Interested in hearing directly from the next generation of innovative farmers? Check out the Land Stewardship Project’s Ear to the Ground “Fresh Voices” podcast series. You can read profiles of Farm Beginnings grads here. You can check out all 378 episodes of our Ear to the Ground podcast here.
Ear to the Ground 369: Emerging Agrarians
Ka Zoua Berry says supporting a future generation of farmers who don’t fit the traditional Midwestern stereotype isn’t just about building a resilient farm and food system. It’s also about building resilient communities.
Ear to the Ground 348: Urban Agrarian
Elyssa Eull’s tiny farm is tucked between railroad tracks and an empty lot in the heart of a major metropolitan area, but its city soil is producing food on a commercial scale.
Ear to the Ground 334: Youth Movement
Farm Beginnings grad Marcos Giossi started his food-raising career as a teenager tilling soil on an old soccer field. Now he’s helping young urban farmers utilize a values-based decision making strategy to kick-off better communities.
Ear to the Ground 329: Weather Whiplash
Climate change may impact a vegetable producer and a livestock farmer in different ways, but the result is the same: uncertainty, stress…and a deeper desire to connect with community.
Ear to the Ground 328: Urban Ag Oasis
Farm Beginnings grad Queen Frye just wants to raise food — even if she doesn’t resemble a famous Scottish farmer.
Ear to the Ground 311: Mooching Means More
Humble Hands Harvest’s entry into agroforestry is being supported by its vegetable operation — setting the stage for a new approach to farming a rugged landscape long into the future.
Ear to the Ground 307: Listening to the Knees
Farm Beginnings and Journeyperson taught Melissa Driscoll that true sustainability starts not only with the soil, but the person who’s stewarding it.
Ear to the Ground 306: Tough Choices
How Farm Beginnings helped Hannah Frank and Justin Thomas whittle their enterprise “wish list” down to a sustainable size.
Ear to the Ground 302: Thinking Like a Tree
Beginning farmers Abbie Baldwin and Mitch Hawes are playing the long game when it comes to launching their permaculture operation.
Ear to the Ground 294: Rootless Regeneration
These beginning farmers are accessing land without owning it — one megawatt at a time.
Ear to the Ground 293: Middle of Somewhere
Carrie Calvo’s 7,000-mile journey to the heart of farming and local food.
Ear to the Ground 280: Maximum vs. Optimal
Adhering to the tenets of Ag Econ 101, a pair of beginning farmers are avoiding commodity row crops and embracing grazing, silvopasturing, and “bale grazed veggies.”
Ear to the Ground 273: Incubating Immigrants
Dawn 2 Dusk’s dedication to helping Africans get established on Minnesota soil.
Ear to the Ground 272: Micro Milk Mentorship
Government regulators may be befuddled by Cella Langer and Emmet Fisher’s tiny dairy, but these Farm Beginnings/Journeyperson grads know exactly where it fits into their business.
Ear to the Ground 265: Diving into Safer Waters
Nettle Valley Farm’s “informed sink or swim” model of incubating the next generation of farmers.
Ear to the Ground 264: Center of the Universe
Pack-shed or people? LSP’s Journeyperson helped vegetable producers Les Macare and Els Dobrick make a big decision about a recent growing season.
Ear to the Ground 263: Public Investment in Public Goods
Anna Racer and Pete Skold have used state and federal “spark plugs” to build a farm enterprise infrastructure that’s good not just for them, but the community as well.
Ear to the Ground 262: A Silvo Secondary Enterprise
Rachel Henderson and Anton Ptak’s secondary enterprise could be a boon for farm country pollinators.
Ear to the Ground 248: Giving a Damn About the Future of Ag
Over the past two decades, LSP’s Farm Beginnings course has developed into a nationally-recognized program for launching the next generation of innovative farmers. Karen Stettler and Amy Bacigalupo talk about how Farm Beginnings got started, the community-centered philosophy it’s based on, and where it’s headed.
Ear to the Ground 247: A Raw Deal on Farmland
Hannah Bernhardt and Jason Misik couldn’t afford prime farmland brimming with infrastructure. But sweat equity and soil health are helping them transform a marginal piece of ground far from Corn Country.
Ear to the Ground 243: Debunking the Land Ownership Myth
How the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust is connecting stewardship-minded landowners with the next generation of regenerative farmers.
Ear to the Ground 241: A Farm Transition Power Team
A desire to continue a legacy (and a love of weed-pulling) eases Foxtail Farm into the hands of the next generation.
Ear to the Ground 227: From Crisis to Community
When a CAFO threatened a rural neighborhood, residents looked to a beginning farmer for a different vision of the future.
Ear to the Ground 170: Constructive Criticism
How a Farm Beginnings field day makes everyone a “consultant.”
Ear to the Ground 78: Diving in from a Distance
A young couple launches a farming enterprise from afar.