Everyone Eats — Who’s Ready to Grow Food?
August and September at the Organic Farm School offer such inspiration to resident and visiting foodies. Having made it through a chaotic spring, an early hot summer, and confusing post-Covid market/tourism trends, students are now rolling out a beautiful abundance vegetables. Each week, as they set up their pop up farm stand and market booth, they talk about mouth watering recipes that incorporate sun ripe tomatoes, eggplant, leafy greens, zucchini, cucumbers, cilantro, and so much more.
It’s a great backdrop for the kickoff to our recruiting for 2025.
Everyone eats, so we assume there are plenty of folks who want to learn how to grow food.
Maybe?
Headlines are starting to pop up in the papers. “Washington is losing farms and food-producing land — does anyone care?” greeted us in the Seattle Times on April 15. In June, an article in the ASU News highlighted “The hidden cost of the American food system.” And on July 29, New York Times printed an opinion piece “What to eat on a burning planet,” a discussion of how our food system is rapidly changing because of climate shifts, but without much of our attention to the implications.
Not exactly a welcome mat for those looking to take 8.5 months out of their regular life and $5000 out of their bank account to come to the Organic Farm School to learn how to run a community scaled farm. And yet, as our society faces the challenges of so many disrupted systems (financial, environmental, cultural, political, health care, and more) don’t we all need to eat? Isn’t it possible that the more stressed our commercial/industrial food system gets, the more we need small, community facing farms to fill the gaps and the more we value their service? And with all of the rapid changes faced by farmers, doesn’t an experiential training program that focuses on critical thinking and decision making become more and more important for their success?
While we are not wishing for the demise of the industrial approach to ag (it does produce massive amounts of calories), we do believe there is room for improvement within that industry to reduce the use of chemicals and find alternatives to methods that harm our ecosystem services. And we think the the stressors we’re all facing call for more local food, not less…more small scale farms, not bigger ones…more emphasis on soil and human health, not on synthetic inputs and certainly not on efficiency at the expense of the human biome.
At the Organic Farm School, we know that there are many small scale farmers aging out, looking for new beginning farmers who share their desire to develop healthy soils and feed their friends and neighbors — many looking for a new generation to pass their farms on to. We know there are more and more opportunities being created for urban farmers and for those wanting to farm collaboratively on larger parcels being protected by land trusts across the country. But we also know such opportunities are being offered to those with training and experience, not just those who have followed Instagram or taken on-line courses.
We know that what we offer is valuable because we have watched our graduates launch new farms, become farm managers, and take on leadership roles in farming communities.
So. We all eat. Who’s ready to grow food? Apply today for the 2025 training season!