My Experience At California's Soil Born Farms - A Peak Into An Organic Urban Farm
This past week I attended the Inaugural Farm Tank Summit in Sacramento, CA. It was a two day long summit focusing on the future of food and agriculture. The first day ran from 9am-5pm with keynote speakers and 5 different 1.5 hour long panels. The panels included Food Transparency, Food Tech, Infrastructure, Food Business, and Sustainable Protein.
The second day ran from 8am-4pm and we were able to choose a "track" to have some hands-on exploration. @victor-lucas and I chose the "Urban Farms" track. We spent the day touring 4 different urban farms, learning the various possibilities of merging agriculture with city life.
The first farm we visited was "Soil Born Farms" - an urban agriculture and education project. I was absolutely blown away by this farm and want to take you on a virtual tour.
The Farm Setup
Soil Born Farms is located on the American River and encompasses 55 acres (okay maybe it's a suburban farm). The land is actually owned by Sacramento County and is leased to Soil Born Farms. The land is nestled around urban development on one side and the river on the other side. In the distance, you can see the beautiful forest line that separates the western flatlands of California from the Sierra mountain range. And guess what?? They have access to the water from the American River! If you are not familiar with Calfornia's drought and scarcity of water, that access is huge!
Farming for the Youth
The Homeschool program
I think what amazed me most was their youth programs. Soil Born Farms produces a large amount of organic produce for the local community, but they also run a large and impressive education program. When we were on the tour I saw a group of 20 kids running around the "kids zone". They were a homeschool group that came every week for hands-on learning. I saw these kids running around and then planting seeds and I thought to myself - "I want to be 10 years old again with these opportunities!"
The Fieldtrip Program
For kids who are enrolled in school, they have many other opportunities as well. Educators can sign their students up for a one-time field trip, a four-part field trip package, or a ten-part field trip package. In their online description describing the four-part package they write:
"Four themed field trips (ranch or creek-based), ongoing service projects, healthy snacks, nature explorations, organic gardening, native plant propagation, river walks, guest speakers, youth-adult partnerships, and lessons relevant to agriculture and the environment in our bioregion."
They also have daytime summer camps where the kids go through the whole cycle - learning how to plant, weed, harvest, cook, and compost.
Apprenticeships
Soil Born Farms also integrates multiple apprenticeship programs into their farm. Our tour guide mentioned that they set their programs up to create a ladder of education that kids can climb up. The kids can start in their field trip programs, then apply to their junior apprenticeship program, then their first year apprenticeship program, then their advanced second year apprenticeship program. Their main program, the first year apprenticeship program, is 8 months long. The apprentices work full time along with 5-7 other young adults. The website states:
" Although most of the time is spent working directly with food production, apprentices also have the opportunity to work within the context of Soil Born Farms’ Education and Food Access programs. This blend of technical training, experiential field work, and community engagement makes our program a unique and powerful experience for all participants."
Why are these educational and apprenticeship programs so important?
Because...the average age of a farmer in the U.S. is 58 years old. Who is going to grow our food in the future??
The programs that Soil Born Farms offers are creating our future farmers. A country cannot exist without food. A country cannot exist without farmers. Many of these apprentices are first-generation farmers. What does that mean? They are largely young adults who grew up in an urban environment, who's parents worked office jobs. They did not grow up on a farm and did not have farmer relatives to teach them the trade. Soil Born Farms is providing that hands-on educational space for a dying art in the young generation.
Yes, I believe farming is art - because food is an aesthetic experience that deeply connects us to and shapes our culture, and because working the land for food is a process of creation.
The Animals
On our tour, we were greeted by many chickens and pigs. I found this part of the tour to be crucial. The tour guide explained that we are often so disconnected from our meat because we never see live pigs, cows, or chickens up close. While it may be uncomfortable to look our future dinner in the eyes, it provides a valuable connection to our food. The pig in the photo above will be slaughtered and sent to a local restaurant to be offered as dinner.
Another important point that our tour guide made is how integral animals are to a farm. The pigs and chickens eat the grass that would otherwise be overgrown, and then they poop out the richest fertilizer. In fact, on the farm they move the chicken fence around each day to target different trees in the orchid. The chickens pick around the base of the tree for bugs and then their poop provides nutrient rich fertilizer for the trees that will later produce juicy peaches for us to eat! I have 6 chickens at home and hope to get pigs for the future.
The Community
Sunday Markets
Soil Born Farms is very community oriented, and I think that is my favorite part about urban farms. They are close enough to a critical mass of people that they are able to be integrated into the larger community. Pictured above is a large amitheater that they created for community gatherings. Additionally, they have weekly Sunday markets where they sell their produce out of their barn. At the market they also provide a free yoga class, live music, and drinks. It is truely a family fun experience that is open to all.
Volunteer Programs
They have a great volunteer program as well that is open to any one in the community that just wants to dig their hands in the soil. This program is flexible and it can be short term or long term. They have a long term work exchange program which I was really inspired by. Their work exchangers farm for 4 hours per week, and in exchange they recieve a box of organic produce each week. They also have a culinary arts team that offers cooking demos and workshops to the community, prepares farm-to-fork meals for staff visitors, and offers seasonal wellness days.
Food Access For All
They also highly believe in food justice. They work hard to provide organic produce to families who otherwise would not be able to afford healthy food. They accept SNAP food stamps (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). They also send out mailers to the local community with coupons for huge discounts off of their produce boxes. They offer a CSA box that contains fruits and veggies at a reasonable price because there are no intermediary sellers.
What an inspirational farm! I had a beautiful time seeing where my food comes from and meeting the future producers of this delicious, organic food. Eat Real Food! :-)
Wow!
Fantastic post!
I thrilled to see such a comprehensive and sustainable post.
Obviously its important NOW to begin eating, buying and of course growing local, sustainable and healthy food. This is a major that needs to be integrated much more.
Yet like you, what I also loved most about this post, is the education.
I think about the current education system and I am so saddened by how insufficient it is for a healthy, happy, empowered and sustainable life.
I see all the problems of the world beginning with parenting/education and thus all the solutions lie in new parenting/education.
If children were to grow up the knowledge to take care of them selfs they would not be defendants/slaves.
With todays technology and resources it is actually very easy with proper knowledge to live a happy, healthy and abundant life without having a job or being dependent on a system.
I hope this post is one of many more to come and topics like this become normal instead of rare.
Blessings~*~
Yes definitely! The future lies in education and how we raise the next generation.
The solutions will be found in the future of our children, and their children, and their children. The problem is that we've been stuck in a cycle of dependency on an unhealthy system, and as always...how do you break out of the cycle?
Exactly~
Ultimately the only thing we can change is our self. We have to make a choice and dedicate our self to it to be the change and start a new cycle.
The more we embody that and succeed the more it will inspire others.
Bam!
This is a great post. I live in a rural part of San Diego with lots of farms and horses. Our main high school has an emphasis on agriculture. Exactly what you said, "Who is going to grow our food in the future". Previously I ran a STEM program and taught kids how to build robots and program arduino. I had a really smart guy that worked for me part time that had degree in Aerospace engineering. He couldn't find a full time job anywhere else. I was realizing that there maybe too many engineers, computer programmers, etc... graduating and not enough workers willing to figure out how to keep this world sustainable. I also visited Nebraska this summer. I learned from my in laws that the family farms are becoming extinct. All these farming towns use to be flourishing and now they are turning into ghost towns. All the kids after graduation wanna leave and move to the city.
That's awesome that the high school focuses on agriculture! It's so rare to find youth education in agriculture these days.
That's really interesting about the STEM program. I think there will be a huge intersection between technology and agriculture in the coming years and a lot of tech/agro jobs. I also think there has been a false binary between farm technology and sustainable agriculture and that there is a huge potential for technology to foster sustainable agriculture.
I think you got something there. I just hope those graduating in those fields use their talents for as you describe vs. going after the big bucks and working at Monsanto. Although, I worked in the lab and there was never real big bucks as a scientist, you did it for the love of science. A common joke in the lab we had was that a PhD is just a "poor house doctor". Have a nice weekend!
excellent post, beautiful photographs, good work being done by congratulations
Thanks!
That is a great idea! I like the tiered training idea and the homeschooling and volunteer programs. A few more of these and no more starvation. Great work! Inspired me as a hack suburban farmer that I am.
Yes I love the apprenticeship and homeschooling programs as well! Great to hear that it inspired you, it inspired me as well :-)
Now that would be an awesome place for a fieldtrip! Anything that allows kids to learn the things that schools don't teach anymore, is incredibly important.
I did not even know these existed! Thanks for sharing. It is eye opening that the average farmer is 58 years old... we need to be raising up farmers! :)
Yes, that was new info for me as well and very eye opening!
Old school organic fruit and veg. I have a vegetable patch in my garden where I grow all types of freshly grown produce. If only this could be the norm for us all to eat such great tasting healthy food.
Beautiful photos and intelligently written article. Great to see your posts everytime, @anwenbaumeister.
That's awesome that you're growing your own veggies! Yes - it's crazy that it is not the norm anymore...how did we get to a place where it is a luxury to eat real food??
Thanks so much for your feedback :-)
I would love to do something like this as I'm tryingto change all of my eating habits away from processed crap to fruits and veg.
Awesome! I hope you are able to change those habits or start a little produce garden for yourself :-)
This is a truly amazing initiative that more communities need to adopt.
When I lived in New York, rural NY, no less, there were neighborhoods where people would get severely fined for growing food in their own back yard! How ridiculous!
That's insane! How are we living in a world where you can't grow your own food in your backyard?!
Kids actually loves gardening. At the kindergarten in my village, they have a small garden where children grows several types of vegetables. They really do enjoy it, learn to respect nature, etc... And it is so great to be able to eat what ones 'creates' from scratch.
That's great to hear! Yes, I remember gardening at my school when I was younger and we all loved to get out of the classroom and get dirty and move around outside. Hopefully this kind of education expands to more schools!