Where to Find Money, Training, and Leased Land to Start Farming in Your Area

How would you like to train to become a farmer, find out where you can lease land, and even obtain grant money to start growing food locally? There's a high demand for local food across the nation. And since many of the older farmers are retiring, somebody has to train new farmers, lease them land, and provide the grant money to help them get started. Does that sound like your niche?

Maybe you want to grow specialty produce such as various types of fruits or vegetables that are used by specific cultural groups? Or maybe you want to raise chickens for eggs that you sell to any given farmer's market interested in buying local, organic eggs, for example? How do you get the training, experience, and money to start?

Sacramento emphasizes the production of local food, farmers' markets, and buying local foods. But only 2 percent of food consumed in Sacramento by consumers actually is grown locally. That can be raised to 20 percent as a goal, according to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, as reported in the Sacramento Bee article.

If you're interested in the local food movement, the various green jobs initiative, or lowering air pollution in regard to the transportation of food in and out of Sacramento, check out the U.S. Department of Agriculture loans and support programs for niche markets. There's a niche market in Sacramento of growing produce that caters to specific cultures.

Check out the site for the Center for Land-Based Learning. They have a grant to train farmers--new, young farmers. The center is designing curriculum for a six-month training program for working individuals who want to get into a farming career.

The nonprofit group also will provide an incubator program so students in that program can have the chance to gain experience on land. The new farmer leasing 40 acres of land on Florin Road in South Sacramento, according to the Sacramento Bee article, "New generation of farmers recruited," eventually wants to sell eggs to the Davis Farmer's Market. So if you, too, want to enter farming and find the training and money to farm locally in Sacramento or in nearby regional areas, you need a business plan.

Check out the nonprofit agencies and services available in Sacramento to help you train and find access to land to farm locally. Also see the listings of apprenticeships in local organic farming offered in Sacramento at the Soil Born Farms site. The work schedule runs from March 15th to Novermber 1st, approximately 40 hours a week.

The goal of that apprenticeshop program at Soil Born Farms is to provide a training gruond for aspiring farmers by teaching the basic concepts and practical applicaitons of organic food production, and to use the garden medium as a platform to show how alternative food systems tie into the larager social issues of food security, social justice, and public health.

Apprentices experience all aspects of organic food production through a combination of hands-on learning and structured classes. Most time is spent working on the farm. The apprentices also work with the surrounding community, participating in Soil Born's education and food access projects. A stipend is listed on the site.

Sacramento, in particular south Sacramento is recruiting a new generation of farmers. In fact, a 43-year old farmer and his wife are leasing 40 acres on Florin Road in South Sacramento to raise chickens for free-range egg production, according to a January 22, 2011 Sacramento Bee article by Anne Gonzales, "New generation of farmers recruited."

One of the reasons a new generation of farmers right here in the urban heart of Sacramento are being recurited is the fear of "brain drain" as older growers retire, according to the Sacramento Bee article. The new farmer will be raising free-range chickens in South Sacramento for egg farming. Sacramento is surrounded by productive farmland.

Yesterday, a Beginning Farmers workshop in Sacramento drew about 65 people who want to find a new career farming in Sacramento and/or Yolo County. As Sacramento farmers age out of farming, those who regulate and operate the farming industry in Sacramento, Yolo County, and nationally need to recruit a younger generation of new farmers. See, Capital Press Agriculture News Calendar. (Jan. 21 -- Beginning Farmers Workshop, Norton Hall, Woodland.)

There are Federal and State programs that exist for the purpose of supporting the training of new farmers, and money is available as well as training. Basically, farmers in California over the age of 65 outnumber farmers under the age of 35 by 9 to 1. If you're interested in training to become a farmer and have no experience or training, you can find training and dollars to support your interest. Check out the website of California FarmLink, a nonprofit sercie that mataches aspiring farmers with farmers who are retiring.

The phenomenon of intergenerational transfers of land does take place along with exchange of experience and training as well as advice. Some Sacramento farmers inherit land form older relatives. Farms range from those in Sacramento to farms in the Central Valley or Yolo County near or in Davis.

To prevent the "brain drain" of agricultural expertise and train new, inexperienced, younger farmers, California Farmlink helps to bridge the gap in relation to age and experience. California FarmLink helps beginning farmers or famlies who are no longer interested in farming their property by connecting new, inexperienced farmers or those who want to farm with the experienced farmers who are retiring or no longer want to farm.