Friends

My weekend was a lot of fun.  Two of my college friends stopped by on their way west.  We explored the Great Sand Dunes National Park, which was very different.  The park has a lot more to it than the continents largest sand dunes, but we met late in the day and didn't have enough time to explore much more than the dunes.  I am so happy and grateful that they decided to go out of their way to see me and the Valley.  These friends of mine are also young agrarians.  They're moving west in search of farm jobs, ideally, livestock positions.

We sat around dreaming of our future operations, but realized that to get to that point we need more hands-on experience.  Not only around raising different types of livestock or crops, but also learning how to run a small business.  We dreamed of a full-diet CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and joint ownership of equipment and resources.  We all are striving for different enterprises that, if combined, could work well together to form a full-diet CSA.

We can dream big, but without opportunities like mine, it is very hard for young agrarians (more so for ones who wish to work with livestock) to gain the necessary business and land management skills to run a sustainable and profitable operation.  Another issue of being young and with little money in the bank, is that many farmers and ranchers can't afford to pay an intern or apprentice a living wage.  A wage that can also help them pay their car payments, insurances, loans, etc.  Without a living wage many potential agrarians have to either choose another career path or put their dreams on hold till (if they are ever able) to follow down the path of growing food. 

So where are the funders?  With the average age of farmers in America being 55 years and rising, we as a nation should be concerned about the vitality of the American food system and safety.  I don't know about you, but I do not want a GPS run tractor to know the ground better than the tractor operator sitting in his/her tractor cab.

Read more about farming demographic here