Final report for ONC23-118
Project Information
Our environmentally sensitive and direct to consumer farmers are only sustainable if they can keep running their farm businesses year after year. When legal difficulties such as insurance issues, partnership and transition problems, and employment law challenges, and challenging land access harm the operation, farms falter and many fail. Farmers themselves lie awake at night worrying if they are at risk and wondering how to resolve it. The solution isn’t just more information and increased knowledge (although that plays a role and we ensure access to information). Farmers need the support of their peers - support that reminds them they are wise, they are capable, and it is worthwhile to proactively resolve legal issues. This project creates that through Circles of Resilience- a peer support mechanism where sustainable and direct to consumer farmers in the North Central region discuss issues of legal resilience in small groups, with Circle Leaders at the helm who are also farmers. As a result, we will witness improved quality of life, stronger support networks, greater legal resilience for farmers, as well as the continued leadership development of farmers themselves on legal issues.
- Improve quality of life for 40 North Central farmers through 1) improved confidence in handling legal issues on their farm, and 2) stronger support networks around the legal issues they face.
- Increase the legal resilience of 22 North Central farmers through 1) achievement of one of 10 key risk reducing actions and 2) intention to achieve an additional key risk reducing action.
- Improve quality of life for 4 farmer Circle Leaders through 1) improved confidence in supporting peers addressing legal issues, and 2) improved sense of their own qualities as a leader in the sustainable agriculture community.
Cooperators
Research
Four farmers who completed the Farm Commons Collaborative Leadership Fellowship program were selected to participate in the Circles of Resilience (CORe) program as farmer peer leaders - The Circle Leaders.
Farm Commons staff developed training agendas for a 3-part training program that taught the Circle Leaders to recruit participants for their CORe, develop meeting agendas, and facilitate farm law discussions with peers while staying within due legal bounds. Training occurred in November 2023.
The Circle Leaders developed four meeting agendas to host four 90-minute group discussions on four key areas of farm law: business structures, employment law, land access, and insurance. The goal of these CORe meeting discussions is to improve farmer participants’ quality of life through increased knowledge, access to resources, and peer support. Similarly, the goal for the Circle Leaders is to improve their quality of life through increased confidence in being peer leaders and improving their abilities in speaking about and hosting discussions on farm law issues. Meeting agendas were reviewed and finalized in December 2023.
Farm Commons staff developed a registration page and outreach copy for the Circle Leaders to use for recruiting participants for their CORe. The Circle Leaders conducted targeted outreach in their communities in December 2023.
The Circles of Resilience meetings were held in January/February 2024.
31 producers participated in the Circles of Resilience.
19 producers completed program evaluations.
Program evaluations were conducted via written survey and 1:1 interviews.
100% of producers reported that they intended to take at least 1 risk reducing action step for their farm business.
100% reported higher confidence in their support network as a result of program participation.
All four Circle Leaders reported improved confidence as a peer leader on farm law issues.
We had hoped for higher program participation but even with robust program outreach we ran into the issue of other farm business development programs overlapping with the Circles of Resilience schedule. This caused producers in the region to have to choose which program to participate in, and we heard from several producers that they wished they could have participated in a Circle of Resilience but had already committed to another farm business development program. Given this scheduling conflict, where farm educators have a small window between the end of year holidays and the start of Spring to host programming and end up competing, we were pleased with the number of registrations received and the high caliber of engagement those that registered brought to the program.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
The project team developed and conducted a 3-part training series in November 2023 where we trained four farmers to lead a 4-part Circle of Resilience peer support group. The training involved three 2-hour virtual sessions: (1) Designing Ways of Holding Space, (2) Designing Meeting Agenda and Minding Legal Limits, and (3) Presenting the Legal Best Practices. Staff developed the training agendas for these sessions (including handouts, presentation templates, and legal factsheets), and hosted and facilitated the sessions with the farmer Circle Leaders. During these sessions, the four Circle Leaders developed four agendas for their Circles of Resilience groups, totaling 16 online training agendas. Staff provided additional preparatory support through 1:1 check in meetings. In addition to completing the training program, the Circle Leaders conducted outreach to peers in their community through their farm businesses’ social media, local listservs, and with the support of local non-profit organizations to recruit registrants for their Circles of Resilience groups. Farm Commons provided the program landing page and registration form, which included initial assessment questions. Staff also provided outreach support through Farm Commons’ newsletter and social media, with the goal of filling each Circle of Resilience with 10 participants. The Circles of Resilience meetings began in January 2024.
Learning Outcomes
Confidence as a peer leader on farm law issues
Confidence in identifying and navigating farm law issues
Strength of support network for identifying and/or navigating farm law issues
Intention to take risk reducing action in the areas of business structures, liability insurance, employment law, zoning, and land leasing
Project Outcomes
This project saw incredibly strong outcomes of increased farmer leadership capacity on matters of farm law, as well as increased confidence for program participants in identifying and navigating farm law issues. These outcomes are powerful indicators of what is possible when producers come together to discuss difficult topics, such as how to plan for a business partner exiting the farm and how to come into compliance with employment laws. Every producer who participated in this program expressed an increase in their confidence and quality of life as a result of sharing their struggles and solutions and helping their peers do the same. So much of being a producer is solitary work and by convening producers together in a virtual discussion space where matters of risk management were treated with respect, curiosity, and privacy, solutions were able to be discovered and confidence was able to be built. All of this contributes to the longevity of these farmers staying in agriculture, which supports their sustainable environmental practices and feeds into the health of their livelihoods and local economies.
A cattle rancher from Iowa shared that as a result of the program, they now think of liability in terms of 1 successful legal judgment equaling the loss of at least 1 acre of their farmland in financial value so they plan to purchase enough liability insurance to minimize that risk of financial loss.
A vegetable farmer from Iowa seeking land was successfully matched for a farmland sale with their Circle Leader’s support.
A farmer from Missouri shared, “I don't feel as alone or silly for not knowing certain things. The Circles of Resilience brought about topics I didn't think to pursue, that now I'm learning more about.”
A farmer from Kansas shared that their main takeaway from participating in a Circle of Resilience was, “inspiration to take some of the steps I have intended to; rejuvenation from connecting with other farmers facing some of the same challenges I am.”
Another farmer shared, “Above all, the thing I enjoyed the very best about the Circle was that it was a group of my peers. Peers in the sense that none of us are new to farming. We all have established farm businesses, have years of experience, have struggled with many or all of the issues we discussed. So often in discussion groups like this that I have been involved with, the level of conversation drops to the level of the person with the least experience. A new farmer in the group asking basic questions. This is not bad! It can be super helpful and inspiring for a new farmer to get advice from a group of more experienced farmers. But for the experienced farmers, it can feel like all giving and no getting back. This group was all people with about the same level of experience with farming/life/business, and so we were able to dive deeper into the nuances of the issues in a way that would not have been possible were there less experienced farmers in the room who needed us to stop and answer basic questions. Again, this is not a slight or annoyance with new farmers. I was once a new farmer, and benefited hugely from asking my elders basic questions. I appreciated this Circle for the high level of experience each of the participants brought to the table, and the resulting high level of conversation.”