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(A work in progress)
Preamble
As farmers get older, they start thinking about what is going to happen to the living farms they have worked a good part of their lives to create. Traditionally, many farmers passed their farms on to their offspring, but today many farm-raised children want nothing to do with the farming life. This leaves many working farms without a discernable future as a farm. Many farmers sell their farms to developers who break it up into house lots, and the land moves out of farming permanently. This provides the farmer with money for retirement, but at the cost of liquidating a life's work. Meanwhile the community loses precious farmland.
At the same time many younger people unrelated to farmers would like to become farmers themselves, but the lack of know-how and/or the capital necessary for starting a farm.
This plan attempts to address these two dilemmas simultaneously by allowing a farmer to transition out of full time farming at their own pace while keeping the farm intact, and by suggesting routes into farming for younger people eager to farm. It is targeted at the small vegetable farmer, because that is who we are.
Young people are assumed to be those under 40. Any farmers over 50 ought to be thinking about retirement, since instituting a transition plan may take up to a decade. Beginning the process during the last year or two of active farming is courting trouble with finding the right person and transitioning properly.
Farming is a way of life, an agrarian culture, a style of living which few of our increasingly urban society can appreciate. The astute farmer sees that preserving their own farm into the future is also preserving farming.
Impediments for the want-to-be farmer.
Young people who are not already in a farming family have many stumbling blocks to overcome in order to start farming. Some of these include:
Part One: Reducing the market value of the farm land.
In order to transfer ownership of a farm to young farmers, the market price of the farm land---which most often has little to do with it's value as a farm---needs to be lowered.
Their are existing land trusts which hope to be able to purchase development rights to farms from willing farmers. What are development rights? When one owns a piece of property, there are many rights which come with it, such as mineral and water rights, privacy rights, etc. One of these is the right to develop the property, such as by breaking it up into houselots. It is possible, however, to sell not the whole bundle of rights that come with any property, but only some of those rights. A Conservation Easement could, for example, allow a property to be used only for farming. The right to subdivide or develop a property can be sold by the property owner to another party---possibly a Land Trust---which would purchase this right for the purpose of holding onto it to prevent the land from being developed. The market value of the land is now decreased because it does not come with a full complement of rights. The farmer is paid the difference, and has now been partially paid for the farm by simply agreeing to keep it in farming, which is what was wanted anyway.
Finding a willing land trust or other entity to purchase our development rights and negotiating such an agreement is a chore we still have ahead of us. One thought we have had is to offer our customers the opportunity to purchase shares of our development rights.
Part Two: Who will be farming here after we are gone?
Slowing down is part of growing older. While many farming operations can be cut back to some degree, there comes a point where any further cut backs result in a quantum reduction in farm viability. Thus many farmers reach the point where they either force themselves to keep going full tilt until they drop, or give up and stop farming altogether.
The preferred choice, however, is to do neither, but to slowly shift the work onto a new farming generation who are gradually learning the ropes from the old farmers, and who will continue the old farm while weaving in their own personalities and preferences.
On an intergenerational family farm, this preferred choice is the norm. However, a plan which doesn't use family ties is called for on farms without farming offspring. This includes both farms without offspring and farms whose offspring have chosen not to carry on the farm.
There is a bit of folk wisdom that says the desire to farm skips a generation. This means that children of a farming family often do not want to farm. The glamour of the outside world with its many opportunities call them away from the family farm. On the other hand, children who have grown up amidst the glitz and alienation rampant in the world of selling your labor for cash are prime candidates for a wanting to live a more authentic way of life. Therefore we who live such lives are not only models for their dreams, but can be magnets for their lives, if only we had a plan to integrate them into our farms.
As small organic farmers, we have created a way of life where many of the barriers to finding people to carry on simply disappear. We are not a vegetable factory cranking out tons of chemically dependent, genetically modified produce from depleted soil while contaminating the surrounding environment and relying on giant corporations for both inputs and markets. Yet this is the "normal" type of farm in America today, and it is why so many "traditional" farm pundits bemoan the fact that almost no one wants to start farming anymore. What we have created is our own personal brand of the ideal life with a work/leisure blend of activity. We love what we do and how we live---regardless of the fact that the mainstream false economy fails to see we are well paid for what we do. And it is precisely this way of life which does attract the young "unspoiled" idealist who would be a farmer. In fact, we need to be careful about choosing the right people for grooming our replacements. We are not looking for exact duplicates of ourselves, but we do want to find folks who appreciate what we are doing and want to do it, too.
A true apprenticeship program is needed. One in which the apprentice at first serves primarily as farm labor and over the years gradually adopts more management responsibilities. Eventually this develops into a middle phase of a partnership between apprentice and mentor, where the farm is operated on a consensual basis. Later develops the final phase where the former apprentice is now running the farm and the old farmers continue to be available for light labor and know-how.
Relieved of the major management decisions of the farm, the old farmers can now enjoy the rewards of the operating farm they created without the requirement to operate it themselves. They can putter on the farm and maybe travel to exotic places.
The entire process might take five to ten years and can be adjusted for differences in personalities, abilities, and needs to transfer farm management.
At several points in this multi-year program, there needs to be points at which either party can opt out, for whatever reason. Thus there is a possibility of several "false starts", although the likelihood of either a mentor or apprentice calling it quits is greater in the beginning than it is later.
Not every apprentice who starts the program will finish it, for a variety of reasons. Apprentices might begin the program while other apprentices are in an advanced stage. It is as though your apprentice had an apprentice, too. Variations on this plan are endless, and will ultimately be designed to suit the needs of the farm.
The number of people required to operate this farm is at least two, and preferably three or four, mostly during the May thru November season at the present time with our current set-up.
During the apprenticeship stage, the apprentices will be these third and fourth people, but later in the post-apprenticeship period when the old farmers wish to do less on the farm, or have passed on, a new pool of apprentices will probably have to be considered.
Apprentice Terms
While still in the early development stages, this is what we have come up with so far.
Since the long-term view is for the apprentice to eventually own and operate the farm business at some point in the future, a staged annual progression of responsibility and payments will work toward this goal.
During the first two years there will be no ownership or equity in the farm accumulated by the apprentice. Thereafter, a gradual increase in ownership of the farm as a whole (equipment & farm business) will accrue to the apprentice via a process yet to be determined.
At the end of each year, both farmers and apprentices will evaluate the situation, and will be the basis for the decision whether to continue with the relationship.
Apprentices live at the farm, do not have to pay rent, and are available to work as and when needed (see our Work Schedule).
Pay can either be during the heavy work season or spread out over the entire year. The total amount will be the same. Payment can be either weekly or monthly. We suggest off-season employment off the farm if more income is necessary. That's what we do, as do many small farmers.
Apprentice income will reflect a growing equity in the farm. Hence a portion of their income will be in cash and a portion in farm equity.
Apprentices will have their own quarters, a cabin suitable for at least three seasons, which we will help them build in a mutually agreed-upon location. Better quarters may become available or be built in future.
It is possible that there may be apprentices at different stages of the program at any one time. We are looking for two or three people altogether. There may also be occasional outside hired labor at any time during the year. Apprentices may also have outside jobs which do not have a net detraction upon their involvement in the operation of the farm.
Ideally farmers and 5+year apprentices will be spending a few years in full partnership prior to farmers entering into retirement mode.
Apprentice Stages
The following are ideas about how an apprentice is transformed into a farm owner. Details of each year may be changed based on actual experiences.
Initial Phase:
Year One: Stipend, room & board, planning, farm work, marketing. Begin building a 3-season apprentice cabin with on-farm and recycled materials and with minimal purchases.
Year Two: Same as year one, but with expanded responsibilities. Up to the end of this stage, apprentice relationship may be terminated by either party without expectations of equity having been built up.
Middle Phase:
Year Three: Room & board, planning, farmwork, marketing, share of the profits (or debts), participation in farm management. Gradual integration of apprentice's expenses and income with the farm's.
Year Four: Apprentice takes responsibility for at least one entire crop or garden of their choosing.
Final Phase:
Year Five: Becoming a full partner in the farm, including ownership of farm assets.
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