Shifting Focus: Building Pathways to Success for New and Diverse Farm Audiences

In the current, dynamic environment of limited farm labor availability, escalating wages and narrow farm profit margins, creating and maintaining a productive farm workforce is a challenge for many farmers in Vermont and across the Northeast. It is a particularly pivotal issue for post start-up beginning farmers (an audience with disproportionate representation of people who identify as women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC) who are seeking to scale production and gain efficiencies to meet business and income goals. USDA data consistently shows that farms in which people from historically underserved and/or what USDA terms “socially disadvantaged” communities are the primary operators tend to be smaller and more vulnerable to a broad range of agricultural risks, many of which are further amplified on beginning farms. 

At the same time, data collected through Northeast SARE’s DEIJ initiative indicates that across the Northeast, including Vermont, procedures, practices and policies are linked to disparities in the opportunities and quality of life for people from “marginalized” agricultural audiences, and in the resilience, viability and sustainability their farms.

There is a growing awareness of and interest in addressing these issues among Vermont agricultural service providers (ASPs), farmer organizations and farmer educators. In open-ended questions on intake forms and evaluation surveys conducted with over 240 program participants in 2023 and early 2024, farmers, farm managers, employees and ASPs consistently linked effective labor management, human risk management, and social justice issues to their farm productivity, profitability and quality of life, as well as to their ability to effectively implement climate adaptation, nutrient, soil and crop management, animal health, marketing, and food safety, strategies that contribute to agricultural sustainability in the region.

When asked about priorities for professional development in social sustainability topics, ASPs working in farm viability and business programs, farmworker support programs, horticultural production, produce safety, beginning farmer service programs identified the following topics: best practices in using interpretation and translation in agricultural education; greater understanding of labor issues (in particular challenges encountered by immigrant labor), and opportunities to explore DEIJ topics with peers and with knowledgeable facilitators.

This proposal builds on our 2021-2024 “Building Capacity to Support Diverse and New Farming Audiences” project to create new resources and engage agricultural service providers in learning opportunities that build their capacity to apply a DEI lens to farmer programming and to deliver effective labor management and human risk management referrals, education and education. Throughout the project we will invest time and energy to engage ASPs and farmer educators representing BIPOC, Queer and Women in Ag organizations as participants, facilitators and presenters, using channels such as the Uprooting Racism google group and the list of organizations compiled through the Northeast SARE DEIJ effort. We will also leverage existing relationships among project team members: Together, Holtzman, Peabody and Kivirist have deep and long-standing relationships with women in ag groups and organizations; Leslie has both professional and personal connections with Queer and BIPOC farming networks and organizations.

The project aims to build labor management capacity among ASPs who specialize in farm business, production, marketing, natural resource management, and food safety topics to provide relevant and appropriate basic information and referrals. Our focus will be on developing capacity to help farmers frame the right questions, address relevant considerations, evaluate options, and connect with networks and resources. Project team members Holtzman, Hendrickson, Kivirist and Peabody have been delivering successful, effective programming with farmers in this area since 2014, and bring both content and delivery format expertise.

A key and innovative feature of the project is that we will establish an Accountability Committee of farmers and agricultural service providers, who are people of color, and/or LGBTQ+ and/or women, whose role will be not just to "advise" but to hold project staff accountable to community interests and equity goals. We know that members of these communities are both willing and enthusiastic about engaging in this type of work based on the response to invitations to serve in a similar capacity for a research project led by team members Leslie and Holtzman. In committing to support that research, these individuals expressed the urgent importance of research, education, professional development and resource development that will uplift the voices and leadership of marginalized farming audiences within sustainable agriculture programs and build strong and reciprocal relationships between institutions and those communities. The project budget includes funding for their time and travel. 

Team member Ike Leslie, who has used accountability councils in other research and community-based projects, will provide guidance and support for this component of the project. This component of the project will take time to develop, with activities in year one focusing primarily on building relationships with people and organizations representing under-served audiences, prior to establishing the committee’s membership and launching it at the end of Year 1. The committee will provide increasing levels of guidance and decision making in years 2 and 3, with the goal of it determining the direction, activities and focus of Vermont’s next 3-year project in 2027.

Beth Holtzman - Vermont State Coordinator and project director. Holtzman's responsibilities include oversight of all project activities, including coordinating the project team, conducting outreach and recruitment activities, overseeing web and new resource development, developing and facilitating  professional development sessions, and handling administrative components of the project. With team member Ike Leslie's support and guidance, Holtzman will also lead the relationship-building and establishment of the accountability committee, and facilitate and support evaluation planning and implementation.

Ike Leslie - University of Vermont Community Development Extension Assistant Professor in Food systems, brings experience and expertise in participatory governance of projects. They are deeply embedded in New England's communities of underserved farmers. Leslie also operates Magnetic Fields Farm in Athens Vermont which attracts and sustains multi-racial, queer farm community through food production, affordable housing and events. Leslie will support the project director in developing the accountability committee, including making introductions with individuals and organizations representing marginalized and underserved farming audiences. Please see Leslie's letter for more information on their planned contributions.

John Hendrickson - University of Wisconsin, farm viability specialist and former diversified vegetable farmer. John brings both personal experience and professional expertise in issues, challenges and strategies related to managing labor, personnel costs and efficiencies on diversified vegetable farms. He has worked with scores of small- and medium-sized vegetable farm operators on labor with projects across the country. See Hendrickson's letter of commitment for his planned contributions.

Lisa Kivirist - Renewing the Countryside, has led multiple, successful,  award-winning initiatives and programs supporting women farmers, using peer learning and accountability circles to support women to implement changes in conservation and farm labor management. Please see Kivirist's letter of commitment for her planned contributions.

Pete Land, Tamarack Media, web development and design specialist. Please see Land's letter of commitment for his planned contributions.

Mary Peabody - University of Vermont Community Economic Development Emeritus Professor, brings subject matter expertise in on leadership, communication, management topics and meeting the needs of women and beginning farmers across cultural contexts. Please see Peabody's letter of commitment for her planned contributions.

Seth Wilner, works with farmers on a whole farm planning and labor management, most recently focusing on helping farmers develop leadership, management and communication skills to establish a farm culture and management practices to achieve their business and quality of life goals. Please see Wilner's letter of commitment for his planned contributions.

H2A consultants will contribute to content related to accessing, paying for, supervising, and retaining H2A workers.

Diversity, equity and inclusion consultants will content and reviewing informational materials and resources and curriculum plans.

Accountability Committee - will consist of ASPs, farm operators, and farm employees.

Evaluation consultant - The evaluation consultant will provide guidance to support the project director and accountability in planning and implementing a participatory and practical process for evaluating the multiple components of the project and balancing the needs of formative, process and summative assessment. Our goal is to engage an individual with knowledge of the growing fields of "equitable," "culturally responsive," and/or "transformative" evaluation.