Farmer-Led Peer Networks for Improved Family Farm Viability in New York and Massachusetts

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking
• Farm Business Management: financial management
• Sustainable Communities: leadership development, social networks

Project Focus: Small family farms in the Hudson and Connecticut River Valleys are critical drivers of the agricultural economy but face significant challenges to success, with compounding challenges of rising operating costs and inconsistent support. Most support services are fee-based or offered inconsistently, and recent disruptions in the food system have left gaps in service. We observe that farmers in this region turn to other farmers for guidance, a network of support that could be a long-term solution to viability with the right training and resources. Nearly 92% of these operations are family-run, and survey responses from 128 producers identified financial assistance as their primary need for long-term resilience⁵. Understanding that financial needs are individual to each farm and direct services are limited, access to farm viability tools could be easily shared and put into use through the power of peer networks including training, support, and an accessible online database. While the Hudson and Connecticut River Valleys both boast strong existing farmer networks with long-term participation. Currently, there is no regional program that successfully catalyzes peer networks to reduce challenges to financial assistance.

Solution and Approach: American Farmland Trust (AFT) New York and New England teams will work together alongside regional financial partners to engage a cohort of 12 farmer-leaders in the Hudson and Connecticut River Valleys in an intensive farm viability training with the end goal of fostering information sharing among farmer-led peer networks. Relying on strong relationships through AFT's on-the-ground programming, we will recruit small-scale producers who rely on farming for their income and want to build more extensive and impactful peer communities. The cohort will attend a free, in-person two-day farm business intensive facilitated by AFT staff and external experts. This training, designed for small-scale family farms in New York and Massachusetts, will provide the fundamentals of farm finance management, business planning, labor management, access to capital, and marketing. The cohort will receive financial support in the form of microgrants and training to improve their operations. Concurrently, AFT will build an online farm viability toolkit with both existing and newly created resources, templates, and fact sheets for long-term universal access to training tools on our virtual Farmland Information Center. The cohort will meet virtually monthly for six months for additional training on facilitation, communication skills, and intentional network building. AFT will organize and lead four peer-to-peer, trust-building Learning Circles (two in each state), with cohort participants as co-facilitators. AFT staff will mentor cohort participants as they develop their own peer networks. We will evaluate the project success with participant interviews to qualify the impact of peer networks on farm viability and broad-scale financial challenges experienced by farmers in the Hudson and Connecticut River Valleys.

With the right support, we believe that farmers can create a self-sustaining and resilient regional food system economy. AFT will facilitate this effort by selecting a cohort of 12 farmer-leaders from the Hudson and Connecticut River Valleys, training them on financial fundamentals while developing a universally accessible producer-centered toolkit, and mentoring farmer-led networks around financial resilience. Cohort participants will receive a microgrant and be connected with an advisor to improve the overall viability of their operation, with training to use their expertise to support the broader farming community in accessing tools and resources for financial wellness. This community is deeply concerned with long-term viability in today's challenging economic landscape and has actively participated in farmer networks and knowledge exchange for the past decade. Farmers turn to other farmers for guidance, connection to resources, and advice. With training and support, we believe this farming community is ready to establish farmer-led peer networks centered on farm financial wellness, thereby leading the entire regional food system economy towards a more innovative and sustainable future.