A New Generation of Farmers has Emerged
(Photo: Tyler and Alicia Jones on their farm in Corvallis, Ore. )
Having become more and more disillusioned with the state industrial farming, a new generation of young independent farmers has taken to the land. The average age in an Oregon Grange once 65, and has now dropped to 35, as younger farmers reinvigorate the community. This new group of optimistic and determined farmers are challenging the agricultural model put in place by former secretary of agriculture Earl L. Butz, who was know for saying “Get big or get out.” Instead young farmers are looking to the past for sustainable farming methods that can be used effectively to grow food for their communities and themselves. They have been lauded, and even consulted, by older farmers impressed by their ingenuity, but finding mentors has been difficult.
(Photo: Jeff Broadie and Kasey White fixing a tractor on their farm in Eugene, Ore.)
There is a knowledge gap that has been referred to as “the lost generation”, people their parent’s age that may farm but do not know how to grow food. Their grandparents generation is no longer around to teach them. However this hasn’t discouraged this new guard of the farm community. According to Alicia Jones, 27, who runs a farm with her husband Tyler in Corvallis, Oregon, “Literarally, four years ago, this was not happening. Now, everywhere you turn someone’s a farmer.”
Via Isolde Raftery of the NYT
