{"id":127083,"date":"2017-06-20T07:25:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T11:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=127083"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:18:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:18:59","slug":"next-generation-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/06\/next-generation-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Generation of Farming"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you thought farming was dead, consider this. The three-year-old Modern Farmer <\/em>magazine has a digital reach well beyond a million and some 100,000 print subscribers. If you Google \u201chow to start a farm,\u201d you get more than 3 million hits. And at UConn\u2019s College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources (CAHNR), enrollment has risen more than 50 percent in the past decade.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that a lot has happened since the Storrs Agricultural School was founded in 1881. For one, women were officially admitted in 1893 (there was a department of home economics) and in that same year the school \u2013 by then the Storrs Agricultural College \u2013 was granted land-grant status under the auspices of the Morrill Act, which had been passed by the U.S. Congress in 1863 to promote the teaching of practical agriculture, science, military science, and engineering.<\/p>\n

Today, UConn is one of 106 land grant colleges and universities that produce outstanding agriculture scientists and teachers; that lead in the study of biotechnology; and that have made countless advancements in scientific research in animal sciences, horticulture, nutrition, agricultural economics, environmental sustainability, and more. In Connecticut alone, the annual economic impact of agriculture, commercial fishing, forestry, and related businesses is about $4.8 billion dollars.<\/p>\n

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While food production has benefited from the technology revolution, people\u2019s greatest satisfaction still appears to come from being intimately connected with the land — Cameron Faustman<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Still, why this remarkable surge in applicants? Cameron Faustman \u201982 (CAHNR), interim dean and director of CAHNR, says that in his 28 years on the faculty at UConn he\u2019s seen a real evolution in the way students relate to the environment. Current students have dramatically more interest in being directly involved with local food systems. They have a curiosity about where food comes from, and a genuine commitment to sustainable food production out of concern for the environment. He also believes that some of this interest comes from \u201cquite frankly, the birth and growth of the Food Channel.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the one constant Faustman sees in UConn students who are choosing careers in agriculture these days is a serious commitment to the environment.<\/p>\n

The New Faces of Farming<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At UConn\u2019s Spring Valley Farm, students grow vegetables to sell to the community. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the time-honored model of passing on the 100-acre family farm from one generation to the next has continued to fade, in its place is a new face of agriculture. These days you\u2019re just as likely to see a beginning farmer on a smartphone or laptop as seated on a tractor. And locally, the harvest varies from traditional crops such as potatoes, apples, and milk to products like honey and goat cheese, maple syrup, and eggs from heirloom poultry.<\/p>\n

Faustman says enrollment in CAHNR has continued to prosper, even as the number of students following a traditional route to family farming has declined. \u201cStudents come to us to study natural resources because they are interested in the environment, and they end up becoming backyard vegetable farmers as a hobby because that\u2019s a personal way of living a sustainable lifestyle. They come to us to study the biochemistry behind food production. They may be pre-vet students whose ultimate goal is working in the pharmaceutical industry. They may study soil science and put their knowledge of chemistry to use to develop lawn care products that are safe for the environment. There\u2019s no simple answer to why students come to us, except to say that much of what we do is interwoven with the things they are already committed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

How someone defines farming, says Faustman, is up to the individual; the paths that eventually lead to agriculture \u2013 either as a vocation or an avocation \u2013 are as varied as the people making the journey. \u201cWhile food production has benefited from the technology revolution,\u201d he says, \u201cpeople\u2019s greatest satisfaction still appears to come from being intimately connected with the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many CAHNR students join the learning community EcoHouse, which provides a culture of sustainability for students who are passionate about environmental issues. A select group of students have the opportunity to live at the student-run Spring Valley Farm, which is a collaboration among EcoHouse and First Year Programs, Dining Services, Residential Life, CAHNR, the Office of Environmental Policy, and the Office of Public Engagement \u2013 a true cooperative where students sell the produce they grow to the community. Many who live there do so because they do not come from families or communities that farmed, and this is their first taste of the real thing.<\/p>\n

More and more, farming is being done by young people and not-so-young people with no prior experience in agriculture \u2013 folks with a desire to get out from behind a desk and into the fresh air. They believe in a quality of life that includes caring about the environment. They want to be self-sufficient and give back to the planet \u2013 more than they take from it.<\/p>\n

With sustainability as their mantra, these beginning farmers embrace the high-tech alongside the low-tech, using digital irrigation systems and advanced hydroponics to grow the strawberries, melons, and lettuce they place in crates and cart in pickups to the neighborhood farmers market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a market for all types of ethnic foods\u00a0\u2013 from bok choy to lemongrass and okra to tofu made from organic soy beans\u00a0\u2013 that we\u2019re beginning to see at farmers markets everywhere,\u201d says Faustman. It helps counteract the inherent challenge of farming in a place like New England, where land is at a premium and populations are dense. \u201cIf a new farmer can find a particular niche, then high demand can make up for less land and lower production,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Finding land is one of the biggest challenges in starting out in farming without a family farm to take over. But there are many more. UConn’s Department of Extension has a series of programs aimed at helping new farmers overcome those hardships.<\/p>\n

A Leg Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Say you\u2019re not a CAHNR graduate; you\u2019re simply one of those people who has strolled through your local farmers market and picked up some sun-ripened tomatoes. Goat cheese. A couple of pints of low bush blueberries, and a homemade biscuit for your dog. And as you pulled your car onto the road, you thought to yourself, \u201cI could do that! I could grow vegetables, set up a roadside stand, maybe buy some dairy goats and make cheese. I could quit my desk job and get close to the land, maybe even live off the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n