Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Education and Training: farmer to farmer, mentoring
- Farm Business Management: land access, new enterprise development
- Sustainable Communities: leadership development
Abstract:
In Travis County, Texas, <0.5% of all food consumed is locally grown. Farmshare Austin (FSA) is changing that by educating, training and mentoring aspiring and working farmers in sustainable, organic and regenerative practices.
Farmshare Austin, in partnership with four other farms, created the Central Texas Farm Incubator Collaborative (CTFIC) to provide affordable access to land, infrastructure and training for the purpose of honing skills and launching farm businesses. Incubator programs are vital to the survival of new farms in Central Texas. Travis County loses 16.8 acres of farmland every day, contributing to prohibitively expensive costs for purchasing or leasing viable farmland.
This project provided training in mentorship and best practices for farm incubator management for the organizations involved. At the 2024 National FIELD Schools, a yearly conference that brings together beginning farmer training organizations from around the country, members of the Incubator Collaborative learned from established incubator programs, supporting the development of an effective program. Lessons learned at the National FIELD School directly informed CTFIC operational procedures and approach to mentorship.
Outreach following the FIELD School shared information about the Central Texas Farm Incubator with the goal of building a stronger and more effective community of local mentor farmers. Ultimately, the Central Texas Farm Incubator Collaborative will create and support more local farmers producing more sustainably grown food for consumers.
Project objectives:
The goals of this project are to increase the number of successful new sustainable farmers in Central Texas by developing a farm incubator program modeled after the best practices of established farm incubator programs around the country and to improve the mentorship skills of experienced farmers in our community.
The objectives of this grant project are:
Objective 1: Expand knowledge and understanding of successful farm incubators for Incubator Collaborative mentor farmers based on the knowledge and information gained from attending the 2024 National FIELD School.
Objective 2: Increase the farm mentorship skills of Incubator Collaborative mentor farmers, farm service providers and other farmers interested in mentoring new farmers.
Objective 3: Provide a clear pathway for the Central Texas Sustainable Farm Incubator project via development of a strategic plan in cooperation with the Incubator Collaborative.
The training has been essential to the development of the Central Texas Farm Incubator Collaborative, reducing the barriers faced by new and beginning farmers as they start their farm businesses. It has increased the amount of sustainable, organic farming taking place in the region and has laid the foundation for a dynamic, effective, long-term program to support the sustainability and viability of new farms in the region.