As Michigan faces an aging farmer population, communities are looking for ways to shore up the next generation of growers. But people looking to get in the field face challenges like high costs, access to land and a shifting climate.
Tucked on farmland at the southern edge of Traverse City, one program wants to solve some of these problems by letting aspiring farmers learn by doing.
This story is made possible through a partnership between Interlochen Public Radio and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
The Great Lakes Incubator Farm attracts students from all over the country. Over the course of seven months, they learn topics like pest management, how to drive a tractor and what to include in a farm business plan.
“Nobody gets into farming for sane reasons, other than the sanity of knowing where your food comes from and just general health,” said 33-year-old Rachel Greenberg, a student farmer from Indianapolis. “The challenges are pretty never-ending.”
Those challenges include high costs, access to land and volatile weather. Farm bankruptcies last year were up 46% nationally, according to a National Farm Bureau report. As land prices rise due to demand from developers, more than 50,000 acres of farmland has been lost in the last two decades, according to research.
Despite headwinds, the student farmers said they’re driven by wanting to know where their food comes from, to contribute to local communities and teach others to do the same.
‘Pay it forward’
The farm training program — a project of the Grand Traverse Conservation District — has fewer economic pressures than running a farm business, Greenberg said. The fruits and vegetables that students grow will go to locals who have already committed to buying the season’s produce, and leftovers will go to food rescue operations. Unlike a traditional business, the goal isn’t to make a profit.
“The whole incubator idea is something you see a lot in the world of entrepreneurship, and it's beautiful that somebody saw that and was like, ‘Why don't we just do that with farming?’” Greenberg said.
Troy Saruna, 28, said at a time where climate change is driving more severe weather, he wants to better understand his impact on the natural world. Saruna worked in conservation around the country prior to the program, and has no farming experience.
The training program focuses on teaching regenerative agriculture, which refers to practices that could reduce the pollution causing climate change by improving soil health.
“Our food systems are just so inextricably tied to the health of the planet,” Saruna said. “I’m just really interested in striking up a new balance where I can understand, interpret and just develop some new instincts in terms of feeding myself and having thriving communities that also support wildlife.”
Farmers with some experience also find the program helpful to dive deeper into certain skills. Shanaya Holmes, 49, runs a small 4-acre farm in Alabama.
She’s looking to learn how to grow in a different climate and to improve her record keeping — tracking what’s been planted, what soil was used or how much money was spent on equipment.
“It’s a challenge to switch that button off to come inside and do bookwork, bookwork, bookwork when you’re so used to outside, outside, outside,” she said.
Adam Brown, the farm’s manager and instructor, said the farmer training program is meant to be a stepping stone.
“It's really built for anybody who can then filter out and work anywhere in the food system, either manage a farm, start their own business, or any rung of that ladder where people can just help out in the food system,” Brown said.
Brown wouldn’t have pursued farming himself if it wasn’t for a similar training program he did 15 years ago on the West Coast. He has a background in ecology.
“I can pay it forward, my lessons, and all the wisdom that I learned throughout my years of farming, and be a mentor to these other people, and I feel like it's super important,” he said.
Funding the future
The training program, now in its second year, is one of the only programs of its kind in northern Michigan, according to data from Michigan State University.
The Great Lakes Incubator Farm relies mostly on a nearly $700,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at supporting beginner farmers. That grant ends after this season and Brown plans to reapply for USDA funding this year.
Still, the agency is undergoing changes as it works to match the president’s priorities. Last year, the USDA canceled $148 million in grants — including some in the beginner farmer program — to comply with the president’s early executive orders targeting climate action, environmental justice, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Brown said there’s not many large pools of money like this USDA grant program that support efforts to train the next generation of farmers. The Great Lakes Incubator Farm is also supported by some state grants.
Lack of consistent funding is a big reason we don’t see more of these training programs, said Jon LaPorte, a farm business management educator for Michigan State University Extension.
“It's almost like a double-edged sword that they're trying to help people get started, but then they've got the same struggles of staying sustainable themselves,” he said.
That means as the share of young people in farming grows in Michigan, programs to support them might be harder to come by, LaPorte said. Farmers under the age of 45 increased by more than 3,000 people between 2017 and 2022, according to the USDA’s census. Sustaining that growth is a challenge.
“Because of those hurdles, they don't all stay in, and what we want to see is more of those people being able to stay in, having more farms, more diversity of farms,” he said. “More people involved in agriculture at that level is really, really important.”
There are still resources available, said Katie Brandt, who leads MSU's Organic Farmer Training Program in East Lansing. MSU Extension put together a beginner farmer’s guide in partnership with the USDA last year. And many farms across the state often accept volunteers for work, she said.
Brown, the farm manager, said students in the training program learn that the growing season doesn’t always go smoothly — and things like frost damage on plants is just part of the job.
“This is a great space for failure too, right? Because there's not a whole lot of risk here,” he said. “It's a perfect, experimental type of atmosphere.”
