“Growing up as a young kid, there was no guarantee that we could get 3 meals in a day. I used to depend on the school meal. It was a challenge that many people are facing,” Greg Kimani, the CEO of City Shamba, says in the Food 2050 film, which premieres January 2026 in partnership with Media RED, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Food Tank. “If my neighbor cannot have food, we are not food secure.”

This belief reflects a broader cultural value rooted in Ubuntu, an Indigenous African philosophy of interconnectedness. 

“When I was growing up, sharing food was a common thing that we did. It’s about the value of Ubuntu, [meaning] ‘I am because we are.’ It’s the spirit of helping one another. It’s the spirit of sharing,” says Dr. Elizabeth Kimani-Murage, a Research Scientist at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). 

“But the world is urbanizing, and we are losing that culture of Ubuntu,” says Dr. Kimani-Murage.

Nairobi’s population is projected to triple by 2050 to more than 10 million people. Historically, the city relied on rural communities for food, but those areas have increasingly urbanized themselves, reducing agricultural production. Dr. Kimani-Murage, who has conducted research on nutrition and food security among the urban poor for more than two decades, has seen firsthand how these shifts have deepened inequality. Today, she promotes agroecological urban farming across socioeconomic divides to “ensure that people can produce safe food for themselves and feed themselves with dignity.” 

In Nairobi, affordability—not availability—is often the core problem, according to Dr. Kimani-Murage. Because many residents cannot afford market prices, the food supply can exceed demand. “A lot of the food finds itself in the dump site, and people go to scavenge on that food,” either feeding it to their families or selling it to others, says Dr. Kimani-Murage.

City Shamba was founded to challenge the assumption that dense urban areas cannot produce food. The organization trains residents in vertical farming techniques to maximize productivity in limited spaces. It provides seedlings and soil, which are often difficult to access. Kimani’s team also prioritizes nutrient-rich Indigenous vegetables, helping households improve nutrition while reducing costs.

According to David Osogo, a Research Officer at APHRC, City Shamba shows that urban areas themselves can be part of the solution to food insecurity and malnutrition.

“Urban farming almost gives you instant results,” says Osogo. “We have seen communities in the informal settlement feed off their tiny kitchen gardens…school children eating lunch and eating hot meals that are directly from vegetables from the farms…chicken from the poultry farms within the schools.”

These community-led efforts are supported by Dr. Kimani-Murage’s vision, “A Place of Cool Waters”—the translation of the Indigenous name for Nairobi—which was named a Rockefeller Foundation Top Food System Visionary in 2020 and featured in the Food 2050 film. It provides grants to grassroots organizations including City Shamba that are rethinking food production and access in urban spaces. This work is also advancing what Dr. Kimani-Murage describes as a “right to food movement” in Kenya.

“It is important that people can take charge of what they’re eating,” says Dr. Kimani-Murage. “We really want to promote the spirit of Ubuntu, encouraging people to share any excess food…so that food is not just seen as a commodity, it is seen as a common good and a human right.”

Since the Food 2050 filming, the initiative has expanded to cities throughout Kenya and gained international attention: In 2023, King Charles III visited City Shamba’s facilities. But Dr. Kimani-Murage’s long-term vision has expanded beyond food—she sees climate action as critical to food systems transformation.

“We have embraced climate action as a key driver of this work,” says Dr. Kimani-Murage. “Food security and nutrition are very heavily impacted by climate change. By encouraging climate action, you are also promoting food security and optimal nutrition.”

The post Food 2050 Visionaries: Nourishing Nairobi with Ubuntu appeared first on Food Tank.

“My obligation in that farm is to the community and the environment,” says Dennehy. “Protecting the soil is investing in food security as far as I’m concerned.”

Dennehy began farming full-time in 1995, when many dairy farmers struggled to make ends meet due to volatile and low milk prices: “We were restricted with [European Union milk] quotas; we couldn’t expand, and it was a struggle to make a living.”

When milk quotas were lifted and the industry restructured, Dennehy and 16 other young farmers decided to form a discussion group to face those challenges together, covering everything from animal welfare and soil management to finance and labor. The group, which still meets the first Tuesday of every month nearly 30 years later, became a lifeline.

“The business of farming can be lonely, isolated,” Dennehy says. “It was more than a talking shop. The meetings are the backbone of everything we do on the farm…The biggest single support I got in my farming career was that group of farmers, and 30 years on, we’re still together.”

Dennehy says these farmers’ meetings often discuss the issue of succession, as many older farmers lack an heir to take over their farm. However, he feels optimistic as he sees younger people—many as young as 12 years old—coming to his farm to learn about the lifestyle, routine, and responsibility of farming. “They get a bit of passion for it,” he says, and some “go on and make farming a livelihood.”

Dennehy passes his knowledge of stewardship and sustainability on through this work. He recently planted a willow bed on the riverbank, which acts as a natural waste filtration system to protect water quality and the important salmon habitat. Under the European Innovation Partnership’s Farming for Water project, he planted 1,000 trees along the riverbank to further improve water quality and enhance soil health.

“The water is tested regularly, and I’m proud to say those nature-based solutions have resulted in cleaner water,” says Dennehy.

Dennehy also tests his soil annually for pH, nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, the most important ingredients for the farm to grow grass and maintain healthy soil. He has incorporated white clover into his pastures, which he says increases the grass yield and boosts milk production, allowing him to reduce his use of chemical nitrogen by 30 percent over the last three years.

For Dennehy, sustainability is a continuation of a long Irish tradition of care for land and community. This brings him hope for the future of Irish dairy.

“Since 1995, the dairy industry in Ireland has gone through a remarkable transformation,” he says. “And if we’re willing to adapt and learn, I see no reason why we cannot continue to grow…The world population is growing. And at the end of the day, the world needs farmers.”

This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life. Food Tank was proud to collaborate with Niman Ranch in lifting up family farmer stories, including Servais’, at Climate Week NYC: A Night of Storytelling Honoring Our Farmers. Watch her story and others on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

The post Community Is Essential to Farmer Resilience in Ireland appeared first on Food Tank.

“People are having to get whatever they can on their budget, and unfortunately, what is cheapest right now is a lot of processed foods,” says Wilson.

The Sicáŋğu Lak̇óta, like other Indigenous communities throughout the United States, have seen their traditional food systems dismantled over generations due to land dispossession, mass slaughter of buffalo herds, and reliance on federal food programs. Wilson and other community leaders created the 7Gen plan, which was named a Rockefeller Foundation Top Food System Visionary in 2020, to help restore food sovereignty to their people. 

“Beginning with the mass slaughter of the buffalo, about US$2 trillion worth of wealth has been extracted from our people,” says Native Leader Wizipan Little Elk in the Food 2050 film, which premieres January 2026 in partnership with Media RED, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Food Tank. 

“Food and access to our treaty rations were used as a means of control. In order for us to regain our power, we have to regain our food.”

The 7Gen plan is named after the ancient concept of looking ahead seven generations, which is core to many Indigenous cultures. It serves as a guiding philosophy for decision-making, one that considers the impact on future generations and the long-term well-being of both people and land.

“Our 7Gen plan is how we see everything playing out in the next seven generations,” says Wilson. “How do we prepare for that? How does our food look? Where is it coming from?”

The Sicáŋğu Food Sovereignty Initiative, an integral part of the 7Gen project, plays a critical role in the local food system. Its regenerative buffalo ranch has grown from 50 to 1,100 heads since 2020. When federal SNAP benefits faced major cuts due to the government shutdown and new legislation in 2025, Wilson’s team was able to deliver 12,000 pounds of bison meat and 6,000 pounds of locally grown produce to the community.

>The initiative is also helping community members learn how to grow, produce, harvest, and prepare their own food. Its workforce development and educational programs support farmers, ranchers, aspiring entrepreneurs, and youth in building skills and creating livelihoods around food.

As a result of these efforts, Wilson says that his community is increasingly practicing food sovereignty.

“When I first started, [people couldn’t] really articulate what food sovereignty was or understand the importance of it. But now, people are seeing the urgency and that importance,” says Wilson. “More people are going out and harvesting their own food, foraging for traditional foods. More people are serving their own gardens, more people are having conversations around where their food comes from.”

Wilson sees the local food system as not only a source of nutrients but also a way to heal his community’s spirit. This starts with reframing how his neighbors think about and value food.

“Food is medicine, and so we’re really trying to change people’s mindsets and perspective around food and build that connection with food again,” says Wilson. “It’s really supposed to feed your soul, your emotional health, your spiritual health. That concept is what we call Wicozani. All-encompassing health.”

For Little Elk, 7Gen’s success is a story of hope for the broader, global food system.

“Our vision is to create a sustainable, regenerative, culturally appropriate food system for our people in the region by growing our own food, by embracing regenerative agricultural practices, by bringing buffalo back. Those are the kinds of solutions that the entire planet needs,” says Little Elk.

“And if we can do it here, in the third-poorest county in the entire United States, we can for sure do it anywhere in North America. And I believe that we can do it anywhere in the world.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

The post Food 2050 Visionaries: Lak̇óta Food as Medicine in South Dakota appeared first on Food Tank.

“Lima is in fact green. It’s just not green for everybody,” Parsa says in the Food 2050 film, which premieres January 2026 in partnership with Media RED, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Food Tank. “There are two Limas,” and many remote, isolated, and low-income communities in the city pay as much as ten times the price that wealthier residents pay for water.

Parsa founded Lima 2035 with a vision to transform Lima by first enabling equitable access to water. Simple sheets of mesh, called mist catchers or fog nets, have been used for years in hillside communities that lack access to running water. The nets intercept fog as wind blows it through, causing tiny water droplets to stick to its fibers and drip into storage tanks, capturing 200 to 400 liters (53 to 79 gallons) of fresh water per day. 

“Although we do not have rain, the water that evaporates from the Pacific Ocean gets captured in dense fog that becomes somewhat of an airborne aquifer. When fog meets the Andes, the landscape is turned green,” says Parsa. “How do we unlock that water? How do we make it freely available to people?”

With a new “harvesting tower” design by Alberto Fernandez, Lima 2035 is working to expand the surface area that captures fog, reclaiming up to 10,000 liters (more than 2,600 gallons) of fresh water per day for remote and isolated communities. “Once we are able to bridge the water access gap, then many more opportunities become available,” says Parsa.

Lima 2035’s second innovation promotes local food sovereignty. Alison Anaya, farmer and founder of Huertos En Azoteas, creates compact, efficient farming units that transform underutilized city rooftops into flourishing garden spaces. This not only provides fresh, locally grown vegetables and herbs to city residents but also a source of income and employment.

“The majority of the people, they do not have the resources to pay for one vegetable,” says Anaya. These rooftop gardens are “diversifying their diet, teaching them to sow, to have their own garden from which they can feed. And they can also generate extra income for their family.”

Huertos En Azoteas has installed rooftop gardens across Lima’s most underserved neighborhoods, prioritizing schools, community centers, and households led by women. The system uses recycled materials and focuses on water-saving techniques to minimize waste. Since winning the Food System Visionary prize in 2020, Anaya says her team has also developed an app that allows customers to scan a QR code and see detailed information about growing practices, inputs, and harvest timelines.

Today, the model is helping to restore a sense of dignity and self-reliance within the urban food system.

“When you step inside [the rooftop garden], despite being in the middle of the city, there is a surprising color,” says Anaya. “It feels like a small green room suspended above the urban chaos. A place where you can work, observe, and also just pray for a while.”

Lima 2035’s third innovation builds on this by recognizing the city’s rich food culture spanning thousands of years. Lima’s network of 350 archaeological sites, which were sacred in ancient times, is in danger of disappearing amid dense urban development. Architect and Urban Designer Jean Pierre envisions turning these spaces into community hubs, where people can visit a farmers’ market, exchange seeds, or take a gastronomy tour. 

“The only way to preserve these places is by activating them,” says Pierre. “And the answer is food.”

This model has archeological sites participating in urban life, rather than slowly and quietly eroding into neglect, says Pierre. Together with Lima 2035’s other innovations—capturing water from fog, growing food on rooftops—it offers a blueprint for how cities facing deep inequality can build resilience using simple tools, community leadership, and food as a unifying force.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

The post Food 2050 Visionaries: Lima’s Local Regeneration appeared first on Food Tank.

“After a terrifying night, the roads were closed, the power went out, cell phones went down, the internet was out, land lines went down,” recalls Radice.

At the urging of a friend, Radice did what she does best: cared for people through food. Radice and her team cooked and served lunches to more than 100 people who were without power throughout the following week, using ingredients grown mostly on the 5,000-acre farm where she lives, Ridgewood Ranch. The Redwood Complex fire ultimately burned 39,000 acres, tragically taking nine lives. Amid the devastation, she says the act of cooking together brought a moment of relief to her community.

“In the face of disaster and tragedy, there was so much laughter in the kitchen. Cooking together was fun, and it was easy,” says Radice. “And I would do it again tomorrow.”

Today, Radice co-owns Black Dog Farm & Catering and is Director of the School of Adaptive Agriculture, an intensive vocational farming program on Ridgewood Ranch. After farming in California for more than 20 years while juggling careers in catering, cooking, and organizing, she says one of the most important lessons she has learned is that she cannot do it all.

“I used to think that if I worked really hard and really got organized, I could be a relatively successful small farmer and be self-sufficient. One of the humbling things that I’ve realized as an adult and a farmer is that I don’t think it’s possible to be self-sufficient. None of this works without a huge amount of grace, support, and cooperation from other people,” says Radice.

“The great humbling was a painful and humiliating career phase to go through. But on the other side, I see how my farm can connect people and be a foundational cornerstone of community, bringing people together through joy, beauty, and celebration.”

This lesson is put to practice with the Good Farm Fund, which Radice co-founded in 2015. What started as plans for a small Christmas party blossomed into a large farm-to-table dinner, and eventually, a nonprofit community organization supporting the economic viability of small farms and local food access for low-income members of their community.

“I originally noticed that these farmers that I really looked up to were losing their lease, and they were trying to crowdsource money to buy land so they could stay in the area,” says Radice. “It did not work, and they got a lot of negative feedback saying that the challenges that they were facing were things faced by all farmers.”

Radice realized that these efforts could be more effective if the farmers joined together. She set up a farm grant program, which she calls “mutual aid for farmers,” where community-fundraised money goes to farm infrastructure, capacity building, food access programs, and more.

“A lot of farms have trouble getting the investment money to scale their business to a space where it’s actually sustainable. And the battle to compete with large-scale agriculture is set up for small farms to fail,” says Radice. “But people really like small farms and farmers’ markets, people want to live in a community where you can get your [Community Supported Agriculture] box, those kinds of things exist and are abundant. And we just needed to create a way to connect the community supporters with those kinds of farms.”

The Good Farm Fund has awarded more than US$500,000 in grants to date, a testament to the power of community-based action: “We’re building the infrastructure of the food system that we want to have,” says Radice.

This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life. Food Tank was proud to collaborate with Niman Ranch in lifting up family farmer stories, including Radice’s at Climate Week NYC: A Night of Storytelling Honoring Our Farmers. Watch her story and others on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Caroline Radice

The post Community-Based Action Uplifts Small Farms in California appeared first on Food Tank.

“Something that is very difficult living in Iowa is this constant level of anxiety over the fact that you don’t know what kind of cancer you’re going to get,” says John Gilbert, a fourth-generation family farmer near Iowa Falls. “It’s in the back of your mind all the time that you’re living in dangerous times in a dangerous place.”

Nitrate pollution in Iowa’s water is largely due to overuse and misuse of artificial fertilizer and mismanagement of manure from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Iowa is the leading hog producer in the United States, with more than one-third of the nation’s hogs, according to the Economic Research Service. More than 25 million hogs outnumber people in Iowa by a ratio of 7 to 1. And as the state’s pork production nearly doubled from 2000 to 2023, so did its manure production.

“CAFOs have more manure than the crops can reasonably use as fertilizer,” says Michael Schmidt, General Counsel at the nonprofit Iowa Environmental Council (IEC). While information on fertilizer and manure application is not publicly available, “we can assess at a large scale. We know there’s more manure than the crops need and know that synthetic fertilizers are being oversold.”

Almost half of Iowa’s cropland uses tile draining, which removes excess water from fields through a network of underground perforated pipes and releases it into drainage systems. This means that when fertilizer and manure are overapplied to farm fields, excess nutrients are fed straight into water systems. That contaminates drinking water for Iowa residents and fuels algae blooms and dead zones downstream in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Nobody wants to admit this is what’s happening. It’s a structural problem with the system,” says Gilbert. “We have created a situation where no matter what we wanted to do about nitrates in our drinking water, it’s not going to be an easy fix. It’s only getting worse because nobody is shutting down the confinements.”

Numerous studies link high nitrate levels to kidney, bladder, thyroid, and other cancers. Researchers at the Duke University School of Medicine found in 2018 that communities located near hog CAFOs had higher overall rates of infant mortality and mortality due to anemia, kidney disease, tuberculosis, and septicemia. In 2021, a study supported by the National Institutes of Health linked residential proximity to intensive animal agriculture to an elevated risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia.

Nitrate contamination is also an environmental justice issue. This year, an Iowa State University study reported that high nitrate levels in Iowa disproportionately affect low-income individuals, older adults, children, and people of color because these communities are more likely to be located near CAFOs.

Many organizations are advocating for change. The Iowa Farmers Union is pushing for a moratorium on new CAFOs built in the state, better working conditions for CAFO farmers, and protections for communities surrounding existing CAFOs, such as better waste management practices.

“We know CAFOs aren’t going away, but there are many ways to make it safer,” says Tommy Hexter, Policy Director at Iowa Farmers Union. “Unfortunately, what is in the best interest of the food industry is not always what is in the best interest of farmers’ health…and [farmers] don’t feel they can speak out without fear of retribution.”

IEC also advocates for higher standards for CAFOs, including stronger rules to prevent externalized pollution—both in the air and water—and education for hog farmers and pork consumers. But activists agree that changes to the U.S. Farm Bill, which expired in September 2025, are critical to address these complex challenges and public health impacts.

“Our current Farm Bill incentivizes a particular kind of farming, commodity farming, corn and soybeans,” says Hexter. “We know that farmers need certain tools in order to continue farming in the modern system, but we need to incentivize them to make these systems of farming safe.”

Hexter thinks Iowa can help alleviate the public health impact of industrialized farming by strengthening regional food systems and supporting small-scale farms, local food purchasing programs, and local food markets.

“One of the biggest sayings you’ll hear in Iowa is ‘we are feeding the world.’ I don’t think that Iowa needs to feed the world anymore–it’s done more harm than good,” says Hexter. “We can regionalize again, with robust networks of food hubs and farmers working at multiple scales.”

Gilbert himself represents this vision for a more balanced food system: Since the 1990s, he has raised hogs with Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers. Gilbert and his peers uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices in exchange for a stable, premium market for their hogs. In other words, they have the financial stability to produce fewer hogs in a way that is healthy for animals, the environment, and consumers, strengthening regional food systems and promoting more sustainable nutrient management.

Gilbert says that communities across the U.S.—not only in Iowa—should advocate for agricultural policies that incentivize this way of farming. More sustainable practices can promote soil health and, in turn, environmental and human health.

“Confinements are just one part of the structural problems we have in Iowa and the country altogether,” says Gilbert. “People don’t understand the direct link between our farm policy in Washington, D.C., and the health of the soil.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here. 

Photo courtesy of Don McCulley, Wikimedia Commons

The post Confinement Hog Farms Fuel a Public Health Crisis in Iowa: ‘Nobody Wants to Admit this Is What’s Happening’ appeared first on Food Tank.

“What gets me about it is that opening line, ‘Welcome to your life. There’s no turning back,’” says Servais, recalling the twists and turns that led her from being a small-town farm girl to office worker, and back to the family farm she once couldn’t wait to leave.

Servais excelled as a student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she dreamed of working in science communications in a big city: “I was president of the Association of Women in Agriculture, I was the officer on all these different organizations, I had good grades, and I was taking theater classes and art classes and astronomy classes,” says Servais. “I was going to have it all, you know?”

When she landed an internship with Organic Valley, Servais felt these dreams were becoming a reality: “I was so pumped. I was working with these passionate, talented, intelligent people. They care so deeply for the small farmers across America, and they were so excited to go to work every day.”

Still, Servais says something felt off. Instead of spending time with her fellow intern friends, she wanted to have dinner with her family. Her favorite part of the day was when she could go home to bring the cows in from the pasture.

To her family and friends’ surprise, Servais returned home to the farm after graduating in May 2022. It wasn’t an easy choice, she says, after spending so many years working to leave the farm. But slowly, she began to rediscover her purpose.

Servais immersed herself in both her internship and farm work. Eventually, she realized that making an impact in the world doesn’t necessarily mean leaving home, working in a big city, and traveling the globe. Her small actions every day—feeding calves, letting cows onto pasture, and cultivating healthy soils—play a significant role in building the future that she wants, for both herself and her community.

“If we want to protect the hundreds of places like my family farm, it takes all of us making little decisions every day. Choices in the grocery store, choices walking home, picking up litter, recycling. A hundred little things add up,” says Servais. “There are billions of people in this world, and if we all do a hundred little things, we can change the world.”

This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life. Food Tank was proud to collaborate with Niman Ranch in lifting up family farmer stories, including Servais’, at Climate Week NYC: A Night of Storytelling Honoring Our Farmers. Watch her story and others on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Sabrina Servais

The post Protecting Family Farms ‘Takes All of Us Making Little Decisions Every Day’ appeared first on Food Tank.

The Wilson family of northwestern Iowa is doing what might seem impossible to many: all seven members, comprising four families, work full-time on the 660-acre Seven W Farm. They attribute their success to going against standard practice.

“We’ve been called the crazy ones for a long, long time,” says Dan Wilson. “I guess we’re kind of bold, and we really don’t care what our peers think of us. And that’s refreshing because if you’re totally wrapped up in peer pressure, it gets pretty hard to change.”

Dan and his wife, Lorna, grow Certified Organic corn, soy, rye, barley, oats, and more with their son Jaron. Their son Torray’s family manages dairy cattle. And their daughter April raises chickens and pigs. The family fits the typical, idyllic vision of an American family farm: multiple generations working together to continue the family legacy. But “we’re definitely the minority,” says April.

Over the past few decades, the family lost about half of their neighbors as farmland consolidated, which has directly impacted their rural community. There were four school districts in the area when Dan was growing up. Now that his grandchildren are school-aged, that same area comprises one, significantly smaller district. Today, their property is surrounded by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, known as CAFOs, which raise hogs indoors with tightly controlled environments and limited mobility.

“It’s affected our environment drastically,” says Dan. “We live in constant stink now when we used to have clean air.”

Years ago, after hearing from the family’s veterinarian that they “needed to jump on current and modern ways,” the Wilsons briefly tried a confinement barn, says Dan. It worked financially, “but we just absolutely hated it. It did not meet our goals in life. We didn’t like the pigs confined. We didn’t like the smell.”

April recalls that their pigs’ behavior was dramatically different in confinement: “It was like they just dumbed down. You had to push them and pull them everywhere you went.”

Dan and April are now keeping the family tradition of pasture-raising pigs, which Dan’s father started in the 1960s. Their pigs are raised outdoors, without antibiotics or hormones, for the specialty meat company Niman Ranch. This is how they keep the whole family on the farm, says Dan.

“Livestock is the total reason we can all be here. If it weren’t for all the livestock operations, if we just had to make it on row crops, we couldn’t sustain this many people,” says Dan.

Milk and pork producers are typically subject to volatile market prices. However, the Wilsons have a guaranteed market for their products by raising pork for Niman Ranch and milk for Organic Valley. This means a steady, reliable source of income despite current market conditions.

“I would not be here without Niman,” says April. “Because of them, I was able to have enough income in the beginning, because I knew I had a guaranteed market for my pigs right away when I came home. It’s been enough of a sustainable operation that it keeps us going.”

Specialty markets also allow the Wilsons to farm how they want: sustainably, humanely, and relatively small-scale. And locally, they have seen a shift toward more sustainable farming practices. Today, the Wilsons communicate with almost a dozen other Certified Organic farmers in their region, and they are just starting to see cover crops come into nearby fields. But Dan says the food industry is moving “not nearly fast enough.”

“People are still of the mindset of, ‘got to get bigger, got to have more land, got to have more fertilizers so that everything goes more, more, more, bigger, bigger, bigger,’” says April. “That has to shift. And it’s starting to, but it’s a slow change because it was a slow change to get there.”

April and Dan both emphasize that running a financially and environmentally sustainable farm means constantly innovating and having an open mind: “Regularly, we sit down and discuss, how can we gain more income from the size that we are? What can we do? How do you gain more from less?” says Dan.

“Keeping everything sustainable and keeping it going is our goal. If it looks different in 50 years, then it looks different in 50 years,” says April. “It’s not necessarily staying with one thing but trying a variety of things to see what’s going to make it work.”

April recently shared her story at Climate Week NYC: A Night of Storytelling Honoring Our Farmers. Watch her story and others on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Niman Ranch

The post ‘We’ve Been Called the Crazy Ones:’ Iowa Farmers Going Against the Norm appeared first on Food Tank.

“We’re trying to get the entire planet to realize, this is our opportunity to heal what we’ve broken inadvertently over decades,” says Mattingly.

Mattingly’s work rehabilitating farmland has evolved over 30 years, integrating best practices in soil conservation and ecosystem management long before regenerative agriculture entered mainstream conversations. But he says it’s a lifelong journey: even the leading soil biologists have much to learn about what’s happening beneath the ground.

“In 1993…what we thought we knew about soil then, to what we know now, it’s ridiculous. We didn’t have any real depth of understanding of the billions of living organisms,” Mattingly tells Food Tank. “It’s just mind-boggling to me.”

When he was hired, Star Hill Farm was fewer than 300 acres and leased out to local farmers. And according to Mattingly, it wasn’t well cared for: “I think [Maker’s Mark was] getting US$1,500 a year to lease this farm out, and it was causing erosion that would take 100 years to fix.”

The company soon stopped leasing its farmland at Mattingly’s advice. He worked with local forestry and wildlife organizations to start rehabilitating the soils and installing low-cost solutions, such as nesting boxes to support wild and native species. But it was a slow process—Mattingly was working outside of his day job, which was in operations, and had no budget for farm improvement.

“Sustainability and environmental things weren’t really talked about a lot back in the early 90s,” says Mattingly. “There wasn’t any budget and it wasn’t my job title, but I volunteered to take on some of those projects just to be a better steward of the resources that we had.”

A few other employees took an interest in the work, forming an “eco team,” which set up sustainable practices not only on the farm but at the distillery itself, such as cardboard recycling. Mattingly worked with a lumber mill to harvest the declining lumber from their land, sold it, and used the income to purchase native warm-season grasses and pollinator mixes, which helped build soil health, reduce erosion, and increase biodiversity on the farm.

Soon, Maker’s Mark executives saw the value in these practices: the farm was flourishing. Mattingly’s two-year goals grew into 50- and 100-year visions for the farm. The company established a 33-acre Natural Water Sanctuary on its distillery grounds, preserving the land that filters the water for its whisky. Finally, Mattingly had a budget, and he was able to transition away from distillery operations to oversee Star Hill Farm full-time.

“That was a great opportunity for me to really go back to what I’ve wanted to do all my life,” says Mattingly. “Not a lot of places that would let you create your own career path, but just giving me the liberty to do those small things 30 years ago evolved into now, the position that I’m in doing it.”

Today, Mattingly conducts agricultural research on regenerative farming methods, hosts soil health conferences, and works with local farmers to share tried-and-tested best practices. Under his leadership, Maker’s Mark became the world’s first distillery to be Certified Regenified, a third-party verification for regenerative practices. This year, the company released its first-ever American wheat whisky, made from Star Hill Farm grains.

Mattingly emphasizes that he is fortunate to have the support of a salaried job. Many farmers in his county must work multiple jobs to make ends meet and face diminishing yields due to poor soil health. He hopes that the research and support he can provide through Maker’s Mark—such as financial backing for education, technical assistance, and the costs of Certified Regenified verification—can help farmers keep their families in farming.

“There are so many farmers whose children just can’t come back to the farm. It’s not whether they wanted to or not, two farm families can’t make a living. And then you’ve got depleted soil, which is what’s inhibiting their profit opportunities,” says Mattingly. “So that’s where I’m excited. If they’ll implement these [practices], we’ll be able to at least see them have more of an opportunity to take that next generation and stay on the farm.”

Mattingly has seen firsthand on his family farm and Star Hill Farm how healthy soils can heal the land and restore critical ecosystems—often seeing great improvement in just one year. For him, regenerative agriculture offers a hopeful vision for the future of agriculture.

“Nature has always known best,” says Mattingly. “We’ve tried to manipulate it, and for many years, we didn’t see the consequences we were causing. But now we’ve seen it. It took 70 years to break it to the point it’s broken…through regenerative agriculture, in a much, much shorter time, we can restore it.”

This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life. Food Tank was proud to collaborate with Niman Ranch in lifting up family farmer stories, including Mattingly’s, at Climate Week NYC: A Night of Storytelling Honoring Our Farmers. Watch his story and others on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Brian Mattingly

The post A Soil Health Journey at Maker’s Mark appeared first on Food Tank.

“I’ve always been a kid who was very different than others in the Bronx. I would get dirty and dig up rocks. I was always outside. I always was curious about nature, plants, how to grow things,” says Matías. “I feel like every moment that I remember with [my grandmother] was eating and trying new things.”

When Matías lost their grandmother in 2017, they felt called to continue her legacy of growing plants and building community through food. Now, Matías takes a community land stewardship approach to farming at Serra Vida Farm in east-central New York. In its first year, using just one acre of regeneratively managed ground, the farm produced nearly 10,000 pounds of food for mutual aid in its local county and the Bronx.

“Farming is very extractive of the nutrients of the soil, and [I try to be] very mindful of how I’m putting back what I’m taking,” Matías tells Food Tank. “Yes, we are farming…but also we are creating an environment. This is an environment that needs to be sustainable, not just to us and the people we feed, but to the plants, the beneficial bugs, the animals that are around us.”

Matías has practiced this philosophy on farms throughout New York State. They completed an urban agriculture certification program at Farm School NYC and began an apprenticeship with Morning Glory Garden in the Bronx. On a quarter-acre of land, Matías learned how to make the most of small spaces, using drip irrigation, rain barrel systems, solar panels, compost toilets, and more. During the pandemic, they hand-packed and delivered weekly boxes to about 100 families in need.

“It taught me what it meant to have a dignified experience with food,” says Matías. “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, [food is] a necessity…you can see the joy, the appreciation, but also the humility in receiving something that is organically grown in a box, instead of going to Whole Foods. A lot of those folks have never stepped into a Whole Foods because they don’t see themselves affording these things or feel worthy of it.”

Matías practiced regenerative farming on several farms in upstate New York. Still, they wanted to grow different, culturally relevant crops—the plants their grandmother and church community grew, cooked, and shared back in the Bronx.

“We have staple crops, but our Caribbean and South American communities, what do they want? What reminds them of home? What is something that’s hard to get, too expensive, or not in good quality by the time they get to the United States to be sold?” says Matías.

Young farmers like Matías face unprecedented hurdles to acquiring land of their own due to rising land values, competition from corporate developers, a lack of capital, and other financial barriers. According to a 2022 National Young Farmers Coalition report, 59 percent of all young farmers say finding affordable land to buy is “very or extremely challenging.” And BIPOC growers experience the most common challenges for young farmers—including land access and affordability—at even higher rates.

There is a growing movement to help connect these young and beginning farmers with aging farmers who need a transition plan. Nearly one third of farmers in New York are over the age of 65, owning or operating about 2 million acres of farmland. Many lack a succession plan to pass on their farm, putting it at risk of being sold to investors and put under development.

Fourth-generation dairy cattle farmer Tom Hutson was one of these farmers. He lived his entire life on a 257-acre farm close to where Matías was farming, but he did not have an heir to pass the farm onto. Hutson and Matías found a win-win through the American Farmland Trust and Catskill Agrarian Alliance.

“We’re still fundraising to purchase the land by the end of 2026, but the farm was purchased so that Tom could start his retirement from American Farmland Trust,” Matías explains. “They [said], we’ll hold it for you guys so that you guys can raise the money and get your [Community Land Trust] incorporation and organizing structure…It was amazing.”

Serra Vida Farm grows cost-accessible vegetables and herbs for its local county and the Bronx, prioritizing culturally relevant produce. Over the years, Matías collected seeds from the Caribbean—like culantro, yuca, ají dulce peppers, and collard greens—and adapted them to their region of New York through trial and error. Now, they are sharing seeds with local farmers to help bring these flavors to fellow Caribbean Americans.

Hutson, who is 76, has stayed on the farm and serves as a close mentor to Matías—one that is reminiscent of their connection to their grandmother.

“We got really close, he’s taught me so much about this land…I want to know every single crevice and corner so that I can pay it forward so that I can do it justice,” says Matías. “I’m meant to be here. There’s no other place I’d rather be.”

This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life. Food Tank was proud to collaborate with Niman Ranch in lifting up family farmer stories, including Matías‘, at Climate Week NYC: A Night of Storytelling Honoring Our Farmers. Watch their story and others on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Serra Vida Farm

The post Holding Land and Honoring Roots in New York: ‘I’m Meant To Be Here’ appeared first on Food Tank.

“Farmers really care about their animals. We’re still out there raising pigs in the sunshine and wide-open spaces,” says Jennifer. “We’re always learning, always trying to be better. It’s 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

The Van Zantes’ county is heavily populated with hog confinement farms. Hogs outnumber people by a significant margin in Iowa today. According to the National Pork Producers Council, the average inventory of hogs per farm increased from 825 in 1997 to 4,532 in 2022, with some farms housing more than 5,000.

Having grown up just 40 miles away from their current farm, Jennifer witnessed this confinement hog farming boom. She knew she wanted to go a different way with their family farm. “We just knew that wasn’t going to be the way that we would raise hogs,” says Jennifer. “There was no question that we were going to raise them outdoors with plenty of space so they could see the sunshine and root in the dirt…that’s the only way we knew how.”

The Van Zantes’ way of farming requires more labor and flexibility than confinement hog farming. Their pigs are given fresh beds of hay, access to ample outdoor space, and no antibiotics. Because the pigs aren’t housed in a large building, the Van Zantes take extra steps to care for their animals while allowing continual access to fresh air and sunshine. For Jennifer, it’s worth knowing that they are raising a healthy animal. “You can see that the pigs are happy,” she says.

But the rapid expansion of confinement hog farming and agricultural consolidation in the region means that hog farmers are incentivized to raise as many hogs as possible, as inexpensively as possible, if they want to sell in the conventional market. The Van Zantes could only remain small and sustainable through a different kind of market.

In 2017, Seth and Jennifer started partnering with Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent family farmers and ranchers who uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming in exchange for a guaranteed, stable market for their products. This meant they were protected from hog market volatility and fairly compensated for their work.

“Without Niman Ranch, it would just be too hard for the small farmer with just a few hogs to try to market those,” says Jennifer. “We’d probably just raise some for freezer pork and some 4-H projects, but not the capacity that we’re doing right now.”

While construction alone for a confinement hog barn can cost upwards of US$1 million, a farmer can typically start raising pigs for Niman Ranch with their existing infrastructure and a small plot of land: “If you have a barn and some gates and meet space requirements, you can make that work. Even if you had 10 sows, you don’t have to be enormous,” says Jennifer.

The Van Zantes raise around 500 pigs for Niman Ranch today—just a fraction of the average Iowa hog farm, which is estimated at more than 4,600 pigs—and they likely won’t grow any more than that, says Jennifer: “That’s just what our farm can handle and what we know we can handle as farmers right now.”

Joining an independent network has also helped the Van Zantes support the next generation. Seth and Jennifer’s sons have both received multiple scholarships from the Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm, to support their college education. The Foundation aims to support young farmers who are committed to sustainable practices and helping their rural communities thrive. It receives donations from well-known food businesses including Chipotle and ButcherBox.

“The amount that they give out is significant for farm families to keep their kids in school,” says Jennifer. “To see all the restaurants and the grocery stores coming together to support the farmers who are raising the meat that’s in their store, that’s incredible…I don’t think you see that with your large-scale operations.”

Jennifer says that witnessing the next generation’s enthusiasm, increased interest in local food systems, and support for independent farmers gives her hope for the future.

“People are putting good quality meats in their grocery store cases and on the restaurant plates,” says Jennifer. “The numbers continue to grow. I don’t have any trouble finding customers who want farm-fresh pork or beef. Farmers markets are making a comeback, everybody’s wanting that again. They’re seeing the benefits of less processed food.”

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Photo courtesy of Seth and Jennifer Van Zante

The post Building a Different Pork Market: ‘We’re Still Out There Raising Pigs in the Sunshine and Wide-Open Spaces’ appeared first on Food Tank.

Todd saw the United States hog market crash in the late 1990s, when Trent was a kid. Many of their neighbors “got rid of [pigs] and never got back in,” he says. Today, agricultural consolidation and low prices make it very difficult to be an independent pig farmer. Large-scale confinement pig farms make up the majority of pork production in Iowa. But critics contend that these buildings cost upwards of US$1 million to build, produce pollution, and yield low-quality meat. Trent had no interest in that route.

“I don’t care for confinements at all whatsoever…I’ve worked in them, and it’s not what my idea of hog farming looks like,” says Trent. “I have butchered pigs that come out of hog confinements and it tastes like crap…I mean, I wouldn’t eat it. I wouldn’t expect other people to eat it.”

Trent started raising pigs “the old way.” Raising them outdoors, with room to roam, and without antibiotics. He started with 5 sows, which are female pigs used for breeding. It went well. Breathing fresh air makes a big difference in pig health, says Trent, and he encountered far fewer health problems than what he saw working on confinement farms.

“On dirt, they just look healthier. They get minerals from the dirt,” says Trent. “We hardly ever have to treat because they’re outside, and I think that has a lot to do with it…just like with colds in people, you get everybody in one building, one person gets sick and makes it 100 times easier for everybody else to get sick. That’s what it’s like in the hog confinement operations.” 

Still, Trent was competing against large, conventional farms that benefited from economies of scale. His pigs were healthier, but he was getting the same price for his work as any other pig farmer. In addition, prices fluctuated unpredictably, making it difficult to plan for the future.

This all changed when Trent found a network of farmers and ranchers that uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices—practices he was already using on his farm—in exchange for a guaranteed market for their premium, antibiotic-free products. He reached out immediately, and soon, he was one of hundreds of farmers raising livestock for Niman Ranch. His herd grew to 30 sows and he plans to continue growing, hopefully one day working solely on Banes Family Farm.

“It was a lot better when we got into Niman Ranch because it was a lot more stable,” says Trent. “You knew what you were getting. And you were actually paid for how you raised your hogs instead of nobody caring.”

The Banes say that they would probably not be raising hogs without the Niman Ranch network, because the hog industry incentivizes efficiency over pig health and sustainability. But Trent argues that his way of farming is better for the overall food system.

“It’s probably more efficient in a confinement because you’re controlling the weather essentially. But look at the grocery stores for instance. Look at how much food they throw away because nobody’s purchasing it…more goes to waste than what people realize,” says Trent. “[And there are] environmental factors, too. With nitrates in the groundwater from the confinements and air quality issues.”

Trent is encouraged by the positive feedback he hears from customers, chefs, and other farmers. His pork has won awards at Niman Ranch’s Annual Hog Farmer Appreciation Celebration for top pork quality, and many eaters share that it is the best pork they have ever tasted.

Trent wishes more eaters understood the dedication and work that small-scale farmers like himself put in to raise their pigs sustainably and humanely.

“I know a few people that have confinements. The pigs are just a commodity to them…get them in, get them out, make the money,” says Trent. “Whereas we and other Niman Ranch farmers really care about the pigs.”

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Photo courtesy of the Banes

The post Bringing Back ‘The Old Way’ of Pig Farming appeared first on Food Tank.

“On the commercial market, you just kept losing outlets to sell your pigs,” says Larry. “In the last 10 or 15 years, the number of outlets for the commercial producer to sell their pigs dramatically dropped. [Until] it was basically just Tyson.”

Yet Larry’s son Caleb has always had an interest in raising pigs. In 2018, Caleb took over the family’s hog farming work, becoming a fifth-generation Banowetz farmer as a junior in high school. He remembers facing the same hurdles his father warned him about.

“The market selling commercially small-scale was really bad economically for me,” says Caleb. “It was tough to find buying stations…So you would drive an hour and a half away, and the price was just terrible. I was losing money each year. I don’t know how many more years I could have kept going backwards on my money, trying to make it work.”

The U.S. hog industry has seen a “rapid shift to fewer and larger operations” over the past 40 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since 1990, the number of farms with hogs has declined by more than 70 percent while individual farm size has increased. This consolidation has meant reduced competition and lower prices for small-scale, family farmers like Larry and Caleb.

The common belief among hog farmers is that factory farming—or raising hogs in large, confined animal operations where they are packed tightly together—is the only way to raise pigs efficiently and cost-effectively, says Caleb. But the Banowetz family has always gone against the norm.

“Sometimes you get funny looks. ‘Oh my gosh, you’re raising pigs outside. What are you doing?’” says Caleb.

Raising pigs outdoors requires less equipment and lower input costs, Caleb explains, but also more labor. He prefers putting in the extra work to see his pigs outside. Unfortunately, after his first couple of years pig farming, Caleb hadn’t been able to show bankers he could profitably raise his animals on a small scale outdoors. Some refused to continue lending him money.

Then, in 2021, one of Caleb’s college professors introduced him to Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers who uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices. In exchange, they access a stable, premium market for their hogs.

Caleb was immediately drawn to the opportunity. Larry was supportive, but he remembers finding the concept hard to believe: “I was like, how’s this going to work out?”

Niman Ranch farmers raise pigs outdoors with deep bedding—the way the Banowetz family has always done—but they are also antibiotic-free. Transitioning away from antibiotics was a leap of faith for the family, Larry admits, and both he and Caleb were surprised by the result.

“I was around pigs for 45 years until he brought this Niman,” says Larry. “With antibiotic-free…you worry about death and loss. I have been amazed at how healthy [the pigs] are and how they’ve done…it’s really worked out well for Caleb.” They focus on raising their pigs in low stress environments and boosting the pigs’ immune systems naturally.

Companies like Niman Ranch lower the barrier to entry for young farmers like Caleb. Iowa farmland prices reached a record high in 2023, with an average price of US$11,835 per acre. And to raise pigs on the commercial market, the price of the infrastructure alone—typically around US$1 million for a conventional hog building—is usually a non-starter for young farmers. But with Niman Ranch, a farmer can get started with as little as US$1,000 and renting a neighbor’s old barn, Caleb says.

“[Niman Ranch] helps the farmer out by putting money in their pocket to help expand, whereas in the commercial market, you’re out there on your own. There’s nobody to help you,” says Caleb, who received scholarships from the Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation to pay his way through college as well as grants to get his operation off the ground.

Caleb is now expanding his farm to raise about 2,000 pigs. He can now show bankers a “flat line of income,” as opposed to the ups and downs typical of the commercial market. He recently purchased his own farm and plans to use his pig manure to fertilize crop fields and build soil health.

Caleb and Larry hope to give the next generation an easier entry into farming, should they choose to continue the family legacy.

“You’re going to have a positive financial outcome here. That’s a big deal to provide some stability; it helps bring the younger generation back,” says Larry. “I wish I would have known about it, honestly. I would have been raising pigs for Niman Ranch for 20-plus years now, had I known.”

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Photo courtesy of Caleb Banowetz. 

The post Fifth-Generation Farmer Revives a Family Tradition  appeared first on Food Tank.

“In farming, you’ve got to pour yourself into it and it becomes your life,” says Jake Beeler, a third-generation farmer in Wisconsin who partners with specialty meat company Niman Ranch to market his cattle. “You have it bred into you at a young age…to just do the work, get it done, throw your stuff on the back burner, and ignore it. That mentality doesn’t work, but that’s what’s been bred into the farming families.”

Agriculture is often wrapped into farmers’ identities, which can exasperate the stressors inherent to the job, says Remington Rice, PhD, Health and Farm Stress Extension Educator at Michigan State University Extension.

“When you’re a farmer, you live, sleep, and breathe agriculture. It’s really a way of life as well as a profession,” says Rice. “And when the farm is threatened, it is a threat to your identity and your purpose in life at a higher level.”

In 2021, 63 percent of farmers and farmworkers surveyed by the American Farm Bureau Federation said that there is at least some stigma around stress and mental health in the agriculture community. Farmers are often hesitant to seek help in small rural communities, where their vehicle might be recognized in the parking lot of a mental healthcare facility, and they struggle to connect with providers who understand their way of life.

“It’s challenging for farmers to find the time to seek or schedule treatment while working long days, or to find health care providers who understand the unique challenges of farming, the intersections with climate change and climate stress, and the inextricable link between their work, their livelihood, and their sense of purpose in the world,” says Katherine Un, Co-Executive Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition.

Major mental health organizations across the U.S. have support programs designed to address rural and agricultural health, but few focus specifically on farmer mental health. For example, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has funded 12 Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health nationwide, which largely focus on physical health and safety but sometimes collaborate on farmer mental health regionally. The National Institute of Mental Health has also funded numerous mental health research projects but lacks a specific focus on farmer mental health.

Farmers who do seek help may need to drive hours to appointments. Half of the counties in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, for example, have no psychiatrists serving residents. And many farmers lack health insurance or funds to cover out-of-pocket expenses for mental health treatment: 41 percent of U.S. dairy farmers don’t have any health insurance coverage, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“I’m sure there are mental health resources, but anybody that I know that ends up going down that road, money is a huge issue,” says Beeler. “Why go spend money talking to somebody when I could be at work getting stuff done? That’s the mindset that gets bred into you as a farmer.”

Beeler and his family mitigate financial stress by working with Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers that uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming in exchange for a guaranteed market for their products. This has provided stability in a volatile market, as well as a community and robust support network of fellow farmers.

“We have been very blessed and fortunate with Niman, just with what they do for farmers,” says Beeler. “Our finances aren’t great but they’re also not bad. We’re still afloat, and I do thank them for that…they’ve always tried to keep us moving forward, that’s their main goal.”

Beeler’s faith, church, and close-knit community have played a critical role in helping him overcome mental health struggles like depression in the past. And according to Ted Matthews, Director of the Rural Mental Health Outreach program in Minnesota, this type of basic community support can go a long way. Taking any action to reach out to a farmer who might be in need is better than doing nothing.

“Oftentimes…the higher the stress level that they have, the more they pull back, the less they talk, the less they share, until they get to a point where they just simply don’t feel like they can handle it anymore,” says Matthews. “Truthfully, this is a community issue…do something. Remember, if you’re wrong and they’re actually fine, then you’re a little bit embarrassed. If you’re right, you might have saved a life.”

Organizations such as Annie’s Project are providing community-based mental health solutions outside of the traditional therapy model. The nonprofit partners on Cultivating Resiliency Programs, which are anonymous opportunities for farmers to get together virtually and share what’s on their minds with both their peers and licensed counselors.

“It’s amazing the things that get talked about,” says Doris Mold, Co-CEO of Annie’s Project. Providing connection and community can make a significant impact: farmers have told Mold that Cultivating Resiliency programs saved their lives.

And the Young Farmers Cultivemos network facilitates farmer cohorts, regular farmer-led and farmer-centered events, newsletters, resource-sharing, and training to improve farmers’ mental health and wellbeing. Un says that resources and spaces that truly build community are key in fighting isolation and addressing mental health challenges.

“Farmers are often the best support for one another as they thoroughly understand the challenges, risks, and rewards of the industry and by nature have a deep understanding of how to create truly farmer- and equity-centric resources,” says Un.

But Un emphasizes that—in addition to these support networks—work is needed at the policy level to address the root causes of the farmer mental health crisis.

“As a country, we need to meaningfully address the top challenges facing the new generation of farmers and ranchers: affordable land access, access to capital, climate change, health insurance, student loan debt, affordable housing, racial inequity,” says Un. “Until these barriers are addressed through the Farm Bill, farmers will continue to face high levels of stress, uncertainty, financial risk, and a lack of safety nets.”

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Photo courtesy of Rebecca Ritchie, Unsplash

The post We’re Ignoring a Major Public Health Crisis—Farmer Mental Health appeared first on Food Tank.

“I’ve always liked working; the challenge of [farming], the freedom of it, the personal responsibility of it,” says Hutton.

The Huttons have built a small-scale, diversified farming business that can support the next generation financially. But this is not typical for a family farmer in the United States.

Consolidation throughout the agricultural sector has made it difficult for small, independent farms like the Huttons’ to survive. The number of farms in the U.S. decreased by 72 percent between 1935 and 2023, while the average farm size nearly tripled. Only 4 percent of U.S. farms now control two-thirds of total agricultural land, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Many small-scale farmers struggle to make ends meet: in 2022, 40 percent of American farmers worked 200 or more days off the farm.

“Our area is very big into poultry. And getting into poultry got very, very expensive…because infrastructure [costs] really ramped up,” says Hutton, who decided poultry farming was not the right fit for his family. Instead, the Huttons chose a different path. In 2016, they began pig farming by joining Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers. Niman Ranch members uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices, and they receive a stable, premium market for their pork products. This allowed Hutton to diversify his income without going into debt. He could become a livestock farmer by using existing infrastructure or building barns that could be repurposed for other ventures if he decided to change course.

“It was realistic, affordable, and it started generating money pretty quickly,” says Hutton. “We had the labor, we had the desire…and pigs turn around fairly quickly. It didn’t take long for us to be in it, to be selling the end product to Niman Ranch and getting money right back in.”

Hutton credits this network for allowing him to hire his son, Matt, on the farm full-time: “It’s given us year-round work, year-round cash flow income. It’s profitable. It’s been a really good thing.”

Niman Ranch’s core principles of environmental stewardship aligned well with Hutton’s existing farming practices. Hutton grew up working to build soil health through methods like no-till and cover crops, because Chesapeake Bay Watershed soils are typically low in organic matter. Now that he raises pigs, he can apply nutrient-rich solid manure to the family’s grain fields, helping to build soil health further and reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers—a benefit for both the environment and his wallet.

And for Hutton, pig farming has not only improved soil health and yield but also reminded him why he loves farming.

“Grain farming is very rewarding, but there’s basically zero contact with consumers,” says Hutton. “Now, we feel like we’re producing something that goes right to people who are going to eat it. And that changes the investment and how we look at things there.”

Hutton feeds his grain crops to the pigs, which produce manure that he uses to nourish the ground and repeat the cycle. While grain farming has a distinct season, the pigs require daily tasks and maintenance year-round. Hutton explains that this makes him feel more connected to his farming work and the customers who consume his products.

“Livestock changes the focus of everything,” he says. “It makes it all seem like it fits whole again… it completes the loop.”

Hutton hopes that companies like Niman Ranch with a stronger connection to consumers will help to get more people interested in where their food comes from.

“Maybe it reverses that trend, where people start realizing a little bit more that food doesn’t just come from the grocery store,” says Hutton. “There is somebody out there that’s actually raising this [animal] and putting time into it and caring about it.”

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Photo courtesy of Niman Ranch

The post Family Farmer Finds a Connection to Eaters Through Livestock appeared first on Food Tank.

As a fourth-generation farmer, Trisha says that her farm today looks a lot different from her childhood.

“Nowadays, if you’re not willing to adapt or change your mindset, I just don’t think you’re going to make it,” says Trisha, whose approach to agriculture has evolved throughout her life. “I sold pesticides for 10 years, and now I don’t. In fact, now I am a regenerative farmer.”

Trisha grew up farming with her family, and she knew she would one day raise her own family on a farm. She studied agriculture in college and worked for a pesticide company for about a decade. As her work in the industry introduced her to many different types of farmers, she slowly became interested in more sustainable and regenerative farming practices.

“I definitely would have never guessed I would be doing this right now,” says Trisha. “Which is great…I definitely changed.”

For Trisha, sustainability means “freedom to really farm how we should be farming,” including being freed from the volatile cost of inputs like synthetic fertilizers.

Fertilizer costs rose by more than 33 percent from 2020 to 2021 because of several factors, including extreme weather events and the Russian war against Ukraine. This was soon after the Zachmans founded Feathered Acres Learning Farm & Inn with substantial startup expenses. They began adding cover crops on their fields to build soil health, helping reduce their need for added fertilizers. Healthy soils are high in soil organic matter, which helps retain moisture, prevent water runoff, reduce erosion, and protect crops from disease and pests—providing both environmental and economic benefits to the farm.

Now the Zachmans have some Certified Organic fields and are implementing regenerative farming practices wherever possible to build healthy soils and a resilient farm. But it’s a process of trial and error. There is no manual for regenerative farming, and what works for one farm might not work for the next. Trisha says that this experimentation is inherent to being a farmer.

“Farmers are the original researchers,” says Trisha. “They’re always doing something different and figuring out what works best for them.”

Two years ago, the family experimented by starting to farrow their mother pigs on pasture rather than inside barns. They learned that it could benefit the pigs’ health from other farmers partnering with Niman Ranch, which is a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent United States family farmers and ranchers. Trisha says they quickly saw that the change was a success: “Moving them out on pasture…they just thrive out there giving birth, and they’re happy.”

Niman Ranch farmers uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices, and in return, they receive a guaranteed market for their pork products at a premium. Trisha says niche markets like this are critical to keeping small family farms like theirs alive.

“If we didn’t have Niman Ranch, we wouldn’t be raising pigs…we are a small farm and 225 pigs is just tiny on the scale of the large conventional operations. Niman gives us the opportunity to just be a small family farm,” says Trisha. “We don’t have to hire multiple people to run the farm. We don’t have to invest in huge buildings. It’s more manageable for us and our kids.”

Niman Ranch cultivates a strong relationship with its farmers and focuses on supporting the next generation. The Zachmans received a US$10,000 grant from the Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm, to expand and replace their pasture fencing. Trisha has traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for humane hog farming practices, and she speaks at events to educate both farmers and consumers about sustainable and humane farming practices.

“I’m very hopeful because I see more and more big companies starting to source responsibly raised ingredients, and they’re putting money out there for farmers to do sustainable practices,” says Trisha. “I hope that keeps growing…I think there’s a lot of hope for the future, because there are young farmers out there that have open minds.”

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Photo courtesy of Trisha and Nolan Zachman

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“Pig farmers, they’re there 365 days a year taking care of those animals,” says McCleary, a fourth-generation farmer at McCleary Farms in West-Central Illinois. “Going to Florida on vacation isn’t always an option for a livestock farmer. Or being able to go visit family or be there for every basketball game or holiday or wedding…there are a lot of sacrifices that must be taken to get food on everybody’s plate.”

Today, the majority (75 percent) of U.S. pork production comes from large operations with 5,000 or more pigs, according to the latest Census of Agriculture, and the animals are most often kept in crowded confinement buildings without fresh air or sunshine. But the McCleary family raises pigs sustainably in open spaces, providing fresh bedding and never using antibiotics. This is a more labor-intensive way of farming that allows the pigs to express their natural behaviors—and it produces better-tasting meat, according to McCleary.

“The easy modern way isn’t always the best way,” says McCleary. “We believe that being able to raise the pigs out on dirt and have them outside and in the mud and in the weather, makes them not only happier but they’re much heartier. The sickness is very, very minimal. The quality of the animal is just better.”

This way of farming has also provided critical economic sustainability for the family.

The McClearys raised pigs for generations, but they were forced to get out of the hog business—like many of their neighbors—during the hog market crash of 1998. In 2016, they began working with Niman Ranch, a network of over 600 small to mid-sized, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers that uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices. Niman Ranch provides a guaranteed market for their products that pays a premium, allowing the McClearys to raise pigs once again in the fresh air with space to roam and use their farm’s existing infrastructure.

“It gave us a lot more freedom that way,” says McCleary. “It also brought a smile back to my dad and my grandpa having pigs back on a farm and raising them again.”

A guaranteed market for their hogs has allowed McCleary to support his family on the farm without going into debt or taking an off-farm job. He earned his college degree with help from a Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation scholarship, and when he returned to the farm full-time after graduation, the company provided grant funding that allowed him to buy half of his herd to get started.

McCleary says that this type of support for young farmers is an important way to keep smaller farms afloat.

“Access to farming is so difficult today with the prices of equipment, land, and materials…without a head start, it is very, very, very challenging,” says McCleary. “As a small family farmer, it’s heartbreaking. I’m one of very few young farmers.”

When McCleary’s father was in high school, many of his classmates were involved on a farm. By the time McCleary attended the same school a couple of decades later, he was one of two in his class who were raised on a farm. And one can see this trend nationally—the average age of a U.S. farmer is 58 years old, according to the latest Census of Agriculture, compared to 50 years old in 1978. With fewer from the next generation taking over family farms, they are often bought by large-scale farmers and consolidated.

Companies like Niman Ranch are helping to reverse this shift through scholarships, grant funding, and other support for young farmers: the average age of a Niman Ranch farmer is 43 years old. McCleary, at 24 years old, says maintaining the family farm for the next generation is his number one goal.

“Companies like Niman are helping kids return to the family farm, especially if they are a smaller farm,” says McCleary. He hopes that as more consumers become interested in where their food comes from, “we will be able to shine a brighter light on agriculture” and provide more resources to small-scale, sustainable family farms as well as new and beginning farms.

“Most people wake up, eat, and eat. It’s one of the first things that they do. They can’t get out the door without thinking of a farmer—or shouldn’t,” says McCleary. “Being a part of that is a very big honor to me to be able to say that I help feed people.”

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Photo courtesy of Kody McCleary

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“Animal science is what’s taught in college now…It used to be animal husbandry, [meaning] the real relationship it takes to steward and take care of these animals, not just produce pork,” says Roberts.

Today, 22-year-old Roberts is enlisted with the Nebraska Army National Guard while working as a fifth-generation farmer with his parents at Roberts Family Farm in Southwest Iowa. The family’s farm serves as a model for how smaller-scale, humane hog farming can be both environmentally and economically sustainable. But like Roberts’ professors, some neighbors are skeptical about this way of farming.

“Other farmers look at us a little bit funny,” says Roberts. “We’re so much smaller than anyone else. There’s a question of, ‘how can these guys possibly be operating profitably when they haven’t taken advantage of economies of scale?’”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Iowa lost nearly 90 percent of its hog farms from 1982 to 2017 due to consolidation and low prices. Roberts’ family was “looking for a way out of the rat race of commodity farming” around the turn of the century, and his father learned about an alternative market for their hogs: Niman Ranch.

Niman Ranch is a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent United States family farmers and ranchers that uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices in exchange for a guaranteed market for their products. Roberts says that joining Niman Ranch allowed the family to continue farming.

“Crop prices have been up and down in the past…you have good years and bad years. But the stability that Niman Ranch has provided us in the past 22 years has enabled us to hang on to the farm with really minimal worries,” says Roberts. “It’s so much less risk than your average producer deals with.”

This economic stability meant that Roberts could return to the family farm after graduating from college. He and his brother have also received Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation scholarships, which support young farmers who are committed to sustainability and helping rural communities thrive. And in 2023, Roberts interned with the company to learn about other parts of the hog business, an experience that took him on the road connecting with eaters and chefs.

While his family’s way of farming remains a minority in Iowa, Roberts has seen a shift among his peers toward more sustainable and humane farming practices.

“The next generation of farmers…they know that something is wrong in the wider industry and that something has got to change. If they want to pursue their dream of farming, they’ve got to find a different way to do things,” says Roberts. “People are waking up to it…It’s not just a niche thing like my professors are saying. It’s growing, and it’s going to keep growing.”

Recent legislation among states has demonstrated a rise in demand for sustainably and humanely raised hogs. For example, Massachusetts passed “An Act to Prevent Cruelty to Farm Animals” in 2016, which requires the state’s farmers to give pigs enough room to turn around, stand up, lie down, and fully extend their limbs in their pens. California’s Proposition 12 similarly requires breeding pigs to be housed with freedom of movement and minimum floor space requirements.

Roberts says the quality of meat produced sustainably and humanely speaks for itself. One of the most rewarding aspects of his work has been watching people’s reactions when they eat his family’s pork for the first time.

“I grew up eating Niman Ranch pork every day for lunch and dinner. That’s the bacon that we had for breakfast. I was only eating this premium pork and beef my entire life,” says Roberts. “And then I get exposure to these world-class chefs, they know a thing or two about a pork chop…they take a bite, and they’re just so blown away.”

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Photo courtesy of Ethan Roberts

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I’ll start by sharing one of my favorite lines of the day: Just crying about climate change is not enough.

Geoffrey Hawtin, Executive Board Member for the Crop Trust and the recipient of the 2024 World Food Prize, points out that the world’s poorest countries have been disproportionately impacted by climate change, but now the Global North is beginning to see significant impacts too: Parts of Asia, Europe, Central America, and the United States are all currently experiencing record-breaking heat waves.

“Maybe that’s going to be enough to wake people up,” says Hawtin. Wake people up to go beyond far-off commitments and take more ambitious, concrete action.

Tackling climate change requires first understanding that food production and the environment cannot be treated separately—this has been one of the key arguments of The Right Honorable the Lord Deben, who chaired the UK Government’s Committee on Climate Change for over a decade.

“We have to look at everything through the lens of climate change…Nothing we do is unconnected with solving this problem,” says Lord Deben.

And that includes the food we eat every day—how it is grown, transported, stored, and disposed of.

We need more consumers demanding food systems change by purchasing sustainable food options. Adele Jones, Executive Director of The Sustainable Food Trust, says that “we have to make it super easy and transparent” for consumers to make informed, holistic decisions.

And sometimes small changes can make a surprising impact: Nomad Foods’ recent 18-month-long study found that storing your frozen food at -15°C instead of the industry standard of -18°C can reduce freezer energy consumption by between 10 and 11 percent without impacting food safety or quality.

And we have roadmaps, including one from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, to help us guide us in food systems transformation.

But roadmaps alone aren’t enough.

“We don’t have enough ambition in how we tackle climate change,” says Zitouni Ould-Dada, Senior Advisor at FAIRR.

Ould-Dada calls for countries to make more ambitious and specific NDCs (national climate action plans), ones that include a concrete plan to transition to sustainable and resilient food systems. There must be clear pathways including targets, milestones, and actions across sectors.

And the investment community needs to step up to the plate: Food systems receive just over 4 percent of total public climate finance, lagging far behind energy and transport. “The food system can’t change overnight, but the flow of finance can,” says Dharshan Wignarajah, UK Director of the Climate Policy Initiative.

There is a lack of awareness among financiers, both about the importance of food and agriculture and the complexities of its solutions: “Finance is complicated. It goes to where it’s easiest to deploy,” says Wignarajah.

“We need to change the nature of the conversation,” says Jack Bobo, Director of the Food Systems Institute at the University of Nottingham. “How we talk about it is the single biggest barrier” to connecting investors to these issues.

The climate conversation often centers heavily on carbon. But the pandemic showed us the need for resilient supply chains, and nature-friendly farming has benefits that go beyond reducing carbon.

We need to avoid carbon tunnel vision, says Julia Collins, Founder and CEO of Planet FWD.

And young people who are shifting the conversation and working toward food systems transformation around the world, and London Climate Action Week was no exception. Young people taking action today “are going to be the lifeline,” says Asma Khan, Celebrity Chef, British Restaurateur, and Owner of Darjeeling Express.

One point repeated throughout our Summit is the power of collaboration and building relationships. It will take all of us—farmers, businesses, policymakers, investors, researchers, advocates, and eaters—to come together. And that means that we have to break down siloes and build trust between one another, so that we can work together and leverage our collective expertise to achieve what I like to think of as mass incremental change.

It was an inspiring summit highlighting  the solutions and opportunities that were shared with us in London, the networks and collaborations that are so fundamental to food systems change.

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Photo courtesy of Shai Dolev

The post We Need to Change the Conversation about Food and Climate. Here’s What Leaders Have to Say appeared first on Food Tank.

“The industry trends have just made it more difficult for a small acreage farmer to produce a profit and almost certainly they prohibit you from making a living at it,” says Shaun Miller, farmer at Miller Hogs and Hay in central Iowa, who partners with specialty meat company Niman Ranch to market his pigs. “It changes what your vision of a family farm is and how you have to go about getting there.”

Between 1935 and 2023, the number of farms in the U.S. decreased by 72 percent, while the average farm size nearly tripled. Farmers have reduced the amount of labor and land used to farm and increased inputs such as machinery, farm structures, fertilizer, and pesticides, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Today, just four companies represent 73 percent of U.S. beef processing and 67 percent of pork processing, and only four corporations control 65 percent of the global agrochemicals market.

“To farm in a modern way, you have to be large, you have to have economies of scale, and that requires an impressive amount of chemical, genetic, and machine technology,” says Dr. David Peters, Professor of Agricultural and Rural Policy at Iowa State University. “A lot of smaller farmers cannot make those investments…[They] are increasingly falling behind and they drop out.”

Consolidation has had a range of negative impacts for U.S. family farmers, says Jordan Treakle, National Programs and Policy Coordinator at the National Family Farm Coalition: Fewer and less competitive markets, which usually lowers prices for producers; fewer places to source agricultural inputs, which usually means higher transport costs and traveling time for farmers; and fewer locally adapted seed options.

“Independent family farms are the bedrock of healthy rural economies,” says Treakle. But “systemic low prices have undermined farmer livelihoods and forced hundreds of thousands of family farmers out of business across the country.”

As farming becomes more expensive and uncertain—and urban areas provide more job opportunities and off-farm career paths—young people are migrating out of rural communities. Departures from rural counties over the past two decades have outweighed new arrivals. Meanwhile, the average age of U.S. farm producers rose from about 50 years old in 1978 to 58 years in 2022, according to the USDA.

Population decline has meant the loss of essential public infrastructure for many rural communities—such as schools, clinics, hospitals, and local food infrastructure—and the loss of middle-income jobs.

“You have this growing inequality,” says Peters. “As the population declines, you don’t need as many school teachers. The school consolidates. You lose your hospital. There goes the jobs of nurses and other healthcare workers. As the population continues to decline, and the only people making money is a small segment of rich owners…you lose that rural professional service industry.”

And consolidation has had significant social consequences: According to a 2021 Union of Concerned Scientists study, the number of young and beginning farmers has declined faster in U.S. counties experiencing faster farmland consolidation. States experiencing the most consolidation have the lowest proportion of Black farmers, while those with the least consolidation tend to have higher proportions.

“[This study] provides an important data-driven analysis of trends we’ve been hearing about in our membership, particularly among our farmers of color, for decades,” says Treakle. “As our food and agriculture sector becomes more consolidated across the board, this puts economic pressure on producers to scale up operations—including how much farmland they own—which in turn can exacerbate systemic socio-economic inequalities.”

Miller felt this pressure growing up in central Iowa. Despite being a fourth-generation farmer, he had to work a desk job for two decades before farming even part-time was feasible. He recalls seeing independent farms decline significantly in the early 1990s and being unsure whether he could make it as a small-scale, sustainable hog farmer, which is now a rarity in central Iowa.

“I came from a family farm that was squeezed out by consolidation, a loss of public markets, and high interest rates,” says Miller. “When I left high school…farming was not an option.”

Miller found a path to profitability by joining Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers that uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming in exchange for a guaranteed market for their product. It offers a way for Miller to raise hogs as an independent producer and not worry about the conventional market’s volatile prices. Niman Ranch recently conducted an economic impact analysis of its business model and found that it generates 50 percent more economic value for rural communities and 150 percent more jobs than the conventional model per 100,000 pigs.

“These are great outlets for producers who embrace the old-fashioned methods like they grew up on,” says Miller. Miller raises his pigs using practices including no crates, antibiotic free and with plenty of room to roam.

In addition to companies like Niman Ranch, public policy can address agricultural consolidation, the loss of family farms, and the range of negative impacts these trends have had on rural communities across the U.S.

The 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy aimed to increase options for smaller farms by encouraging stronger enforcement of antitrust laws. And in 2024, the USDA issued the Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity rule under the Packers and Stockyards Act, designed to establish clearer, more effective standards to prevent discrimination, retaliation, and deception against producers and growers.

But Miller, Peters, and Treakle say much more is needed to promote stronger rural off-farm economies, maintain middle-income jobs that supplement farm income, and mitigate rural population loss.

“I think there is a general recognition in most of rural America that much of the agricultural policy landscape is not centering on supporting small and mid-scale independent farmers,” says Treakle. “Status quo of the past decades is simply not working for most independent family farmers.”

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Photo courtesy of Sparks Johnson, Unsplash

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