Michigan Sustainable Farm Mentors

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: decision support system, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking
• Farm Business Management: business planning, financial management, land access, new enterprise development, whole farm planning
• Soil Management: soil quality/health
• Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, community development, employment opportunities, leadership development, new business opportunities, quality of life, social networks, sustainability measures, urban agriculture

Connecting beginning and aspiring farmers with mentors is essential in an era when 60% of Michigan farmers are 55 or older. Mentors make the difference between farm entrepreneurs who overcome the formidable barriers to success and those who cannot. This project has helped to inspire a future where all beginning farmers have mentors. The Toolkit to Start a Great Farm Mentorship shares the full grant, training agendas, discussion prompts for mentorship meetings, success stories, articles and other products created as part of this grant. This grant inspired meeting agendas, activities and recommendations for mentor/mentee engagement in a full curriculum for mentorship organizers, Connecting New Farmers with Mentors. The curriculum is currently being reviewed by farmers and farm educators as part of a Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program grant and will be released in its final form in 2024. And this project has been the major influence in designing Michigan's $1.6 million mentorship program through the new USDA Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). Further, this project inspired aspects of the 11-state Midwest TOPP program, such as the timing of pairing mentors and mentees and advocating for paying stipends to mentees. 

Michigan Sustainable Farm Mentors has connected 46 mentor-mentee pairs to engage in meaningful, directed conversations. Uniquely, mentors also reviewed mentee documents to provide “positive, actionable” feedback and mentees were each paired with a peer for further discussions.

Online forms recruited three times as many mentees as we had had funds to support, allowing us to prioritize applicants based on their experience level, status as underserved farmers (BIPOC, veterans, limited resource, etc) and whether their enterprise and learning goals matched mentor skillsets. An online Meet & Greet explained program expectations, shared the pre-survey link and was an opportunity for each mentee-mentor pair to get to know each other and to set a plan for communication, meetings and learning goals. Beginning farmer pairs had five discussions. The priority was to focus on mentee needs, but where possible disussions followed the prompts created by the mentors about financial viability, environmental sustainability and social responsibility (FES sustainability). Aspiring farmer pairs discussed their needs, and often followed discussion prompts created by the mentors about land/credit access and opportunities to gain production/entrepreneurial skills.

Michigan Sustainable Farm Mentors benefited mentees through collaboration with an experienced farmer and a peer to improve their triple bottom line and/or by overcoming startup barriers. Mentors often used the word "inspired" to describe how they felt after their meetings with mentees from the next generation of sustainable farmers. Mentors and mentees have all been fairly compensated. The project has strengthened triple bottom line sustainability for beginning farmers. For example, 12 of the 15 beginning farmer mentees who completed the pre/post surveys increased their understanding of farm financials and 9 reported improved soil health and better knowledge of soils. Of the five who began with poor work-life balance in year 1, three felt it improve to “average” over a year that included meetings with their mentor. One aspiring farmer mentee found land and another won a $5,000 grant for BIPOC farmers to invest in her farm. 

Better communication with participants who did not complete the pre/post survey would have improved our ability to document success for several goals that did not have enough data. A directed discussion opportunity for people to give insights on how connecting with an experienced farm mentor compares with connecting with a peer.