeorgiafarmerscooperative/) - Fruit, vegetables, livestock
Rag and Frass Farm (Jeffersonville) - Mixed fruit and vegetables, flowers https://www.ragandfrassfarm.com/
Rolling Branch Farm, Naylor (www.rollingbranchfarms.com/) - Pecans flowers
Rowe Organic Farm, Albany (ga.foodmarketmaker.com/business/4914917-rowe-organic-farm) - Peanuts, sunflowers, melons
Starlit Roots Farm, Keysville ( www.Instagram.com/starlitroots) - Vegetables
After an intense intake process that gathered extensive data on the farm and farmer, the Farmer Services team collectively drafted plans for each farmer for coaching and infrastructure spending. These plans were based on priorities listed by the farmer, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats), a formal business analysis, and lengthy conversations with the farmers. Each plan is wholly unlike the other ones, just as each farmer is different. For the next nine months, the farmers will work closely with a Farmer Services staff member as their case manager. “The success of our Accelerator farmers is our number one priority,” explains Michael Wall.
Dan Glenn of Deep Grass Graziers (Courtesy of Deep Grass Graziers)
Eric Simpson of New Eden Ecosystems (Courtesy of Black Farmers Network)
Georgia Organics hopes that this program will not only help these farmers grow and strengthen their businesses and their skillsets but can also be used as a model to replicate across the country.
Interested in learning more about these farmers and keeping up with their progress? Keep checking in for extended profiles and interviews on The Dirt!
Click to view Accelerator Program farms around the state.
Porter Mitchell, Farmer Services Coordinator at Georgia Organics. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.