With help from a grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Mountain Roots Food Project is building a new program designed to train the next generation of farmers.
Unlike past generations, many farmers are not passing on their profession or land to their children, said Mountain Roots Executive Director Holly Conn. Mountain Roots is a Gunnison-based nonprofit that supports community food security. It’s also a career path that may be losing its foundation as one-third of the United States’ 3.4 million farmers are over the age of 65, according to census data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. But as the demand for food begins to outpace the supply, the need for farmers is only rising.
Despite this, Mountain Roots remains hopeful about the future of regenerative agriculture, a practice in which farmers leave the soil better than they found it. Through a new “NextGen-ReGen Beginning Farmer Training” program, Mountain Roots plans to help young people pursue a career in agriculture. For many, the process will start with getting their hands dirty at Susan Wyman’s farm, Gunnison Gardens, right in town.
“Farming and agriculture has an impossible task to feed the growing global population … It's a really significant point in time where we have the ability to make a major shift,” Conn said. “I believe that when we localize our food system, you can address and find solutions to so many of our global problems.”
Starting next year, Mountain Roots will offer mentorship and hands-on experience to students and young adults interested in pursuing a career in agriculture. Through partnerships with Western Colorado University and Gunnison Gardens, Mountain Roots plans to train as many as 60 individuals over the course of the next three years. The nonprofit hopes to attract high school, college and nontraditional students, as well as graduates and those who want to further their education beyond the classroom. The program, although kick-started by a $300,000 USDA grant, is meant to run in perpetuity.
It has two training pathways. The first is an introductory-level internship track for high school and undergraduate students, as well as the general public. The program provides paid, seasonal internships in food production at Gunnison Gardens, Infinity Greens, a hydroponic farm operated by Mountain Roots, and through Western’s Organics Guild.
The grant is exciting news for Western students, said Kate Clark, director of Western’s undergraduate Environment and Sustainability program. While Western has offered food systems internships for years, this is the first year they will be paid. Clark said she expects to place 12 interns a year.
"Our students have wanted these kinds of opportunities, but it is really problematic and tricky for students to take on internship work where they're doing important and valuable service for our community without any compensation,” Clark said.
The second track is a more rigorous registered apprenticeship, a two-year program that combines a classroom curriculum and field experience over the course of two growing seasons. It will cover topics such as seed propagation, crop planning, living soils, harvest techniques and how to manage the business-side of a farm. The hope is that interns will choose to apply for an apprenticeship after gaining exposure to the world of farming and agriculture, Conn said.
The apprenticeship is open to two individuals a year, with tracks in regenerative outdoor farming and hydroponics, a method used to grow plants without soil. The soil-based apprenticeship, facilitated by AmeriCorps, is industry-vetted and registered with the state. Students that move through the program will receive a credential for their resume and will be ready to either start their own farm or compete for manager-level jobs, Conn said. The hydroponics apprenticeship is not yet registered. Mountain Roots began interviewing candidates before the start of November.
AmeriCorps is a federal agency that places service members within programs that support the environment and public health and safety across the country. Members typically receive biweekly or monthly living stipends depending on where they serve. Mountain Roots has offered AmeriCorps service positions for the last six years. Its members support sustainable food system programs around the Western Slope.
Historically, AmeriCorps has not permitted its members to serve for-profit organizations. But many of the region's farmers don’t hold nonprofit status. To make the new Mountain Roots farmer training program work — the majority of which would be based at Gunnison Gardens — it made a request to bend the rules. To receive approval for the apprenticeship, Mountain Roots collected letters of support and sent a written proposal to AmeriCorps’ headquarters in Washington D.C.
“You're really serving when you work this hard to grow such nutrient dense food,” Wyman said.
Mountain Roots is the first registered apprenticeship program to do this in the country. Conn said she hopes Mountain Roots is paving the way for similar programs to launch elsewhere.
“Susan and I have realized for a long time that to learn how to farm, you have to farm … [The apprenticeship program is] truly a career development initiative,” Conn said.
The training program builds on years of partnership between Gunnison Gardens and Mountain Roots. Wyman has a “deep well of knowledge” about farming with regenerative practices in Gunnison’s cold climate, Conn said. For Wyman, it’s an opportunity to expose more people to agriculture and potentially increase the number of local farms producing food in the valley.
“Maybe you just plant the seeds and people say, ‘Okay, I'd like to go become a homesteader, or I do want to go into agriculture.’ Or maybe they just become a dynamite backyard gardener,” Wyman said. “To me, it's just all about food.”
(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)
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