Progress report for ONC23-130
Project Information
Harvesting Our Potential (HOP) will provide access to 1) paid mentorships; 2) virtual educational events; and, 3) networking opportunities for aspiring or beginning women and non binary (WNB) farmers/ ranchers in the North Central region. Participants will build skills, relationships, and confidence to become successful growers.
In 2017, women represented ~30% of principal operators in the U.S. (USDA NASS 2017). Women have struggled against structural barriers (e.g. land access, credit) and sociocultural barriers; farming/ ranching remain gendered occupations where women often lack access to knowledge and rarely see themselves represented (Leslie et al. 2019). WFAN’s experience reflects research demonstrating that non binary people also encounter similarly gendered challenges, though we recognize these are not identical to those faced by cis women (Leslie et al 2019).
HOP aims to remove social and financial barriers to WNB accessing agricultural knowledge and social networks. We will create educational opportunities for aspiring and beginning WNB growers who express the need for safe spaces. Further, we will recruit mentors who are dedicated to teaching mentees how to create farms/ ranches invested in social and environmental sustainability. By providing stipends, we will recruit skilled mentors and support mentees to invest time in a mentorship.
Our goal is to increase the number of WNB who have the necessary skills and social networks to succeed as sustainable farmers or ranchers. We will:
- Provide paid mentorships wherein participants practice technical and hands-on skills and/ or receive one-on-one guidance for managing a new farm or ranch business.
- Host educational and networking events where participants build relationships with other WNB farmers/ ranchers and learn in a supportive, collaborative environment.
- Support off-farm learning opportunities for mentors and mentees by providing financial support for skill-share partnerships, farm visits, and farm sitting.
Cooperators
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
Research
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Mentorships
One-on-one mentorships are the primary educational tool through which we support farmers/ ranchers to grow their knowledge, skills, confidence, and networks. Eleven experienced farmers/ ranchers served as mentors in 2023. Collectively, they mentored 17 aspiring, emerging, or beginning farmers/ ranchers. We are in the process of interviewing, recruiting, and matching mentees and mentors for 2024 and anticipate a minimum of 20 mentorships for the year.
Fields Days, Farm Tours, and On-Farm Demonstrations
We hosted two fields days in 2023, each dedicated to seed saving. The first field day, completed in collaboration with Humble Hands Harvest, focused on seed saving for locally adapted varieties (alliums) and additional farm revenue. The second, hosted in tandem with our annual conference and collaboration with Mustard Seed Community Farm, focused primarily on saving seeds from native Iowa prairie plants. We also hosted a farm tour with Root to Rise, a diversified vegetable farm in central Iowa. Additionally, we sponsored several mentees/ mentors to visit other farms for tours or trainings during their mentorships.
Workshops/ Mentor trainings
We contracted with content experts to host five mentor trainings in 2023: 1) working with neurodiverse learners; 2) setting achievable goals with mentees; 3) LGBTQ+ inclusivity 101; 4) non-violent communication and conflict resolution strategies; and 5) burn-out prevention and mental health awareness for farmers.
Outreach/ Content
- We updated our program informational materials to be more accessible and engaging
- We highlighted Mentors through our updated HOP webpage, social media, and newsletter
- During winter/ early spring 2023/ 2024 we created a Google Classroom that will be used to manage mentorships going forward and create a space for mentees and mentors to connect and share resources. We will pilot this Classroom during the 2024 season.
Learning Outcomes
Mentees: crop management
Mentees: marketing, crops and livestock
Mentees: Pasture management/ rotational grazing
Mentees: livestock (goat, sheep, pigs, bison, poultry) care, including basic care, administering vaccines, suing herbal remedies, etc.
Mentees: beekeeping basics
Mentees: soil health fundamentals
Mentees: stewarding native habitat/ biodiversity
Mentors: improved understanding of how to create welcoming, safe, and inclusive learning environments
Mentees and mentors + others: mental health awareness, burnout management
Project Outcomes
Through training workshops and with facilitated programming, experienced farmers/ ranchers are prepared and given opportunity to mentor emerging and beginning farmers/ ranchers.
In 2023, seventeen women and non-binary learners made progress toward individually determined goals. Each mentee is supported to create their own set of objectives for the mentorship. Mentee goals included, but were not limited to:
- Gaining hands-on experience managing livestock and sustainable pasture systems
- Creating new markets and/ or marketing materials or processes for their farm/ ranch
- Determining which crops to grow on a new farm
- Learning how to manage native habitats, such a prairie
- Learning the basics of no-till vegetable farming
- Creating a farm business plan
By making progress toward these goals, emerging and beginning farmers who participated as mentees are better prepared to:
- Manage environmentally sustainable on-farm ecosystems through practices such as rotational grazing, crop rotation, no-tell, silvopasture, stewardship of native habitat;
- Create and secure markets and revenue streams for their products;
- Produce products that support economic sustainability/ viability;
- Create alternative farm-ownership structures, including cooperatives and non-profits.
Farmworker/ aspiring farmer mentee in Iowa:
Her goal was to "Become familiarized with produce storage and management though the following aspects: type of storage needed for each item (temperature, container, etc), time from harvest to use, most efficient with space/organizational system, types of storage spaces needed, maintenance of storage space year round." By the end of the mentorship, this mentee was running the pack-shed on the farm where she worked and had created posters for the pack shed that outlined procedures and processes for post-harvest crop management.
Farmworker/ aspiring farmer mentee in Iowa; regarding whether it was important to have a educational space intended for women and gender queer participants:
"I thought I wanted to change my major to agronomy at [University]. But then I took an agronomy course at [University], and most people there were white men. And when we paired up, I was rarely given opportunity to speak. And I have a lot to say, so I didn’t pursue a degree in that space. So it’s important to have a space that is intentionally for you, and that explicitly acknowledges social/ power dynamics. Because then you can have those conversations about how gender and race play in, rather than having to prove that you deserve to be there. We automatically took each other seriously. That was kind of the point."*
Farmworker/ aspiring farmer mentee in Iowa, discussing next steps:
"After school, I would love to move back to [home state] and do urban farming in a lower income community. But before this mentorship I had no idea about the logistics of starting a farm. I don’t really get that part in my classwork - it's more about how to manage the plants but not how to start a farm. Also the network of available resources - I wouldn’t have gotten that without mentorship."
Beginning farmer/ mentee in IL, discussing next steps:
"I have decided to do my own small specialty crop garden, focusing on a couple of key crops, for example maybe squash, that I can market to restaurants through [local farmer cooperative]. I’m still deciding what that specialty crop will be. I like having my own garden for myself and giving produce away, but in terms of farming - being a specialty crop farmer seems easier. But I’m invested now even more than I was before. I’m back in it after taking a break to focus on school. I’m thinking about it more independently and seriously now."
Beginning bison rancher in OH, discussing next steps:
Next year, we're going to expand marketing, sell more [bison meat]. I'm thinking about how we can articulate the health benefits of bison, get into marketing from that angle.
Aspiring farmer in OH, discussing progress and the continued relationship with her mentor:
"We just finished the mentorship yesterday. I went home today. Next week I will farm sit for [mentor name redacted] for 3 days - all by myself with goats and everything. Even earlier in summer I was trusted to stay with the goats for the afternoon, take of them, etc. I learned how to milk, and can now do that on my own. I’m glad she can trust me, and have someone she has worked with for longer."
Aspiring/ considering farmer in IA; on next steps:
I'm still trying to figure it out. But I wanted to come away from the mentorship with confidence that I could do something myself (for example have a small CSA). I think I got there, and I wouldn’t have gotten there just working on the farm. [Mentor] also helped me think through the math related to different enterprises. For example, I thought briefly about a black bean enterprise, then did the math and realized it wouldn’t work financially. I could only do that because of working with [mentor]. I gained faster, deeper learning through experience and mentorship than formal and classroom learning. Without the mentorship I wouldn’t have gotten there.
- All quotes above are taken from detailed notes taken during end-of mentorship or mid-mentorship evaluation phone calls. Because the interviews were not recorded and transcribed, they are not verbatim, but capture as closely as possible the sentiments expressed by mentees.
We continue to experiment with how to balance the need for flexibility with enough structure to ensure that mentees, mentors, and other program participants can easily meet program expectations (e.g. articulating achievable goals early in the mentorship, completing evaluations in a timely manner). For this reason, we will use a Google Classroom in 2024 so we can easily set individualized deadlines on program assignments (Goals worksheets, mentorship agreements, evaluative surveys and interviews). The Classroom also will create a space where mentees and mentors can connect, build community, ask/ answer questions, and share resources.