Training Future Farmers To Grow More Than Food

On an October afternoon at Agroecology Commons Farm, as a heat wave swept through the East Bay, Brooke Porter and Alexa Levy prepared to harvest the last of the vegetables, sow cover crops, and let the land rest for the winter. After their first season growing food, Porter and Levy looked forward to the coming quiet. Still, their sights remained firmly ahead. 

Located on a hillside in El Sobrante, the three-acre farm is part of Agroecology Commons, a collective dedicated to advancing justice in the food system. The site is being developed as an educational incubator farm, designed to provide on-farm learning and land access for primarily BIPOC and queer farmers. On the day I visited, the last of the season’s kale and cilantro striped the farm in terraced rows. A crew of workers was busy laying stones to frame the farm’s new outdoor classroom — an open-air circle that overlooks Mount Tamalpais. It will soon serve as a gathering place for the Bay Area Farmer-to-Farmer Training Program, a project the farmers are excited to grow. 

Outside the farm’s tool lending library, Porter, Levy, and I sit at a round glass table and discuss their hopes for Agroecology Commons Farm and the collective’s future. The longtime friends wear floppy straw sun hats and long sleeves under matching brown overalls. They speak with a calm intention about their work. “Land is very contentious,” Porter tells me. “Our agricultural system was built on stolen land and slavery. And I think there’s a real need to reckon with that.” Agroecology Commons was born out of a desire to offer an alternative that prioritizes equity, sustainability, and community. Their farm was never intended to be just a place to grow organic food — it was part of their larger vision for a radically different food system. 

They founded the collective in 2020, during the throes of the pandemic. The cracks in the food system were becoming increasingly visible, Levy, a founding board member, tells me. Suddenly, people began to realize the importance of creating localized systems, she says. Porter, who co-founded the collective, wanted to create a cooperative model for advancing agro-ecological land stewardship and justice. 

When the collective acquired the three acres of land in El Sobrante, it hadn’t been farmed for over 50 years. The farmland itself is a testament to community effort; once slated for suburban development, a group of neighbors in El Sobrante came together to protect the land and Garrity Creek, which runs through the farm. Today, the land teems with signs of life. 

Last year, the farmers spread native wildflowers, which are now in bloom in green and yellow patches across the land, buzzing with pollinators. “We’re watching the soil structure actively change,” Porter says. The farm now has a tool lending library, beehives in the apiary, a wash station, and shaded places for farmers to rest. “That’s all been a container for us to invite people here,” Levy says. The land is also home to three other organizations: Goat Wild Collective, Planting Justice, and the Sogorea Te Land Trust. The four organizations share equipment, offer assistance to one another, and come together once a month for a potluck. 

Central to Agroecology Commons’ work is the Bay Area Farmer-to-Farmer Training Program, a nine-month program that facilitates on-farm agroecological training between experienced and beginning farmers from BIPOC, gender-marginalized, queer, and working-class backgrounds. 

“[Agroecology Commons] has created a trusting space to get folks to feel the welcome and motivation and comfort to begin to enter into agriculture,” says Reyna Yagi, a program alumna who now runs her own organic farm in Sebastopol, California, where she hosts BAFFT participants. Yagi notes that the U.S. agricultural system has historically been dominated by white men and geared towards supporting industrial-scale operations. 

Across the country, however, we are witnessing a shift in farm-ownership demographics, Yagi points out. U.S. farmers are aging; the number of food producers over the age of 65 has increased by 12% since 2017. However, in 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture also observed an increase in the number of beginning farmers. This shift, Yagi notes, presents an opportunity to rethink our food system — “How can we ensure growth in a way that gives people a chance at ownership, agency, and positions that aren’t normally afforded to the BIPOC community?” she says. 

Access to farmland — particularly in California, where the average price is $15,880 per acre — remains a major barrier to entry for beginning farmers. By offering incubator plots for farmers to start out on, Agroecology Commons helps to alleviate that burden, which Yagi believes is essential. “The future of ag training is continually resourcing people along this journey that can no longer be done alone,” she says. 

Though similar farmer training and incubator programs have sprouted up across the state and county, Porter says that what sets BAFFT apart is that it centers political education. After looking for a farming training program, “[BAFFT] spoke to me pretty loudly,” Yagi says. “They took far more of a zoomed-out, social, cultural, and political [focus], versus just strictly environmental, ecological, and scientific.” During one week, the farmers learn technical skills, like tractor safety and use; the next, they focus on agrarian-based social movements, with activists coming to talk about food sovereignty and land justice, Porter explains. For the first time this year, the collective offered the training in Spanish as well as English. 

After completing BAFFT, participants can continue their education at Agroecology Commons by farming their own plots of land or participating in a paid apprenticeship with one of the collective’s partner farmers. They can also apply for seed grants to support their independent projects. After graduating, Yagi participated in two paid apprenticeships, where she learned practices that have been critical to her farm’s success. More than that, she’s developed a network. “It’s helped me build my own community and find other trusted areas for support from other farmers and other organizations,” Yagi says. “I think that’s the new model.” It’s no longer about individualism, she says. 

In the Bay Area — which has emerged as “a huge epicenter of community focusing on our deep relationship with what we eat and nourishing the land” Levy says — Agroecology Commons has been overwhelmed with applicants for BAFFT. The organization has been fortunate to receive a large number of the grants they’ve applied for, she says, including a nearly $800,000 urban agriculture grant from the California Department of Food & Agriculture. “The majority of that funding is going to move directly to farmers,” Levy says. “They will be able to apply and really get the support that they need.” 

As the hottest season on record came to a close, Porter and Levy reflected on their role in addressing climate change. The collective is enhancing biodiversity on the farm, not just with crops, but by creating habitat for native pollinators and beneficial insects, Porter says. They’re also working on carbon sequestration through soil management and water retention practices, such as cover cropping.

“We’re dreaming big,” Porter says, gazing out over the farm. Their “bare bones” dream, as she calls it, “is still pretty vast.” They envision dividing the land into incubator plots, each offering farmers a space to bring their unique visions to life. They also imagine creating spaces for people to gather, rest, and celebrate — places for picnics, art, dancing, and even movie nights. “Pop-up markets, where folks from our network and who are incubating here can sell their produce and products, would be amazing,” Levy says. “A greenhouse would be fabulous,” she adds.

Then, they have even larger dreams — which are dependent on funding. They are currently looking to purchase another plot of land, where they hope to build a commercial kitchen for food processing and be able to provide long-term housing for farmers. “We’re really excited to see [the farm] in the coming seasons,” Porter says.