Barrier to Opportunities

Taking what was learned in Conference Session 1 and what is known about barriers to land, capital, and enhanced production capacity, Conference Session 2 will focus on strategies for overcoming common barriers. Guest speakers and discussion insights will provide session attendees with examples of successful strategies used be fellow farmers to overcome these barriers and will spark new ideas for innovation. We will also dedicate time in this session to addressing issues in the land rental market, competing economics and community interests, and conserving agriculture land. Throughout the session we hope to encourage multi-discipline community conversations (land trust, parks and rec, etc.) and connections for farmer-to-farmer assistance.

December 10, 2021 @ 2:30 - 5:00 PM PST

Panelist Speakers:

Michelle Week, Farmer, Good Rain Farm -  Good Rain Farm is a CSA with a goal of Food Sovereignty. They tend the land with 7 generations in mind and celebrate all forms of foods, emphasizing traditional native foods. What is not consumed on the farm is given back to the earth mimicking the cycles of life and death found in all ecosystems throughout the world. Since last year they’ve expanded their membership by 200%, serving close to 10 times the number of low income / scholarshipped members. They have found success in Sliding Scale payments, launched a Save Our Seed CSA to take further steps towards food sovereignty especially in the face of land loss from suburban development.

Vero Vegara and Caitlin Ehlers, Farmers, Sweet Hollow Farm - Sweet Hollow Farm is a multiracial, queer worker-owned cooperative farm growing vegetables & herbs on one acre of Coast Salish lands in Woodinville, WA. They believe in growing foods from the uncommon, the unclaimed and reclaimed, and ones they love. Armed with the sensual, liberatory power of food and a love of complexity, Vero and Caitlin strive to transform the relationship with food, land, and care. They want to build the models needed to end capitalism and see the de-commodified and liberated food systems that is deserved.

Katie Green, Farmer, Wild Hare Farm - The Green family became the next generation of farmers and stewards of land that Dick and Terry Carkner had cultivated as Terry’s Berries for more than 30 years. The Green family aims to preserve the farmland for generations to come and to protect the family-farm tradition, promote the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, and produce uncommonly delicious and nutritious food.They worked with a local farmland trust to establish a conservation easement on the property, meaning that this piece of land cannot be developed and will be preserved as a farm in perpetuity.

Rowan Steele, Farm Program Manager, Headwater Farm Incubator - Rowan works directly with incubator farmers, program partners, and the surrounding community to leverage the resources at Headwaters Farm for District constituents. Headwaters Farm Incubator seeks to aid the development of new farm businesses by providing affordable access to land and farm resources.The farm is located on a 60-acre property on the outskirts of Gresham and is owned and managed by East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District.

Melissa Borsting, King County Project/Program Manager, King County Farmland Leasing Program - Melissa Borsting manages King County’s Farmland Leasing Program. The Farmland Leasing program aims to support the establishment and expansion of farm businesses operated by new and beginning and historically underserved farmers by working to make land and infrastructure accessible to groups who face systemic barriers to accessing land

Luke Woodward, Project Manager and Owner, NW Ag Business Development Center and Hearth Farm - Luke is the Northwest Agriculture Business Center’s project manager for King County. The Northwest Agriculture Business Center (NABC) is a nonprofit that provides northwest Washington farmers with the skills and the resources required to profitably and efficiently supply their products to consumers, retailers, wholesalers, foodservice operators and food manufacturers. Their areas of focus are in providing business development services to farmers and producers of value-added agricultural products, connecting individuals and groups of producers to buyers to increase the opportunity for sales, offering training in business topics and enhanced access to funding and lenders, providing support to new and existing agriculture-based cooperatives, and identifying and creating regional agriculture infrastructure. Luke and is wife also own and operate Hearth Farm and The Grange, a farm to table restaurant, in Duvall, WA