Farmsteaders: The New Generation of Family Farming Going Further
Going Further
Get Growing!
School and community gardens offer exciting and intimate introductions to agriculture though activities that bring to life critical issues such as nutrition, food security, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. Often, a difficult part of running a garden program is finding resources, guidance, and lessons that are appropriate to your community and environment. Below are a range of detailed guides compiled by organizations and schools to help gardens succeed, including school-based lessons that align with STEM, common core, and other state and national standards.
Resources:
National Farm to School Network
The National Farm to School Network website provides information, resources and networking opportunities for communities working to bring local food sourcing, school gardens, and food and agriculture education into schools and early care and education settings.
Free lesson plans and materials for the national edible education curriculum ranging from pre-kindergarten through high school.
A comprehensive farm to school resource database with toolkits, policy, curricula and more.
Offers garden-based learning programming, curriculum, and professional development.
University of Georgia: School Garden Resources
Resources for garden planning, including information on size, location, raised beds, plants to include in an edible garden, tools, sheds, and fencing.
Resources for sustainable living through gardening, farming, buying local, and homesteading.
A free, downloadable high school curriculum developed by Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future that explores critical food system issues.
Discovering Farmland: Discovery Education & U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance
A multi-modal curriculum that explores critical issues impacting the agriculture industry, such as sustainability, the new science behind farming, and entrepreneurship.
Network and resources for youth and adults from diverse backgrounds to work together to build sustainable food systems.
Provides resources for students, faculty, food service professionals, and allies to secure real food purchasing policies on their campuses.
Community Alliance with Family Farmers
CAFF provides resources for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), farm to school, food safety, farm to market and sustainability.
National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix
A database of school-based agriculture curriculum and resources for students and teachers.
Understanding the American Family Farm
The family farm is a potent aspect of American cultural identity, conjuring images of multiple generations working the fields to provide for their families and their community. The 2017 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) census report assured that this legacy endures with 98 percent of U.S. farms designated as “family farms” that account for 87 percent of farm production across the country.
In contrast, farmers and their advocates have been raising the alarm for more than 40 years that corporate agriculture, factory farming, and market instability have driven the American family farm into crisis with thousands of farms failing each year and families losing their livelihoods and their ancestral homes.
Have participants examine the conflicting narratives about American family farms and how different groups interpret the meaning and significance of “the family farm” to serve specific goals. Participants should pay special attention to the misinterpretation (or misuse) of the concept of the “family farm” as an indicator of a farm’s size or agricultural practices.
Share the following definition of a family farm provided by the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service and discuss how it compares with our cultural perception of the American family farm. (For example, if these same guidelines were applied to other aspects of our economy Walmart would qualify as a family business just as much as an independent, local shop.)
The current definition of a family farm, since 2005, based on the Agricultural Resource Management Survey is one in which the majority of the business is owned by the operator and individuals related to the operator by blood, marriage, or adoption, including relatives that do not live in the operator household.
Once participants understand the disparate ways family farms are defined, have them examine how this disconnect impacts public opinion, local and national policy, and protections for small- and medium-sized farmers and consumers.
Food Security & Food Deserts
Food Security as defined by the United Nations' Committee on World Food Security, means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.
“Food deserts” are geographic areas where access to affordable, healthy food options is limited or nonexistent because grocery stores are too far away. More than 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in food deserts and lack food security. Have participants learn more about the increase of food deserts across the United States and research the prevalence of food deserts in their region/community.
Explore: What images does the term “food desert” call to mind? What criteria might we use to determine whether a community is a food desert? Why are healthy food options available in some communities and not others? Compare food deserts in different parts of the country—what do these communities have in common? Have any “food desert” communities developed successful strategies to improve food security? What roles can family farms, farm to school programs and community gardens play to make fresh and healthy food available to all?
Locate Food Deserts with the USDA’s new food desert locator map.
The American Farm
According to a 2019 review of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, “foreign investors control – either through direct ownership or long-term leases – at least 28.3 million acres [of U.S. agricultural land], valued at $52.2 billion.” The amount of agricultural land held by foreign owners doubled between 2004 and 2014 and as a result, more than 2 percent of U.S. farmland—about the size of the state of Ohio—is currently controlled by interests from a wide range of countries including Canada, China, Brazil, Portugal, and Luxembourg.
Have participants research the ongoing national and local debate between the financial benefits of foreign investments versus risks to American farmers and food security with a focus on: What was the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) of 1978 and what impact is it having on modern farming? What benefits do foreign investments provide to communities? What rights and restrictions do foreign investors have on the use of U.S. farmland? How is foreign ownership affecting family farms and small-scale farmers? In a globalized economy, what status do farms owned by multinational corporations hold? Are foreign-owned farms in the U.S. “American” farms (and what does it mean to be an “American” farm)?
Sources
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