A nonprofit agriculture organization plans to spend $3 million to attract young people to farming, as well as help veteran farmers improve their bottom line.
The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, which has a 25-year history of training farmers how to be more profitable, environmentally friendly, healthy and efficient at its three-day annual conferences, plans to open hubs throughout the region to help farmers year-round.
The move by PASA comes at a time when the average age of farmers is rising. According to surveys, the average age of a Pennsylvania farmer is 56, and nearly a third are over 65.
“In the U.S., we as citizens need to address the need for new farmers,” said Lauren Smith, PASA’s director of development.
One of the hubs, based in the Delaware Valley watershed, will serve farmers in Berks County through its Kimberton, Chester County, office, scheduled to open in March.
“We’re very excited,” Smith said. “We’ve been working on this for a long time.”
Delaware Valley will be one of the first two hubs to open; the other is in the Three Rivers watershed in western Pennsylvania. A third hub, based in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, should open later in the year. Other hubs will be established over the next five years. The program already has raised $1.5 million of its $3 million goal.
Smith said the hubs are based on watersheds rather than counties and could extend into neighboring states. Each hub is designed to meet the needs of its area, since locations can differ by soil types, weather patterns and other factors.
“Bio-regions do not conform to state boundaries, and 20 percent of our membership is now outside Pennsylvania,” said PASA Executive Director Brian Snyder. “If we’re going to have a lasting impact on farms and the food systems in which they participate, then our structure needs to reflect that of the natural world and the flow of the economic activity in the areas within our reach.”
The program is called “Building the SOIL,” using an acronym for Strategic Outreach for Innovation and Leadership.
The program is interviewing for the top two positions in the Delaware Valley area, and those people will help determine the direction the hub will take, Smith said.
Among the hub’s projects could be continuing workshops for farmer training, apprenticeship programs, farmer-to-farmer network exchanges and local farm-based research.
The program should provide farmers with a toolkit to measure their progress in the “Four E” strategies PASA believes leads to sustainable farming: economics, environment, energy and engagement.
PASA has more than 5,000 members and works closely with the Penn State Extension Service and other agricultural organizations.
“We are well-known for our farmer education,” Smith said. “Now we want to reach the next level.”
Smith said the project is particularly important as more consumers seek to buy their food from local producers through farmers markets and community-supported agriculture programs.
In Pennsylvania, farms are geographically positioned to engage with the community, she said.
“We want to make sure the best and brightest can look at a career in agriculture that is economically viable,” she said.
Three businesses have invested in the program as founding hub sponsors: Lady Moon Farms in Chambersburg, Franklin County; Kimberton Whole Foods, which has a store in Amity Township; and MidAtlantic Farm Credit in Lancaster.
PASA will announce plans for its sustainability hubs at its 25th annual conference today through Saturday at the Penn State Conference Center in State College.
Jeff Moyer, executive director of the Rodale Institute, said his organization supports all efforts to keep soil healthy.
He said Rodale often works with PASA, though the emphasis is somewhat different. Rodale promotes organic farming without the use of pesticides, herbicides or artificial fertilizers.
Organic farming is one of PASA’s interests but not its sole focus.
“People health is intrinsically linked to the health of the soil,” Moyer said. “We’re very supportive of any organization moving in that direction.”
Contact Monica von Dobeneck: country@readingeagle.com.
