Source: Farley Center for Peace, Justice, and Sustainability submitted to NRP
GAINING GROUND: A FARM INCUBATOR WITH TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR BEGINNING SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED FARMERS IN WISCONSIN
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0228725
Grant No.
2011-49400-31216
Cumulative Award Amt.
$696,454.66
Proposal No.
2012-01980
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Feb 1, 2012
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2014
Grant Year
2012
Program Code
[BFRDP]- Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program
Recipient Organization
Farley Center for Peace, Justice, and Sustainability
2299 Spring Rose Road
Verona,WI 53593
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
In southern Wisconsin there are many aspiring and beginning fresh market vegetable and fruit farmers, including socially disadvantaged and immigrant growers, who need support to succeed. They need to access to farm land, equipment, technical assistance, and marketing avenues to reach customers. The goal of Gaining Ground is to assist these growers so that they can begin and sustain successful farm businesses. The project will provide outreach and education in English, Hmong and Spanish statewide through video and Internet, as well as during hands-on workshops. Southern Wisconsin Land Link will be created so that land owners and beginning farmers can meet and find ways to share land. The Farley Center farm incubator will become a regional hub of support for beginning growers. Preparations will be made to launch innovative marketing programs including a collaborative CSA and mobile produce vending. The Farley Center for Peace, Justice, and Sustainability - a nonprofit dedicated to promote ecological justice through education, demonstration and research - is the lead applicant organization. Funded partners will be the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition; Community GroundWorks; Flats Mentor Farm; the Fondy Food Center, and the Farm Business Development Center at Prairie Crossing. At every stage of the project, beginning growers involved will determine program direction so that their needs are met. Beginning farmers in Wisconsin will launch and strengthen farm businesses with help from the proposed project. These growers will learn valuable information on organic farming, make key contacts through attendance at workshops and conferences, and have opportunities to share their own substantial knowledge of farming. This project will generate the whole range of environmental, economic, and community benefits that make locally-grown food such a vibrant new/old idea. Economically, the project will have a major impact on Wisconsin as consumers' dollars for fresh produce will be spent locally, rather than for produce that has been trucked in from other states. Wisconsin is extremely well suited for sustainable medium-scale fresh market vegetable and fruit farming. Here there is ample rainfall, unlike in California where fresh produce is grown under irrigation. Farmers here can deliver fresh produce to consumers using far less petroleum and emitting far less carbon. Wisconsin's farmers are aging and farmland is threatened by development. Retiring farmers and other landowners are seeking sustainable arrangements to make their land available to the next generation of farmers. Land link connections and community-building between landowners and beginning farmers will deliver positive outcomes for land and people. Growing vegetables is just the beginning of succeeding as a market farmer. Finding profitable ways to sell the produce is often much more difficult. Staff of Gaining Ground will lay the groundwork for new marketing strategies that allow beginning farmers in the region to succeed, and put more healthy locally-grown food into the hands of consumers in the region.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
100%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
6041499308050%
6046099308050%
Knowledge Area
604 - Marketing and Distribution Practices;

Subject Of Investigation
1499 - Vegetables, general/other; 6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3080 - Sociology;
Goals / Objectives
Train beginning farmers and reach out to aspiring new farmers statewide through linguistically-appropriate workshops, Troy Farm internships, mentoring, farm visits, radio segments, and video for off-season training to assure that beginning farmers have support for production and management strategies that are safe, ecologically sustainable and profitable. Hundreds of beginning farmers will launch and strengthen farm businesses, learning valuable information on organic farming and making key contacts through attendance at the workshops and conferences. Participating organizations will also learn from each other, such as the information transferred between the Flats Mentor Farm in Massachusetts, the Farm Business Development Center at Prairie Crossing, Fondy Food Center's Afterglow Farm, and the Farley Center Farm Incubator. The trainings will be taught for beginning farmers on site at the Farley Center and Troy Community Farm, accompanied by interpreters as needed. Gaining Ground staff will recruit intensively for socially-disadvantaged growers to participate in the renowned Troy Community Farm Intern Program. A collaboration of local government, university and NGO partners will adapt existing CSA and sustainable farming curricula to hold participatory trainings in Hmong, Spanish and English. 2. Create Southern Wisconsin Land Link to establish this service and bring at least 8 beginning farmers onto new land in each year of the grant. Staff will hold public events that orient landowners and farmers to the opportunities and suggest successful strategies for communication and shared responsibility. Events will include informal mixers so that people can pair up to discuss specific land use arrangements. Some area landowners have offered their land rent-free, happy to know that it is being well used for production of organic food for local consumption. 3. Formalize & Expand Services at the Farley Center Organic Farm Incubator on two adjacent pieces of farmland in Springdale, Wisconsin, a hub of Gaining Ground education, outreach, and technical assistance for hundreds of beginning farmers. 4. Build new and improved marketing strategies as sustainable, profitable options for beginning growers. a. Support a collaborative CSA to help beginning growers reach customers directly, building on tremendous strength, history, and market potential of CSA in the Madison area. At least 15 farmers will participate, putting into practice the skills they have learned in trainings, and hundreds of customers will join the CSA. b. Improve marketing options for at least 60 farmers through one-on-one support for better links to profitable farmers markets, restaurants, institutional buyers and a new mobile produce vending initiative.
Project Methods
Train Beginning Farmers and Reach Out to Aspiring New Farmers Statewide: Gaining Ground will offer workshops in Hmong, Spanish, and English in 2011 - 2014 to train over 200 farmers. Experienced local farmers and technical experts will lead on-farm workshops with topics ranging from hoop house construction and organic fruit cultivation to business planning, post-harvest handling, marketing and environmental conservation practices. Participants will be provided with scholarships and interpretation to attend relevant trainings held in the region. Create Southern Wisconsin Land Link: The land link component of Gaining Ground will provide interpretation, research model leases, and offer one-on-one support to connect land owners and beginning farmers. Expand the Farley Center Organic Farm Incubator: The farm incubator will be a hub of Gaining Ground assistance for beginning farmers. In 2010 the Farley Center has augmented farm infrastructure and put procedures in place. Our farm incubator design and implementation is informed by organic farm incubators around the country, including at ALBA in California and the Farm Business Development Center at Prairie Crossing in Illinois. Our staff and farmers visited with ALBA in February 2010, and will do exchanges to create learning communities with three other farm incubators in the coming seasons - Prairie Crossing, Fondy Food Center, and Flats Mentor Farm. Build New and Improved Marketing Channels: Gaining Ground staff will support a collaborative CSA where new growers focus on a few crops but members benefit from the full spectrum, with help from MACSAC. Staff will help with brokering new sales to restaurants and grocery stores with growers who do not speak English. With support from another funder, the Farley Center is introducing Green Carts for mobile produce sales in urban "food desert" neighborhoods in southern Wisconsin. Evaluation: We have contracted with a UW-Madison agricultural researcher to oversee the evaluation process and help develop a logic model for the program, which will include detailed objectives, indicators, key questions, data collection methods and assumptions. Project staff will do end-of-season interviews with farm incubator farmers, staff fill out event reports after each public event, and workshop participants fill out evaluations after each workshop. Participants will be asked to evaluate their experiences over the whole range of program goals. Collaborating agency staff members involved in this project will also participate in its evaluation.

Progress 02/01/12 to 08/31/14

Outputs
Target Audience: The Gaining Ground project has served hundreds of beginning and aspiring farmers in twelve Wisconsin counties: La Crosse, Eau Claire, Wausau, Dane, Adams, Green, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Racine, Jefferson, Ozaukee, and St. Croix. Efforts included farm incubation, a land link program that introduces farmland owners to farmers, formal classroom instruction, hands-on workshops, one-on-one consulting, group discussions, season-long farm internships, field walks at farms, marketing meetings, visits to partner farming organizations, conferences, outreach meetings, vocational rehabilitation and compensated work therapy with veterans, and radio, TV, internet and print outreach. Over the course of the project, 5 – 9 farm businesses participated in the farm incubator each year. Since we launched the farm incubator in 2010, there have been 16 farm businesses that have participated for one season or more. Of those 16 businesses, 13 were owned by socially disadvantaged beginning farmers (7 owned by women, and 10 by people of color). In 2014, 7 farm businesses participated in the farm incubator; 5 were owned by farmers from Hmong, Thai and Latino ethnic groups, one by a recent immigrant from Russia, and one by a Wisconsin-born Euro-American. Two were owned by women. One farm business owner who was enrolled in the incubator from 2012 to 2013 is disabled. With each year of the project, more farmers participated in activities held by the Farley Center and our subcontracting partners. For instance, in 2012, 54 farmers and aspiring farmers attended the 6 workshops offered by the project. In 2013, we offered 11 workshops and they were attended by 98 people. In 2014, we offered 16 workshops and they were attended by 226 people. Beginning and aspiring farmers participating in the project were comprised of women and men from Hmong, Latino, Native American, African American and European Americans ethnic groups. Each year of the project between 58% and 93% of the farmers served were members of socially disadvantaged groups, the vast majority Asian (Hmong), approximately 18% Latino, and less than 2% African American or Native American. Through open houses, conference presentations, and a subcontract to Peacefully Organic Produce in Waunakee, the project reached dozens of veterans, including 6 veterans who participated weekly in 2014 in vocational rehabilitation and compensated work therapy through the local VA hospital, and as CSA worker shares. The project supported 26 interns who each worked 200-300 hours at Troy Community Farm. Changes/Problems: From the seeds that this project has sown, and the hard work of an amazing network of farmers and staff, many positive outcomes have grown that we did not foresee in the initial project planning. A few examples follow. On Sept 29, 2014 the Farley Center Farm Incubator achieved organic certification from the Midwest Organic Services Association (MOSA). The farm incubator has been committed to organic practices since it was launched in 2011. But at the outset of the project, we did not know if certification would be possible or desired by the farmers, most of whom are English language learners. Most of the farmers at the incubator are recent immigrants and learned to farm in communities which have millennia of uninterrupted organic farming experience. So their organic farming skills are extremely strong. But the organic certification paperwork can be daunting. After trainings with MOSA, attendance at organic conferences and workshops, and deliberation together, the farmers decided to take the step to certify. This umbrella certification covers all 7 businesses in the incubator and the land they cultivate, and was the culmination of years of effort. Our staff has helped many more Hmong farmers in Wisconsin to consider organic certification, and by 2014, two Hmong family farmers with their own farmland have also achieved certification. In 2014, the project supported new work by our partners FairShare CSA Coalition and Dane County Cooperative Extension, to create a Demonstration Farm. The work has been exciting because of the broad interest in and support for the farm, including from the Dane County Executive, who has included the farm’s infrastructure needs in the 2015 county budget. Accomplishments include research into the needs of potential users of the demonstration farm; building partnerships with educational, governmental, and private organizations to develop programing and infrastructure plans for the farm; a base proposal and timeline for development; and laying the foundation for programing to begin at the farm as early as 2015. Over the three growing seasons, a total of 26 interns worked 200-300 hours each at Troy Community Farm. The internship program is the preeminent hands-on training program in our region for beginning vegetable farmers. Interns learn through lessons in the field, formal classes, weekly field walks, field trips to other area farms, written training materials, and hands-on work. Many former farm interns now run their own farms and work in management positions at other local farms. The farm incubator holds annual end-of-season reflection events, as well as winter planning meetings for the season to come. At these meetings, incubator participants expressed their thanks for the land with its beauty and fertility; for the community; for continued learning; for everyone's hard work; and for the support. The farmers have explained that farm profit is only one of the outcomes of the project. They report that growing food for one's community brings them pride, cultural continuity, health, happiness, and relaxation. Farmers have expressed pride that they applied for organic certification, and explained that they have learned from farmers from different cultural backgrounds. Highlights mentioned included time spent together building a hoophouse and learning to use the tractor and implements, so they are now producing more food with less effort. The farm incubator made improvements to the farm infrastructure at this educational hub. Farmers and staff researched and prioritized infrastructure needs and made improvements such as a whole farm irrigation plan, root cellar, hoophouse, better facilities and flow to the cooling and packing area, and soil improvement with cover crops, manure and compost. The project provided major sponsorship for the Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference in Minnesota in January 2014. This conference is the premier event for socially disadvantaged farmers in our region. There were 160 attendees, and they are not counted in our numbers of farmers served and demographics, as most were from Minnesota and other Midwestern states beyond Wisconsin. A video summary is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZdQzWaGy4&feature=youtu.be. Over half of the farmers in attendance were Hmong, and another 44% of attendees were socially disadvantaged farmers, including Latino, Bhutanese, Nepalese and Somali. As well as sponsoring, we supported travel and lodging for Wisconsin farmers to attend this conference. More unexpected outcomes of the project include a new food and catering business started by the sister of one of the incubator farmers. The farm spin-off business, Tamalería El Poblano, sells wholesale value-added farm products at two large local grocery cooperatives. Produce from the farm is used seasonally to make a line of tamales and fresh salsas which are available at the grocery deli. Another farmer enrolled in the incubator project created a niche market by teaching customers to use vegetables which were new to them. Los Jalapeños CSA (run by incubator farmers) partnered with a local food business to make canned ketchup and spicy ketchup from tomatoes and peppers they grew. The jars of ketchup were included in CSA boxes in 2014. Each year we improved on the evaluation process. Surveys were in English, Spanish and Hmong and many were presented orally. Results were used to improve subsequent workshops. We asked: Did you learn something? Do you plan to do something differently because of what you learned? Did you change your perspective or way of thinking? Were the materials useful? Did you learn something to help you begin farming? (if not farming already) Did you gain information that will improve your farming business? What could be improved about the event? How long have you been farming or growing veg for market? (years) What is size of your farm? (acres) How many people work with you on the farm? Do you have any other comments about the program? The overwhelming majority of attendees felt they “gained information that will help them enter farming” and “will improve their farming business”. They also learned something, plan to do something differently because of what they learned, they changed their perspective, and they thought the materials were useful. They typically farm on very small acreages (6 acres or less) with one or a few helpers. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? We provided technical assistance and training for hundreds of beginning farmers, detailed above, through farm incubation, workshops, internships, land link, marketing support and conferences. Four interns were trained at the Farley Center and 26 others at Troy Community Farm. We hosted many field days and farm tours for the public, new immigrant groups, veterans and other agency staff. Each year staff met with dozens of farmers statewide. Farmers, staff and board members travelled to visit farm incubators and attend conferences including the MOSES Organic Conference in La Crosse; the Immigrant and Minority Farming Conference and the NIFTI Farm Incubator Field School, both in Minnesota; the First Nations Food Sovereignty Summit in Green Bay; Prairie Crossing Farm Business Development Center in Illinois; and the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project in Massachusetts.Our staff helped lead a training session for Extension agents to learn to work with Hmong farmers, and also helped train staff from NRCS, FSA, and technical colleges when they attended our workshops for farmers such as hoophouse trainings for Hmong farmers who had NRCS EQIP cost share. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Educational events occurred at the Farley Center Farm Incubator, 6 Hmong family farms, Peacefully Organic Produce veterans farm, Dane County’s Silverwood Farm, Troy Community Farm, a tribal community college, FairShare CSA Coalition, conferences, and the state Dept of Agriculture. Outreach to aspiring farmers also occurred at community events. Outreach methods included visits to community leaders, groups and churches throughout Wisconsin such as Hmong Mutual Aid Associations, Centro Hispano, and the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of the Ojibwe. Our farm incubator served as a case study for NIFTI’s Farm Incubator Toolkit. The project was featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles, radio segments including local Hmong and Spanish shows, TV interviews that aired statewide, and videos in Hmong and Spanish. Videos filmed at our workshops and produced by Spring Rose Growers Cooperative are on YouTube, and were aired on a California TV station. The most viewed video teaches in Spanish how to build a hoophouse, and it has been watched over 6600 times on YouTube. We created numerous flyers, brochures, workshop handouts and newsletters in English and Spanish, for farmers, consumers including CSA members, and landowners. We created a display for community events, a website with our resources, and we shared resources through USDA Start2Farm. We had direct contacts with aspiring farmers, and hosted dozens of groups including immigrants and veterans for tours of the incubator farm. We co-sponsored a screening of a film about veteran farmers, “Ground Operations,” which garnered 5 media articles. We used list serves and direct contact to reach project partners, who also disseminated results to farmers and farm advisors. Most of our workshops were interpreted into Spanish and Hmong. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1: Train beginning farmers and reach out to aspiring new farmers statewide We worked with hundreds of farmers, providing one-on-one support at the incubator and through land link, and holding workshops in twelve counties throughout Wisconsin. Our staff and BFRDP-funded partners taught 6 workshops in 2012, 11 in 2013, and 16 in 2014. About 54 farmers participated in the workshops in 2012, 98 in 2013, and 226 farmers in 2014. We provided Hmong and Spanish interpretation. Topics included ag business fundamentals; crop planning; growing specific crops; planning, building, and managing a hoophouse; food safety and post-harvest handling; winter production; cover crops; pathogens; CSA shares; farm dreams; farm cooler construction; farm taxes; and organic certification. Some workshops were hands-on and most took place at farms. Eight construction workshops were team efforts to teach how to build hoophouses and farm coolers, some with EQIP cost share. We also supported farmers to attend workshops or tours led by other groups such as: beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, UW School for Beginning Market Growers, and season extension. Interns at Troy Community Farm learned from field work, classes and trips. We funded 10-20 farmers each year to attend educational meetings and conferences, often sending Hmong and Spanish interpreters along. Examples are the Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference, which this project sponsored in 2014, and the MOSES Organic Farming Conference, the largest organic farming conference in North America, where in 2014 we helped organize their first ever workshop held in Hmong, attended by 57 farmers. Goal 2: Create Southern Wisconsin Land Link Five land link events were held by project staff to connect farmers with landowners, and two additional land link events were held in partnership with Fitchburg, a neighboring city. In total, 43 farmers and 25 landowners participated. Staff worked with the UW Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic to create a model farmland lease. From 2012 – 2014 at least 4 farm businesses owned by Hmong and Latino farmers reached agreements and started farming on new leased land that they found through the program, and all 4 are still farming at these sites now. We provided Hmong and Spanish interpretation at the linking events, questionnaires and a model lease, and follow-up staff support. Goal 3: Formalize & Expand Services at the Farley Center Organic Farm Incubator The incubator provided land, shared equipment, marketing support, and intensive business development assistance to 5 - 9 farm businesses each year. In 2014, 7 farm businesses participated in the farm incubator. We created new products to aid management including a procedures manual (also translated into Spanish) that contains business plans, a farm equipment picture index, policy agreements, and organic certification documents. The incubator held monthly farmer meetings to exchange ideas, work together on infrastructure improvements, and for trainings. The trainings were usually farmer-to-farmer, and topics included accepting WIC/SNAP checks at farmers markets, safe farm equipment operation, and preventing tomato blight. Staff met with farmers individually to do business planning, prepare for organic certification, and to do year-end assessments. Staff helped farmers to manage the first CSAs in Wisconsin run by Hmong and Latino farmers, and to complete an umbrella organic certification for the farm incubator in 2014. Goal 4: Build new and improved marketing avenues including launching collaborative CSA The beginning farmers at the Farley Center and other farmers in our network increased their sales dramatically from 2012 - 2014. They grew from selling primarily at small farmers markets to managing large CSAs and using other innovative marketing methods. Beginning in 2011 under earlier BFRDP funding, farmers and staff developed a collaborative marketing model for immigrant farmer CSA businesses. As a result three collaborative ventures were launched: Hmong Toj Siab, Los Jalapeños, and Spring Rose Growers Coop, all socially disadvantaged farmer CSAs. The collaborative CSAs have grown, and in 2014 they had over 150 members for their 20 week season. One of the incubator farmers was the first recent immigrant to be accepted into the local Wisconsin CSA coalition, FairShare, in 2013. In 2011, with support from an earlier BFRDP grant, a Farley Center farmer launched a successful produce stand at a WIC clinic in Madison. Building from this, farmers and project staff worked to develop partnerships with local faith communities and medical facilities to identify potential host sites for farm stands and CSA pick-up sites in 2013 and 2014. Negotiations were successful and by 2014 the incubator farmers had farm stands at 4 medical facilities, and Sunday morning CSA pick-ups at 4 churches. Our funded partner veteran farm sold produce and CSA shares at a VA hospital in 2014. A “Market Share” punch card system of discounted produce sales was started in 2014, and 44 punch cards were sold at $50 each. The farmers and their CSA members benefitted from the Farley Center's negotiated customer rebates with three local Health Maintenance Organizations, a $200 value to CSA members. With press releases, news media stories, radio, TV, CSA newsletters and brochures, we created brand awareness about the Farley Center farmers. Incubator farmers began selling wholesale and to a farm to school program in 2012 and continued through 2014.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: New SEED grant program brings farmers' market produce to Madison public health clinic clients. Article by Nora G. Hertel in The Isthmus, 8/18/2014. http://m.isthmusparents.com/eats/article.php?article=43405&sid=60bf2ff50dcab65dd73e6b6d98f192e1
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gaining Common Ground at the Farley Center Farm Incubator. Article by Keefe Keeley in Edible Madison magazine, Spring 2014. http://ediblemadison.com/articles/view/gaining-common-ground-at-the-farley-center-farm-incubator
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Coming Full Circle: Yee Ythao continues her family's strong farming history at the Farley Center in Verona. Article by Otehlia Cassidy in Madison Magazine, July 23, 2014. http://www.madisonmagazine.com/Madison-Magazine/August-2014/Coming-Full-Circle/
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Small Farm, Small Kitchen - Farley Center / Spring Rose Growers' Coop. Video for Madison Magazine by Otehlia Cassidy, Jul 23, 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkCWWRU-XFs
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Tamaleria El Poblano. Article by Josh Perkins in the Willy Street Co-op Reader, Sept 30, 2014. http://www.willystreet.coop/digest/reader-editions/2014/10/tamaleria-el-poblano
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: A Veterans Journey from Battlefield to Farmfield. Article by Dulanie Ellis, in Edible Madison, July 15, 2014. http://ediblemadison.com/articles/view/a-veterans-journey-from-battlefield-to-farmfield
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Veterans Find Peace on the Farm. Video and article on NBC News channel 15, July 17, 2014. http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Veterans-find-peace-on-the-farm-267599921.html
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Veterans Return to the Field. Article in The Progressive Farmer, August 2014. http://dtnpf-digital.com/publication/?i=218347&p=9 USDA mentioned in article.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Farm offers vocation for returning veterans. Article by Roberta Baumann in the Waunakee Tribune, May 9, 2014. http://www.hngnews.com/waunakee_tribune/news/local/article_6771c1b6-d55d-11e3-b50a-0017a43b2370.html
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Local veterans-run farm turns swords into ploughshares. Article by Rob Thomas in The Cap Times, 7/18/2014. http://host.madison.com/news/local/local-veterans-run-farm-turns-swords-into-ploughshares/article_946eb89d-1396-5e75-8850-8d819bc581fb.html


Progress 02/01/13 to 01/31/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Our target audience includes all aspiring and new farmers within their first ten years of farming. Farmers participating at the incubator, workshops, land link, internships, and conferences are comprised of women and men from Asian American (primarily Hmong), Latino, African American and European Americans ethnic groups. Efforts included formal classroom instruction, hands-on workshops, one-on-one consulting, group discussions, field walks at participants' and other farms, marketing meetings, visits to partner farming organizations, conferences, internships, outreach meetings, and radio, TV and print outreach. Of the nine farmers participating in the farm incubator, seven are socially disadvantaged (77%) and one is a person with a disability. Within the group of 61 farmers who participated in workshops held by the Farley Center, 45 filled out surveys, 42 of which indicated socially disadvantaged status (93%). Changes/Problems: There have been no major changes in approach, but this year we added several new program elements. We were major sponsors of the Immigrant and Minority Farming Conference for the first time. We supported a new series of trainings for beginning CSA farmers through the local CSA coalition in collaboration with Dane County Extension. We are helping a new veteran farming project to launch a vocational rehabilitation program with the VA Hospital. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? We provided technical assistance and training for hundreds of beginning farmers, detailed above, through workshops, internships, farm incubation, land link, marketing support and conferences. Staff and board members also attended the First Nations Food Sovereignty Summit, the National Incubator Farm Training Initiative farm incubator training school, and visited Prairie Crossing Farm Business Development Center and the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We did outreach statewide and then worked directly with beginning farmers throughout WI, detailed above. Project partners help with dissemination, and we held monthly meetings for Farley Center staff and partners Spring Rose Growers Cooperative, WI Dept of Ag, FairShare CSA Coalition, Dane County Extension, and Troy Community Farm. Our curricula, newsletters and other resources are available on our website, www.farleycenter.org . We created many of our written outreach materials in Spanish, and most of our workshops were interpreted into Spanish and Hmong. The educational materials created to publicize our programs for farmers included weekly announcements on Spanish and Hmong language radio programs, flyers, brochures, a website, an exhibit display, two radio interviews aired statewide (one in English, one in Spanish), a Spanish-language TV show (aired twice statewide), two issues of a Spanish language newsletter for farmers (Boletín Agrario Latino), and five magazine /newspaper articles. Distribution continued for six instructional videos in Hmong and Spanish which were filmed at workshops held by this project. Videos were created in 2012 by Spring Rose Growers Cooperative; these have been viewed thousands of times on youtube. The most popular teaches how to build a hoophouse in Spanish and it was viewed over 4000 times. They can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/user/SRGC2013 Outreach methods included radio, newspaper, magazine, TV, web, exhibits at community events, phone, emails and meetings. Our farm incubator served as a case study for NIFTI’s Farm Incubator Toolkit. Materials produced included a farmer training curriculum, Farm Equipment Picture Index, crop plans, cover crop plans, fertility plans, website with training resources, workshop handouts, and an incubator Procedures Manual translated into Spanish. We created a CSA brochure and weekly newsletters. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the remaining months of the project, we will continue serving a wide variety of beginning farmers, with a focus on diverse organic vegetable production for local consumption. Key program elements at our farm incubator hub and beyond are access to farmland, strategies for capitalizing with needed infrastructure and equipment, and innovative marketing approaches. We will continue offering trainings, mentoring and technical assistance in Hmong, Spanish, and English on a variety of topics including hoophouse construction and management, organic certification, equipment safety, and marketing through CSA.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1: Train beginning farmers and reach out to aspiring new farmers statewide We worked with hundreds of farmers, providing one-on-one support and workshops, in eleven counties: La Crosse, Eau Claire, Wausau, Dane, Adams, Green, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Racine, Jefferson and St. Croix. Outreach and education happen at the Farley Center Farm Incubator, at on-farm events throughout WI, at Troy Community Farm, at FairShare CSA Coalition, and at conferences. Our staff and subcontractor partners taught eleven educational workshops in 2013. About 98 farmers attended our workshops and 71 others participated in our tours and open houses. We provided Hmong and Spanish interpretation for the workshops. Workshops were: Plant Pathogen Walk (7/7/2013), Growing Organic Potatoes (8/8/2013), Cover Crops (8/11/2013), Building a Hoophouse (8/4/2013 at Farley Center, 6/21/2013 in Eau Claire, and 7/18/2013 in Chippewa Falls), Planning a Hoophouse (11/9/2013), CSA Crop Planning (1/21/2014 by FairShare CSA Coalition), Designing Your CSA shares (1/14/2014 by FairShare), and the Vegetable Workshop Series: Onions & Lettuce (both 1/20/2014 by FairShare). Evaluations collected indicate that the vast majority of attendees felt they “gained information that will help them enter farming” and “will improve their farming business”. We also supported farmers’ attendance to nine other workshops, including sending our outreach staff to provide interpretation in Hmong and Spanish. The workshops were: Post Harvest Handling, Food Safety, the three-day UW School for Beginning Market Growers, Ag Business Fundamentals, Farm Dreams, Beekeeping, Mushroom Cultivation, a tour of high tunnel production, and a field day on season extension. In 2013, 14 interns worked 200-300 hours each at Troy Community Farm. The internship program is the preeminent hands-on training program in our region for beginning vegetable farmers. Interns learn through lessons in the field, formal classes, weekly field walks, field trips to other area farms, written training materials, and hands-on work. Many former farm interns now run their own farms and work in management positions at other local farms. In January 2014, we were major sponsors of the premier event for socially disadvantaged farmers in our region – the Immigrant and Minority Farming Conference in Minnesota. A video summary is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZdQzWaGy4&feature=youtu.be. There were 160 conference attendees. Over half of the farmers in attendance were Hmong, and another 44% of attendees were socially disadvantaged farmers, including Hmong, Latino, Bhutanese, Nepalese and Somali. We supported travel and lodging for WI farmers to attend this conference and the MOSES Organic Conference. Our outreach staff helped a Hmong farm family achieve organic certification, the second Hmong growers in WI to do so. We worked with NRCS staff and a technical college in Eau Claire on hoophouse workshops, and worked with Hmong farmers with EQIP cost share. Our staff helped to lead a training for Extension agents to learn to work with Hmong farmers. Goal 2: Create Southern WI Land Link Two events were held to connect farmers with land owners, and project staff partnered with Fitchburg, a neighboring city, to host two more land link events. A total of 38 farmers and 20 landowners participated. We provide Hmong and Spanish interpretation at the linking events, questionnaires and model leases, and follow-up staff support. Goal 3: Formalize & Expand Services at the Farley Center Organic Farm Incubator During 2013, the farm incubator provided intensive business development assistance to nine farm businesses. The farmers are from Hmong, Latino, African American and Euro-American ethnic groups and include a person with a disability. At an event to reflect on the year together, the farmers spoke of their gratitude and expressed pride that they had applied for organic certification. One farmer explained that she has learned from the other farmers from different cultural backgrounds. Another said the highlight of the season was time spent together with the other farmers building a hoophouse. Several mentioned that they have learned to use the tractor and implements, so they are now producing more food with less effort. The incubator held monthly farmer meetings, each with training elements, for instance training to accept WIC/SNAP checks at farmers markets and safe farm equipment operation. Staff helped the farmers prepare an application for organic certification, create business plans, and do individual year-end assessments. Farmers and staff researched and prioritized farm infrastructure needs, then made improvements. Farmers hosted four open houses -- for CSA customers, veterans, area farmers and Bhutanese refugees. Two new farm businesses were admitted to the incubator for 2014, led by Thai and Latino beginning farmers. Goal 4: Build new and improved marketing avenues including launching collaborative CSA We facilitated marketing for two CSAs (Spring Rose Growers Cooperative and Los Jalapeños) which provide profitable new markets for socially disadvantaged farmers at the incubator and in the region. Together they recruited 100 members and had ten pick-up sites in Madison in 2013. Farmers and staff built on the success of our WIC clinic farm stand, now in its third year, to open new farm stands at two hospitals in 2013. We approached more hospitals and also churches, and for the 2014 season our farm incubator will support farm stands and CSA pickup sites at four medical facilities and four churches. One Latino farmer in our incubator was accepted into FairShare, the regional CSA Coalition. He is the first recent immigrant farmer in that organization of 50 CSA farms. Incubator farmers also sold produce at area farmers markets and wholesale in 2013.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Finding Fields of Green: Open House to Show Recent Veterans and Aspiring Farmers Opportunities in Agriculture" article in Agriview newspaper, Aug 28, 2013 http://www.agriview.com/briefs/regional/finding-fields-of-green-open-house-to-show-recent-veterans/article_916883fa-522e-5fc8-93fd-41751fdc6c40.html
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Case study of the Farley Center Farm Incubator, included in the Farm Incubator Toolkit for NIFTI. http://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/food-systems/national-incubator-farm-training-initiative.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: "The Farley Center helps farmers of color market produce and even go organic" article in The Isthmus newspaper, Madison, 1/31/2013. http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=38964
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Farmer Startups? How Incubators Are Helping Small, Sustainable Farms Take Off." in Yes! Magazine, Sept. 11, 2013. http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/farmer-startups-how-incubators-are-helping-small-sustainable-farms-take-off
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: July 2013: "Quieres ser Agricultor? Te Presentamos Una Granja de Ensenanza de Agricultura Organica ed Wisconsin. (Want to be a farmer? Heres a farm teaching organic agriculture in Wisconsin)" article in the Spanish language newsletter La Voz de Beloit.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Oct. 24, 2013. La Comunidad News: Announcement in Madison Spanish-language newspaper of beginning farmer services at the Farley Center Farm Incubator.


Progress 02/01/12 to 01/31/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Farmers participating in the Gaining Ground project are comprised of women and men from Hmong, Latino, Native American, African American and European Americans ethnic groups. One of the incubator participants is disabled. Efforts included formal classroom instruction, hands-on workshops, one-on-one consulting, group discussions, field walks at participants’ and other farms, marketing meetings, visits to partner farming organizations, attendance at conferences, outreach meetings, radio and print outreach. Of the eight farmers participating in the farm incubator, six are socially disadvantaged (75%) Within the group of 54 farmers who participated in workshops held by the Farley Center, 29 filled out surveys, 27 of which indicated socially disadvantaged status (93%). Changes/Problems: Some staff changes occurred in 2012 and the new staff, as in the initial year, is also comprised of people with cross cultural competency including people who are bi-lingual and bi-cultural. New staff arrangements created two part-time positions in place of the previous education and outreach facilitator who was also farm manager. This has allowed one position to be focused on statewide work, and another to center on farm management at the incubator and to be available to work with the incubator farmers on a regular basis. Current staff are taking advantage of the impressive outreach efforts and training products created by staff in the previous year as they continue to reach out to and train aspiring immigrant farmers in other parts of the state. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Gaining Ground staff extended training to the far reaches of the state in 2012, initiated collaboration with a tribal community, produced more training videos for Hmong and Spanish speaking farmers, and started a collaborative marketing model for immigrant farmer CSA businesses. Gaining Ground outreach brought dozens of new farmers and aspiring farmers statewide into our network, taught 6 workshops for farmers, provided intensive business development assistance for5 farm businesses at the farm incubator, and maintained a land link program that introduces farmland owners to farmers. Expanding Training Beyond Madison Area: Meetings and workshops were held with Hmong community members in Eau Claire, La Crosse, and Milwaukee, and with the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of the Ojibwe in Hayward. Hands-on trainings in how to build a hoophouse were held in all four locations. Materials were supplied by the host groups. Staff met with community members and Hmong organization leaders in Milwaukee, Eau Claire, and La Crosse. Staff members were asked to produce technical workshops for each group on topics such as hoophouse and cooler construction and developing a cooperative CSA. With partners from University of Minnesota Extension, La Crosse farmers learned about food safety and related topics. Other opportunities for training and professional development occured during the workshops, planning meetings, and one-on-one interviews with farmers in the project, detailed in the products section. Farmers and staff made training visits to Jordan Seeds, Farmers Legal Action Group (FLAG), the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota, and Fondy Food Center in Milwaukee. Farmers attended the MOSES Organic Conference and the Immigrant and Minority Farming Conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Summary of Dissemination Strategies in Year 2 Goal 1: Provide Linguistically and Culturally Appropriate Outreach and Education The materials we produced to publicize our programs and recruit farmers included 6 flyers, a brochure, a website, an exhibit display for meetings, and also 1 radio news spot,and 5 newspaper andmagazinestories about our efforts. As part of our educational work we produced 6 workshops in Madison, LaCrosse, Eau Claire, and Hayward, Wisconsin, which included handouts designed for each. We also assisted Spring Rose Growers Cooperative in thedissemination of 6 training videosfilmed at our workshops,andin production and dissemination of 14 radio segments in Hmong and Spanish on organic certification, composting, planting, and other aspects of farming and marketing. Goal 2:’Land Link Project’ to develop program to give farmers access to farmland In order to publicize our Land Link Program to farmers and landowners we issued a press release and widely disseminated flyers in Spanish, Hmong and English in grocery stores, laundromats, educational facilities and other places. We also created a model lease and a landowner questionnaire. We held 1 meeting to link landowners and farmers, and held 6 meetings with individual landowners to negotiate rental terms. Goal 3: ‘Farm Incubator ‘ to help provide a hub of support to 13 farmers and to provide land Our outreach strategies to communities of interest (particularly farmers) for the farm incubator included a flyer and program brochure as well as three newsmedia stories in different news and information outlets. Materials produced to run the program included an application form and interview sheet, policy agreements (memorandums of understanding, contracts, leases), a business plan template, a farmer self-evaluation form, 3 issues of a newsletter for farmers (English & Spanish), and a whole farm irrigation plan. In addition we held 9 training sessions, made 4 educational visits (to Jordan Seeds, FLAG, AAWN and Fondy Food Center farm incubators) and attended two conferences (MOSES, Immigrant and Minority Farming Conference). Goal 4: Organize innovative marketing programs Personal contacts were made to publicize and recruit farmers, either by phone, in person, at a workshop, event, or meeting. We held 7 meetings or round table discussions to talk about marketing, new venues and newproducts. We helped create14 radio segments and 6 videos.We were covered in6 newsmedia stories,issued 1 press release, and created 1 CSA farms brochure and 2 CSA newslettersfor shareholders (20 issues each). We also created 2 shareholder surveys, an online ordering system and negotiated customer rebates with 3 different HMOs in the Madison area. New sales outlets included wholesale deliveries, sales through Farm to School program, and the WIC FMNP coupon redemption. Goal 5: Expand training and outreach beyond Madison Reaching out beyond Madison we held 3 workshops, in La Crosse, Hayward and Eau Claire Wisconsin, held one roundtable discussion at Fondy Farm, held a meeting to provide farmer assistance with EQIP applications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Gaining Ground project staff will continue to work on project goals for 2013-2014. Training and professional development opportunities for aspiring new farmers statewide will be offered in other parts of Wisconsin through linguistically-appropriate workshops, internships, mentoring, farm visits, radio segments, and video for off-season training to assure that beginning farmers have support for production and management strategies that are safe, ecologically sustainable and profitable. We will also work with existing providers, such as University of Wisconsin extension in order to support their efforts at culturaly appropriate outreach and training to immigrant farmers. We will continue to work with partner organizations in order to facilitate the transfer of information and learning tosimilar groups involved in beginning farmer and rancher programs, including the dissemination of the6 training videos and14 radio segments producedby Spring Rose Growers Cooperative with our assistance. We will continue to develop Southern Wisconsin Land Link by holding public events that orient landowners and farmers to the opportunities and suggest successful strategies for communication and shared responsibility. We will also engage in facilitating some leasing arrangements, involving informal training for both farmers and land owners in good communication and the range of possibilities for leases. At the Farley Center Organic Farm Incubator we will continue to offer trainings for farmers, as well as to provide the land and infrastrucutre necessary to build a viable farm business. We will also continue to seek new and improved marketing strategies as sustainable, profitable options for beginning growers, including farmers markets, the collaborative CSA, umbrella organic certification, as well as one-on-one support for better links to profitable farmers markets, restaurants, and institutional buyers.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During the second year, Gaining Ground staff completed a large amount of work. Staff built upon relationships made in year one to continue meeting the goals of the project. During a ‘Circle of Thanks’ event in fall, 2012, farmers and staff expressed their thanks for the land - its beauty, fertility, and availability; the community - continued learning, everyone's hard work, and the support. In another meeting, people spoke about how farm profit is only one of the outcomes of the project. Growing food for one’s community gives pride, cultural continuity, health, happiness, and relaxation. The project has four areas of focus: outreach and education, land link, farm incubator, and marketing. During 2012 an additional emphasis was initiated to expand training and outreach beyond the original area of Madison WI. Gaining Ground farmers made their first wholesale sales in 2012 and also their first sales through a Farm to School program. Immigrant farmers who have stayed with the program in the second year had the confidence and opportunity to share their perspective with USDA staff. Participants who attended regional conferences saw themselves as part of a broader movement. Outreach methods included radio, newspaper articles, visits to churches, community events, planned meetings, and direct contacts. Outputs included radio segments, print media, flyers, video, and notes from meetings. Outreach to current and potential partners was provided by individual direct contacts and in groups with farmers at events. Approximately 65 farmers total attended our events (6 workshops) as well as 2 partner-hosted workshops, and all of the 33 workshop evaluations collected indicate that attendees felt they "gained information that will help them enter farming" and "will improve their farming business". This information includes new methods, techniques, and skills. Eleven evaluations from Land Link events reflect that participants gained information that will help them find farmers to share their land. Between 3-6 farmers gained access to land shared by others. Six farmers who started a collaborative CSA expanded the number of shareholders served. One of the two CSAs (Los Jalapeños) doubled in size. The other (Hmong Toj Siab) also expanded. Both included weekly newsletters for shareholders. New collaborations were started with nonprofits and government agencies and existing collaborations strengthened. Access to farmland was increased with both the land link project and the farm incubator project. Linguistically and Culturally Appropriate Outreach and Education: We held six educational workshops in late winter and spring. Several workshops included handouts. About 54 farmers participated. Workshops included: Crop Planning 2/9/2012 led by the farmer at Troy Community Farm, one of Gaining Ground’s partners (4 participants), Greenhouse Production 3/28/2012 led by same presenter, (6 participants), Cover Crops 4/10/2012, (5 participants and 2 interpreters), and three Hoophouse Building workshops led by a Gaining Ground staff member 4/15/2012, 4/29/2012, and 5/12/2012. The hoophouse building workshops were given in different locations throughout Wisconsin and provided hands-on training to a Hmong community at the Fondy Food Center in Milwaukee, a Hmong clan farm community near La Crosse, and members of the tribal community college of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of the Ojibwe in Hayward. Forty nine farmers learned how to construct a hoophouse. Educational materials produced included workshop handouts, video and radio features. Our staff assistedtheSpring Rose Growers Cooperative (supported bya USDA Rural Development grant) todisseminate6 detailed farmer training videos,inHmong andSpanish; two of the video werefilmed at workshopstaught with BFRDP funding. Our staff also assisted Spring Rose Co-op staffin the production of fourteen radio segmentsin Hmong and Spanish, aired on WORT-FM during Spanish and Hmong language programs. Educational Conferences and Visits: In February 2012, farmers and staff traveled to Minnesota to attend the Immigrant and Minority Farming Conference, meet with the Farmers Legal Action Group (FLAG), and Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women, and tour Jordan Seed Company. They participated in a listening session with USDA staff from Washington. Farmers and their mentors attended the MOSES Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse. Each trip included 4-6 farmers and 2-3 staff. Several farmers also attended a workshop on postharvest handling given by one of our partner organizations, the WI Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, and the three-day University of WI School for Beginning Market Growers. Land Link Project: One event was held to connect farmers with people who own land in spring 2012, and 5 farmers and 5 landowners participated. Staff worked with UW Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic to revise a model lease. Two incubator farmers started farming on land belonging to another large landowner, in effect ‘graduating’ from the incubator program to a new agreement on leased land. Farm Incubator Project: Meetings were held to support the 5 farm businesses at the Farley Center in 2012. They are comprised of men and women from Hmong, Latino, and Euro-American ethnic groups and also include a person who is retired from civilian service for the Navy who has a disability. New products include a whole farm irrigation plan and tools to improve communication among farmers such as monthly newsletters in English and Spanish, mailboxes and a chalkboard. Organizational and facilities improvements were also made to the cooler and packing area. Soil was improved with cover crops, manure and compost. Five new growers applied to the farm incubator and all were accepted for the 2013 growing season. Innovative Marketing Programs: A collaborative marketing campaign was started to aid the four new CSA businesses started by Gaining Ground farmers, who in 2012 grew and delivered CSA shares of produce for a combined total of 60 member families. The Hmong Toj Siab CSA and Los Jalapeños Collaborative CSA each had successful seasons in 2012, running for 20 weeks with pick up locations at two churches. Los Jalapeños more than doubled their membership in their second year. A farmer continued to sell produce at a produce stand at a WIC clinic in a low income food desert neighborhood, and redeemed WIC SNAP produce coupons from WIC participants. In 2012, Gaining Ground farmers sold their first wholesale produce and made their first sales to a local Farm to School program. CSA farmers wrote newsletters for shareholders. The farmers and their customers benefitted from the Farley Center’s negotiated customer rebates with three local Health Maintenance Organizations, which give $200 rebates to CSA members. Farmers and staff met with community groups and entrepreneurs to discuss value added products (salsa, fermented Hmong mustard greens), Fresh Mobile sales, and other marketing opportunities. One farmer created a niche market by teaching customers how to use Mexican vegetables new to them and which he originally grew for his family. Some unexpected outcomes of the project include a new catering business started by the sister of one of the incubator farmers. She uses produce from the farm to offer Mexican food. Another farmer created a niche market by teaching customers to use vegetables which were new to them. Staff helped guide 2 minority farmers in the Spring Rose Co-op to secure EQIP cost sharing contracts to build hoophouses which were constructed communally during training workshops. FSA staff discussed possible ways that farmers who participate in Gaining Ground training could more easily gain approval for new FSA microloans.

Publications

  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: "Looking for Farmland? Land Link farmer speed dating." WORT RADIO In Our Backyard local news 12/7/2012
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: "Growing Future Farmers" article by Erik Ness in the spring issue of Grow Magazine.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Wisconsin Hmong Farmers Certified." by Mark Geistlinger in the June/July issue of The Organic Cultivator, newsletter of the Midwest Organic Services Association.