Progress 01/01/24 to 12/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience: Beginning producers Limited resource producers Urban producers The project delivers training and support to 300 new American farmers and ranchers. According to organizational records, 100% of them are low to moderate income, self-reporting an average household income of less than $34,000 per year and most are English language learners and have limited formal education.? Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?IRC Sacramento was able to send a group of 9 farmers to attend the Community Alliance of Family Farmers (CAFF) hybrid conference that featured over 60 online workshops and in-person gatherings in topic areas such as farm business & management, bookkeeping, emerging tech, and creating value-added products. Phoenix staff attended The Good Food Forum conference hosted by Local First Arizona in August 2024 in Tucson. Charlottesville staff participated in the Virginia Association of Biological Farming (VABF) annual conference, which was a valuable networking and capacity-building opportunity co-hosted by the Virginia State University Small Farm Outreach Program and VABF. Additionally one program staff completed the online "Enhancing the Safety of Locally Grown Produce" course for produce growers and farmers market produce vendors hosted by Virginia Cooperative Extension. The PD and Phoenix staff attended the ORR/RAPP annual conference in Washington DC in September 2024 and met with USDA leadership on two different panels including representatives from OSEC, RD, AMS, FSA, NIFA, OPPE, FPAC, OAUIP, and NRCS. Two staff from this project attended the USDA BFRDP/2501 conference in Charlotte, NC n October, 2024, where they learned about other similar programs, lessons in program evaluation, farmland access, and farmer training. Salt Lake City staff were able to attend the SARE conference in Oct 2024, as it was located in SLC. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The four sites involved in this project are part of a national network of 14 IRC New Roots programs. The Technical Advisor for Food Security and Agriculture, (PD) leads a national community of practice connecting these programs to one another for shared learning and collaborative development of tools. Staff involved in this project presented on lessons learned through this project to date, as well as pass on informaiton on resources learned about during the ARPTA Cooperator conference in Detroit in May, 2024. Aside from intra-organizational sharing, a core part of program activities include local community outreach both for recruitment of farmers and for marketing purposes. All New Roots sites conducted outreach in a number of ways including digital outreach via their websites and social media platforms: • Salt Lake City (https://newrootsslc.org/) • Phoenix: https://www.newrootsphx.org/ • Sacramento's Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/newrootssacramento/ • Charlottesville's Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/newroots.charlottesville/ Staff also presents about the program at on-site events (whether markets or on-farm events). events and hands out promotional materials. A selection of market outreach materials used this year: Phoenix 2024 informational flyer: Informational brochure about the New Roots Phoenix program for 2024 - for prospective participants: https://rescue.box.com/s/8ij4dyeb318qymqjch277ltzr1o2b0pt Salt Lake City winter workshops flyer: Recruitment flyer for the winter 2024 winter farmer training workshop series. This was translated into Nepali and Kirundi.https://rescue.box.com/s/dd5blfvig73ky486t5dcieisao7u0lqn Sacramento Outreach flyer: Informational brochure about the IRC Sacramento New Roots program. Audience: shoppers, prospective donors, volunteers, organizational partners, general public: https://rescue.box.com/s/e8e0xad68f261el5zze61359qbra6usf What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In project year 3, project staff will continue to conduct outreach and enroll new farmers across 4 program locations, and organize pre- and post- season meetings with project farmers. Under Objective 1: Assist 200 underserved new American farmers to improve their financial capabilities, the program will facilitate business and financial coaching 1:1 sessions with farmers or refer them to IRC's small business counselors and financial capabilities coaches to update their business plans for the 2025 growing season and to learn about and apply for credit building loans. Under Objective 2: Improve the business revenue of 335 underserved new American farmers, the project will discuss with farmers which market avenues they will be selling to in 2025 and develop annual and seasonal crop plans. Persistent climatic and weather challenges necessitate that we continue to be proactive in providing individualized crop production technical assistance, including support for techniques that take into account drought, extreme heat, and severe rain events. Staff will also deliver individualized marketing technical assistance to farmers in wholesale and direct-to-consumer markets; broker new market relationships, and conduct market and farm tours with groups of farmers who are interested in expanding their markets or in adopting new crop and marketing practices. Under Objective 3: Facilitate 335 underserved new American farmers to access USDA resources, staff in SLC will be helping farmers to set up farm walks with NRCS staff members as the next steps for their applications. Hopefully farmers will be receiving benefits from the MASC applications applied for at the end of Y2. In other offices, staff will continue to engage with USDA staff to host information sessions for farmers and work on ways for farmers to better access USDA resources including developing resources in other languages. Additionally, more New Roots incubator farms will obtain farm numbers and help New Roots farmers get farm or field numbers as appropriate. Under Objective 4: Improve access to land for 85 underserved new American producers, the project will continue to provide incubator farmland and support farmers with land preparation, irrigation and harvest resources, and technical assistance to increase their capacity. The project will also continue to broker relationships with landowners. Charlottesville plans to leverage local developments in land use planning to prioritize securing new farmland access for farmers in the project.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Project statistics, 2024: Annual Outputs: 361 farmers enrolled in the project to date 14 financial capabilities workshops delivered 65 business and financial coaching 1:1 sessions with farmers 1,498.25 hours of individualized crop production technical assistance delivered to farmers 1,571.5 hours of individualized marketing technical assistance delivered to farmers 30 market and farm educational and business networking tours 10 tours and informational sessions with local USDA staff 42 farmers participated in land and lease management activities Project outcomes to date: 33 Farmers increased their revenue since enrollment 128 farmers have started earning an income from farming 4 farmers receiving credit building or microenterprise loans 61 farmers created or updated their farm or marketing business plan 99 farmers secured a new market channel for their products 87 farmers have increased their knowledge about USDA resources 112 farmers have increased their farm size or capacity 106 farmers participated in land and lease management activities 8 new land leases signed Farm business training and technical support accomplishments: All sites delivered agricultural production workshops this year. Topics covered crop planning for market, weed and pest management, transplants, trellising, soil health, composting, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), intercropping, irrigation management, cover cropping for the winter months, goal setting, principles and practices of organic agriculture,Farmers received in-field TA in pest management techniques, succession planting and planning for fall and winter seasons. Financial workshops included topics such as financial literacy, credit, risk management strategies, setting business goals, insurance, setting up a business bank account, budgeting, how to obtain business licenses, how to write an invoice, how to conduct year-end sales analysis, and how to compile their sales records in preparation for tax filing. Farmers also met with IRC's financial coaches to pull and review their credit report, and then place an application for a credit building loan. Farmers also received 1:1 business and financial coaching in outreach strategies, social media and website development, packaging, licensing, health requirements,. Coaches also helped farmers with applying for small grants and with operational enhancements for markets such as digital payment processing. These meetings were also an opportunity for staff to conduct marketing and business skills assessments used for outcomes measurement. Several farmers received small business loans ($2,500 to $5,000) through IRC's Micro-Enterprise Development department to buy farm equipment. The project also continued planning for the development of 5 farmer-based videos, incorporating farmers across three sites. Producing these videos requires intensive outreach to first find farmers with specific skills or experiences who are interested in participating in the project and then developing scripts and conducting the video shooting. Winter 2025 IRC will engage in a bidding process with hopes to begin shooting in summer 2025. Market expansion and developmentaccomplishments: Marketing TA topics covered food safety, harvesting, washing, produce aggregation, wholesale packing, marketing and quality assurance, storage, as well as selling at the farmers' market (including booth set up, price points, display, coin counting, and recordkeeping), working directly with wholesale buyers, invoicing, and delivery. Staff also helped farmers with setting up and utilizing independent sales platforms. Challenges with digital literacy remains limiting for many farmers. Staff continued to work with markets to help lower the barriers to market entry for farmers facing transportation and storage challenges. Finally, staff aided several farmers with buyer brokering and market opportunities. Farmers expanded their markets all four locations, including new CSAs in Sacramento and SLC, sales to food banks via the LFPA program, and sales to food processors and other wholesale buyers. Nearly all farmers involved at IRC-run markets, where IRC can track financial data, increased their income and amount of produce sold at pop-up markets compared to last year's sales records. Some farmers showed more than 160% increase in income. Technical Assistance Efforts for USDA Programs, Services, and Grantsaccomplishments: IRC assisted farmers in applying for farm numbers, applying for NRCS services, applying to accept SNAP EBT for purchases, and submitting applications to the Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) grant program. This has meant providing transportation for farmers as needed to the local FSA/NRCS offices and assisting FSA & NRCS staff in supporting farmers with applications, utilizing interpreters as needed. IRC teams hosted farm tours for local and state USDA staff, and hosted NCRS and FSA representatives for training about the services they offer. In Phoenix, staff worked with NRCS staff to strategize on the implementation of conservation plans at two farm sites. Farmland development and expansionaccomplishments: Several farmers expanded their land access this year. In Salt Lake City, New Roots began work to prepare the new 1.5 acre Glendale Farm site for farmers to begin growing. The soil was tilled, compost delivered and spread, a shed was made available, and tools were moved to the site.In Phoenix, several farmers increased their farm size by acquiring more land at partner sites and other sites throughout the city. IRC In Charlottesville, IRC engaged in the City of Charlottesville's Parks and Recreation Strategic Master Planning process, which this year indicated a recommendation for the addition of a new urban farm site within a city park. Four (4) farm members attended the City Council Meeting and 2 testified to City Council about how the New Roots Farm has benefited them. Staff also continued to engage private landowners regarding new farm sites. Farm site improvements were made as well. IRC Sacramento completed construction of a 40' high tunnel with plastic and shade cloth at its incubator site. The site also continues to receive hundreds of cubic yards of compost for free each month through a partnership with the City of West Sacramento and CalRecycle. IRC in Phoenix received grant funds to purchase a walk-in cooler for cold produce storage at CamelBackyard which can be utilized by 30 farmers. In Charlottesville, project staff are continuing to develop the 5th Street Community garden site, and designed and built an improved rainwater catchment system and distribution lines for irrigation.

Publications

Progress 01/01/23 to 12/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The project delivers training and support to 300 socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers ("SDFRs"), as all are people of color and/or members of ethnic minorities who are subjected to racial prejudice without regard to their individual identity. Farmers either identify as, or would likely be perceived by others to be, Black, African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, and/or Hispanic, and originate from a wide range of countries including Afghanistan, Burundi, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Somalia, Chad, and Mexico. According to organizational records, 100% of them are low to moderate income, self-reporting an average household income of less than $34,000 per year and most are English language learners and have limited formal education. Nearly all farmers who will be enrolled in this program meet USDA's definition of a beginning farmer, having run a farm business for less than 10 years. Changes/Problems:None at this time. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Attendance at ARPTAI Cooperator Meeting, October 2-4, 2023 The Project director, along with the Phoenix New Roots Program Manager (local site lead for this project) and the Sacramento New Roots Farmer Market Specialist, were able to attend the ARPTA cooperator PD meeting in Seattle in October 2023. These attendees valued learning about and networking with the other ARPTA project cooperators, as there are some significant similarities in farmer demographics and program goals among other projects around the country. Staff appreciated the opportunity to exchange challenges and lessons learned to strengthen one another's projects. Staff also valued the opportunity to meet USDA agency leaders and learn more about their programs and funding opportunities. These three staff communicated their learnings and connections to other project staff upon completion of the conference. Staff have continued to strengthen relationships with some of these other cooperators (such as NCBA CLUSA) and build strategies to link with local USDA representatives since the meeting, and look forward to another opportunity to meet face-to-face with USDA staff and practitioners in May, 2024. New Roots National Conference in Austin, TX: Nov 13-16 2023 The project director and project staff from all 4 sites had the opportunity to convene in Austin, Texas, on November 14-16, 2023. This meeting was part of a national convening of other IRC Farmer Training practitioners. The face-to-face meeting facilitated the program staff to exchange best practices and troubleshoot issues in a deeper level than they can do on regular calls. Topics covered were: managing program capacity for long-term farmer support, trauma-informed program delivery, plain language and visually-oriented resources for farmer training, data management and evaluation practices, and participatory group decision-making. Staff also had the opportunity to visit two other refugee-serving organizations: Multicultural refugee Coalition Austin, which has a training farm outside of the city, and Urban Roots, a youth food justice program that involves youth in crop production, marketing, and distribution. All staff gained valuable insights and practices that are helping them to hone their farmer training and project management practices, as well as strengthen bonds between the staff community of practice in this project. New Roots Technical Advisor (PD for this ARPTAI project) Phoenix New Roots Program Manager (site lead for this project), Local Food Coordinator, Community Development Coordinator and Farm Coordinator Sacramento New Roots Program Manager (site lead for this project), Garden Coordinator, Education and Outreach Specialist, and Farmers' Market Specialist Charlottesville: New Roots Program Manager (site lead for this project), New Roots Program Coordinator, and Farm and Garden Specialist Salt Lake City: Entrepreneurship and Economic Wellbeing Program Manager, New Roots Program Manager (site lead for this project), New Roots Market Coordinator, Program Specialist, New Roots Farm Coordinator, and Food Entrepreneurship Coordinator The Charlottesville program manager has also enrolled in a GIS certification program to gain skills in spatial analysis transferrable to identifying, design, and development of future farm sites. This opportunity is funded by IRC and not by this ARPTAI award, but learnings will be highly relevant. The Sacramento team was able to send a group of 5 farmers to attend the Emerging Farmers' Conference in Minnesota, where they focused on agricultural business and marketing as well as specialty crop production and agroecological practices How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The four sites involved in this project are part of a national network of 14 IRC New Roots programs supported by the Technical Unit for Food Security and Agriculture, where the PD sits. The PD leads a national community of practice connecting these programs to one another for shared learning, collaborative development of tools. During the New Roots National Conference in Austin, TX, Nov 13-16 2023, mentioned above, staff involved in this project also presented on lessons learned through this project to date, as well as pass on informaiton on resources learned about during the ARPTA Cooperator conference the previous month. A core part of program activities include community outreach both for recruitment and for marketing purposes. A selection of market outreach materials used this year: SLC's market poster and flyer (https://rescue.box.com/s/zequcs6y7y4uj4ciuwuq0mcqn5dnum64) are used to promote the IRC-run Sunnyvale farmers market in Salt Lake City. This market started in 2012 as a single farm stand that aggregated produce from a handful of new farmers. This market is now populated by over 25 independent vendors and frequented by an ever-growing population of newly arrived and US-born Americans.The flyer was distributed in English, Arabic, Burmese, Dari, Kiswahili, Spanish, Kirundi and Nepali. Phoenix developed a "Meet Your Farmer flyer and Farm logo" to showcase the farmers selling produce. This logo and flyer (https://rescue.box.com/s/rw3dhv220y3n2plr3tp7kfrlew7rfhx6) feature farmer Abdelgabar. The logo is Abdelgabar's farm business logo designed with help from NR staff. The Sacramento incubator farm site is a distribution site for free compost donated by the city of West Sacramento. Approximately 100 cubic yards is used by the farmers for their individual plots each drop off and about 20 cubic yards is made available free to the public each weekend, often during the operation of the roadside stand on Saturday. We got a lot of community engagement and increased customers at the market through the collaboration. This flyer was made by the city of West Sac with input from IRC staff: https://rescue.box.com/s/acu6ly6oylsqhdk3brcaqpu4k1w6c2mi Many IRC project sites also have websites that are used to promote the program Salt Lake City (https://newrootsslc.org/) Phoenix: https://www.newrootsphx.org/ Sacramento Volunteer webpage: https://www.rescue.org/volunteer/new-roots-farm-community-garden-support-volunteer Charlottesville's Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/newroots.charlottesville/ Project staff also work to engage farmers in the co-development and planning of their farms and programs. One tool used this year to promote reflection and dialogue was a selection of results from the IRC "New Roots" annual Participant Survey. Charlottesville presented these results in visual format to be accessible to IRC program participants, and will be built upon in future years to ensure that research findings are communicated to participants: https://rescue.box.com/s/sdgvevxs3evdizwuscrhru7r6270cocn What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?IRC will continue to deliver workshops and provide technical assistance in food production, marketing and business development and land access. Under objective 1, "Build business management skills," project staff will continue to directly offer or collaborate with IRC's Economic Empowerment Department to offer workshops on business practices, link farmers with IRC financial coaches, and develop a referral pathway linking clients with relevant programs. New Roots staff will also work to build staff knowledge of business development resources offered by local small business centers, and then develop the bridge and referral process for farmers. Under objective 2, "Build production and marketing skills," project staff will continue to help farmers maintain and expand market access. We also plan to focus on building farmer capacity to manage market sales independently, therefore re-claiming staff time for agricultural assistance and other TA. All sites will continue selling retail and wholesale to current market outlets, and will create relationships with new wholesale outlets as well, including restaurants. Staff in Sacramento will be starting a CSA box program in June 2024 to create consistent direct market channels for farmers and to welcome our customers as more of a part of our community. This will include obtaining a value-added and/or cottage food certification in order for farmers to sell products such as sugar cane juice, dried herbs, and prepared foods. Under objective 3, "Strengthen links between farmers and local USDA agencies," project staff will continue to nurture partnerships, including connecting with new local USDA staff in Phoenix to complete conservation plans with NRCS for two farm sites, and co-hosting workshops in Sacramento and Salt Lake City to connect farmers with the NRCS and with USDA resources. NRCS staff will be coming to a workshop with NR farmers in Salt Lake City in February to share what resources they offer directly with farmers. Additionally, New Roots Salt Lake City staff are planning multiple on-site trainings with Utah Dept of Ag and Food, which will focus primarily on soil health. We are optimistic about the launch of the National Urban Agriculture Initiative (NuAg) which seeks to expand urban farmers' utilization of USDA, and specifically Farm Service Agency resources. The NuAg initiative was launched in October 2023 and is receiving backbone support via Virginia State University and Virginia Tech along with Cornell University. During the 3-year pilot project we anticipate an expansion in urban farming-oriented support via our state's extension network. Under objective 4, "Improve land access," project staff in Charlottesville anticipate securing one new site lease through participatory engagement from member farmers. Progress towards a third new lease within this ARPTAI/Gaining Grounds project will be sustained via engagement and advocacy in the City of Charlottesville's Parks & Recreation Strategic Master Planning Process, advancing the profile of urban agriculture as a policy and implementation priority and building support for lease execution projected for 2025. In Sacramento and Salt Lake City, staff will continue expanding useable land on their incubator farm sites and Salt Lake City will open their third incubator farm in 2024. IRC Sacramento will increase cool season plantings to take advantage of California's year-long growing season and will begin increasing the capacity of the existing orchard. The Sacramento program is also still waiting to hear back about prospective new land up for lease that would allow the program to expand from only urban farming to a rural site as well, giving farmers more access to land.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Project statistics, 2023: Outputs: 269 farmers enrolled in the project 11 financial capabilities workshops delivered 58 business and financial coaching 1:1 sessions with farmers 517.5 hours of individualized crop production technical assistance delivered to farmers 434 hours of individualized marketing technical assistance delivered to farmers 41 market and farm educational and business networking tours 3 tours and informational sessions with local USDA staff 96 farmers participated in land and lease management activities Outcomes: 78 farmers have started earning an income this year 84 Farmers increased their revenue this year from baseline at project enrollment 75 farmers secured a new market channel for their products 51 farmers created or updated their farm or marketing business plan with project assistance 61 farmers increased their farm size or capacity 1 new land lease signed Technical Assistance Efforts for USDA Programs, Services, and Grants Connection with local USDA agencies was a challenge in some locations, however, New Roots staff made significant advances in connecting with USDA this year. In Salt Lake City, staff made connections and had a few meetings with both NRCS and Utah Department of Agriculture & Food (UDAF). NRCS representatives have come out to 2 of the 3 farm sites to do field walks and talk about potential ideas and support for farmers. In Sacramento, IRC staff has had one meeting with USDA NRCS representatives on the farm and is collaborating on planning a winter workshop to provide farmers with resources. In Phoenix, IRC hosted a workshop with USDA staff and farmers to talk about the different programs USDA offers. Farmers learned about nine different USDA programs including FSA loans and received informational resources. New Roots staff is working with these USDA partners to adapt printed resources to be more accessible to New Roots farmers. Farm business training and technical support New Roots staff provided a combined 951 hours of individualized technical assistance on crop management, food safety, market access and expansion, and business management. For all project sites, the ability to provide individualized TA based on varying farmer skill level and need has been important to their business growth and success. Technical assistance in crop production included topics such as crop planning, crop rotation, pest management, soil health, transplanting, irrigation management, season extension and greenhouse production, harvesting and post-harvest handling. New Roots staff have been collaborating with IRC's Micro Enterprise and Small Business coaches to assist farmers to access business development services. Farmers met with micro-enterprise staff to go over the different programs offered within the Micro-Enterprise Development (MED) department including access to credit building loans, small business loans, financial literacy classes and coaching. Farmers received 1:1 financial coaching, learned key steps for invoicing, record keeping, tracking sales, online banking, and taxes, and several updated their business plans and profit/loss statements. New Roots also organized 41 educational market and farm tours this year. Some tours hosted experts on project incubator farm sites. Other tours took groups to nearby farms to help these beginning farmers see new agricultural techniques in action or to broaden their knowledge of marketing opportunities and arrangements. Market expansion and development Farmers made sales through a mix of farmers markets, CSA programs, cooperatives and small retail outlets. Many farmers received technical assistance on the spot at the farm stands and markets, including help with use of the EBT machine, and on tracking inventory. Staff conducted pre-season market and farm planning with farmers, including group and 1:1 technical assistance covering goal setting, sales analysis from their 2022 season, and crop planning, pricing, and marketing plans. Program staff also introduced farmers to new marketing opportunities to help them expand their income streams, and some farmers have also made their own marketing connections. Examples of these connections include a new partnership with the Del Paso Heights Growers' Alliance in Sacramento that benefits purchases from several farmers for a CSA and a local distributor in Charlottesville, to whom one farmer made her first delivery, selling $1000 of dalle khursani, Nepali hot chili peppers, and had the opportunity to consider the viability of wholesale marketing. The Salt Lake City team also experimented with an innovative CSA model where shareholders spend a weekly allotment of CSA vouchers at a specialized market where farmers bring any produce that is available that week. This has created market opportunities for new farmers who would not otherwise be able to participate at a large market or support their own CSA. Farmland development and expansion Farmers in all four sites improved or increased their land access this year, and all farmers involved received access to new tools to increase their capacity. In Charlottesville, IRC secured a new lease to a ½ acre urban farm site, which enabled the installation of a new perimeter fence and further improvements to the water system, improving the site's viability for market farming. The site is centrally located: a ½ mile from Charlottesville's downtown and 2 largest farmers markets, critical to enable land access by those without a drivers' license or personal vehicle. In addition to this, IRC in Charlottesville convened a steering committee of farmers for their new incubator farm site selection and planning. Over 2 dozen gardeners and their families and friends participated in the meeting where attendees examined topographical and flood maps, aerial images, and draft schematic designs of each site, considering soil quality, flood risk, and other relevant factors. Participants decided by consensus that New Roots will work with the property owner (City of Charlottesville) to develop 'New Roots Farm' at the new site that offers reduced flood risk, while maintaining a smaller footprint at our current site. Meanwhile, staff met with several representatives of the local Virginia Cooperative Extension and engaged correspondence with our region's Soil and Water Conservation District chapter to build relationships and access technical support in soil science and site mapping. In Sacramento, farmers prepared 12,500sqft (.28 acres) of soil that has been fallow for many seasons and partnered with a local non-profit volunteer organization, Mission Continues, to construct a 2,000 sq. ft. high-tunnel greenhouse at the farm. The produce wash-station at the incubator farm was also redesigned and rebuilt to accommodate the increased farm production. Also, 22 farmers engaged in a meeting with the Parks Department, who own the incubator farmland in Sacramento, gaining insights on the needs, processes, and formalities related to these arrangements. IRC Sacramento staff facilitated farmer participation through planning community event days on the training site where farmers practiced interactions and English with local community members. IRC Sacramento also partnered with Community Composting for Green Spaces to develop three different composting areas to provide compost for our farmers. IRC will also work with CCGS to train farmers to maintain each pile and then teach fellow farmers about composting in exchange for a trainer stipend. In Phoenix, one farmer obtained new farmland with a partner organization, Spaces of Opportunity, this quarter. The farmer met with the landowner and signed a lease for a quarter acre plot of land, more than doubling his farmable land this year. Six (6) other farmers expanded their farm size. Finally, in Salt Lake City, IRC prepared to open a new 1-acre incubator site in the spring of 2024.

Publications