American Family Farmer

EILEEN GORDON is an entrepreneur, farmer and the founder of BARNRAISER, along with business partner and husband, Chef Michael Chiarello. Her journey to sustainable food and farming, as well as passion for kids education, came from her farming family in Northern California, long-time swiss dairy ranchers and now cheesemakers. An indirect path from Apple's education group to the Napa Valley leads to her current obsession with the makers in clean, good food movement, and with giving the next generation power over their food options along with an appreciation for the joys of making / growing things. BARNRAISER is a social and funding community that allows its members to influence and scale the food movement by connecting to innovators of sustainable food and farming, celebrating their stories, and collectively backing projects that shape how we farm and eat, locally and globally.

BARB SHATTO runs the Shatto Milk Company with her husband, Leroy. She grew up on a family farm, and even though she has a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, she always knew that the farm was the place for her.SHATTO MILK COMPANY is a small family-owned and operated dairy farm, with 350 Holstein cows, located just north of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Their family has been farming there for more than 100 years and began a dairy farm more than 80 years ago. In June 2003 they began processing their own milk, on the farm. They decided to bottle their own milk, in glass bottles, for the purpose of providing customers with the freshest and best tasting dairy products possible.They offer home delivery and have a farm store, where they sell 12 flavors of milk, and also produce their own cheese, ice cream and butter. Tours of their operation are conducted regularly and other special events are scheduled the year. 

DR. DICKSON D. DESPOMMIER is an emeritus professor of microbiology and Public Health at Columbia University. From 1971-2009, he conducted research on intracellular parasitism and taught courses on parasitic diseases, medical ecology and ecology. In recent years, he has received considerable media coverage for his ideas on vertical farming. He developed the concept over a 10-year period with graduate students in a medical ecology class.Despommier is also co-host of three popular podcasts along and has authored or co-authored 7 books. The one we’re looking at today is: The Vertical Farm: Feeding The World in The 21st Century, from St. Martin’s Press.The term VERTICAL FARMING has not been around long. It is defined as, the practice of producing food in vertically stacked layers, such as in a skyscraper, used warehouse, or shipping container. The modern ideas of vertical farming use indoor farming techniques and controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) technology, where all environmental factors can be controlled

ROBIN AND MARK WAY own and operate Rumbleway Farm, a 62 acre certified organic farm located in Cecil County, Maryland. Robin has a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology, and formerly worked in the DuPont Pharaceutical-lab. Mark has a Bachelor of Science, in Biology, and formerly worked for DuPont Pharmaceutical’s - lab research on inflammatory diseases and safety.                                They have become active and enterprising in diverse agriculture to include aggressive marketing of pastured poultry and all natural practices for raising meat products and educational uses of conservation practices. Their all-natural products are marketed through community business contacts, on-farm sales and on the farm's websiteRUMBLEWAY FARM is a small 62-acre sustainable grass based family farm located in Cecil County Maryland. They raise chickens, turkeys, rabbits, cows and pigs. The chickens and turkeys are raised in portable greenhouse like shelters that are moved each day to fresh pasture grass. The cows are al

AUDRA MULKERN is a cook, writer, photographer and a podcaster, who lives in a farming community. She noticed the face of the farmers in her own community was starting to change as more and more women were applying to become interns.Today, she is putting good food in the spotlight and changing the way you look at farming and the food on your plate.THE FEMALE FARMER PROJECT documents the rise of women in agriculture. It is a chronicle of images and stories of female farmers who are tasked with family, farm, often an outside job, and are creating change in our food systems. The project has garnered international recognition, and has been featured in Huffington Post, Modern Farmer, grist and a number of magazines. It was recently in exhibition at United Nations in New York, IFAD building in Rome, FarmAid30, TEDxManhattan 2015 and won the Cascade Harvest Coalition Wendell Berry award for 2015.Find out more at www.femalefarmproject.org & www.audramulkern.com Audra can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Ins

ALLEN LASH is President and CEO of AgriSolutions, Inc. and CEO of FamilyFarms Group. He is a widely recognized leader in the area of future agriculture direction, business and management structures, and financial management for agriculture.Mr. Lash was an early leader in the Farm Financial Standards Council, with commodity associations such as the National Pork Producers Council and the Corn and Soybean Association.  He was also an early leader of the Northeast Dairy Standards Council group in Pennsylvania and New York, participating in the initial stages. The purpose of this group was to define financial standards for the dairy industry. FAMILY FARMS GROUP was established in 2006, and is headquarted near St. Louis, MO. It represents more than 1.5 million acres of row crop production throughout North America. It is a member-owned network of family farm operators, agricultural experts and suppliers, working to help preserve the legacy of family farms as consolidation hits the row crop industry.Find out more at

ROGER JOHNSON has been President of The National Farmers Union since 2009. Prior, he was a third-generation family farmer from Turtle Lake, ND, where he also served as North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner since 1996.SOME TALKING POINTS:1.   U.S. farm policy already favors Big Business. Will it get worse under Trump?2.   Ten food trends that will shape 2017Trend 1: Silicon Valley & FoodTrend 2: The Wild WestTrend 3: Enhanced Foods: Beyond BrowniesTrend 4: Generation ZTrend 5: Sustainability Trend 6: Digital Foodscape Trend 7: Microbrands to MegabrandsTrend 8: Augmented Transparency (AT)Trend 9: Cellular AgricultureTrend 10: The New AdministrationFind out more at www.nfu.org

Meghan and Ross Nichols are an energetic, hardworking couple who own and operate High Hopes Farm on a beautiful 120ish-acre piece of land in Bristol, Maine. The couple purchased the farm earlier this summer, and already have a small, thriving operation.They both grew up in the area, and didn’t even consider looking at other farms because they knew they wanted to stay in their community.When they bought the farm, Maine Farmland Trust purchased an easement on the property, lowering the cost for the young farmers, and ensuring that High Hopes will remain available for farming for future generations.Young farmers like these two aren’t just feeding their neighbors; they’re helping to build a strong foundation for the local economy, stewarding the environment, and creating greater food security in their community.Meaghan and Ross raise lambs, pigs, goats, turkeys, chickens and ducks for meat. Their animals are meticulously cared for and raised in natural settings, with lots of space to roam, fresh air, clean beddin

Johnny Fonteyn is a former chef, and his wife Elizabeth Del Negro, a former educator. They are in their 30’s, and now are full-fime farmers. They started with an 8-acre farm, just north of Los Angeles, in Ojai (PM: O-HI), California, which was formerly a minimum-security prison.Today, they grow vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers on three different farms. The farm is known as Rio Gozo. "Gozo" is Spanish for Joy. The majority of the food they grow supplies Rio Gozo Farm's CSA program; any extra is sold to restaurants and markets in Ventura County. They have 60 CSA shareholders of their own. The farm’s boxes also now include bread, coffee and preserves from local artisan producersRio Gozo also garners a large group of volunteers who donate time to help the couple pick and pack the CSA boxes. In addition, Elizabeth gets to use her extensive classroom teaching experience at the farm.  In collaboration with Food for Thought: the Ojai Healthy Schools Program, local fourth graders come to the farm to learn about an

Hanson's Farm has been a working farm since 1715, farmed for almost 200 years. In 1908, Matthew Hanson got the opportunity to rent the fifty acre farm and loved it, finally purchasing it in 1913 after which it officially became Hanson 19s farm. His grandson Tom eventually took over, and began concentrating on the farm stand and adding things such as upick, hayrides and other things.To bring families to the farm, diversifying has helped to keep the farm going and such things as a horse boarding business, a haunted hayride, and starting in 2005, Tom with his son Matt started doing a cornmaze. The same year, Tom 19s wife Martha started doing farmers markets and that has grown to a big part of thir farming operations.In 2009 they started a CSA - or community supported agriculture where people buy a "share" of the harvest in advance of the season. Each year the CSA is expanding and they are learning new ways to make it run more smoothly.

Jana Linderman is President of The Iowa Farmers Union. She grew up on a family farm in North Dakota and is the 4th generation to work in her family 19s farming operation. As a beginning farmer, she works with her parents raising spring wheat, small grains and non-GMO food-grade soybeans that are direct marketed to processors in Japan. Her long-term goal for the farm is to transition to organic production and start a farm-to-table craft distillery using grains grown on the farm. Since 1915, THE IOWA FARMERS UNION have worked together to strengthen the independent family farm through education, legislation and cooperation and to provide Iowans with sustainable production, safe food, a clean environment and healthy communities.

Sharon Caswell is the founder and CEO of PonyUP Technologies, and has been a life-long horse owner. She currently has two horses and rides as often as possible. Pony Up Technologies was founded on the simple desire to make life better for horses and their handlers. Their products give equine professionals a better way to manage the health and conditioning of their horses. The objective is to bring products to market that are simple to use and yet have a profound and game-changing impact on health and conditioning.

Kriss Marion is a former Easterner and Journalist from Chicago. Kriss and her husband Shannon, own the Circle M Market Farm and B&B, in Lafayette County. She is the founder of her local farmers 19 market in Blanchardville, Wisconsin. Even though Kriss is a first-generation 1cniche 1d farmers, she always vowed she 19d never do a farmers 19 market. She got into farming because she liked playing in the dirt. Her dream revolved around shepherding animals, growing plants, shaping the landscape and healing a piece of land 13 all projects with no end point, no closure, no down time.Circle M Market Farm is a small family homestead in rural Blanchardville, Wisconsin, 40 minutes southwest of Madison. The farm is nestled into a cozy valley, bordered by creeks on two sides, and old oak woods on another, and a restored prairie on the last. The 20-acres is shared with their sheep, goats, chickens, horses, beef cows, pigs, dogs, cats, ducks and a crazy goose. Everything has a purpose and function that feeds the land a

Marc Santucci is the owner of Santucci Farm, in Travers City, MI. He says a Federal Regulation has forced him to let 40-thousand perfectly-good tart cherries go to waste. There is nothing wrong with the cherries, but the regulation requires him to dump them, to allow the import of 200-million pounds of cherries from overseas. Santucci said that tart cherries imported from Turkey and Eastern Europe have made up increasingly larger portions of the market, and limiting the amount of domestic cherries makes it worse. He posted a photo of the rotting cherries on Facebook, and so far it has been shared over 60-thousand times. In the U.S., up to 40 percent of the food that 19s produced never gets eaten. Each year, about 7 percent of what 19s planted on farms isn 19t harvested, according to a 2012 Natural Resources Defense Council report.

The Farrell Family has transformed Sunset Farm into a local icon in Narragansett. It is the last of its kind in the south-end of Narragansett, being the last working farm in the area. The Farrell Family works pasturing a herd of 100 head of Black Angus beef cattle, born and raised right on the farm. Sunset Farm prides itself on the fact that their beef cattle never leave the state of Rhode Island. Sunset Farm also grows a wide variety of produce in their fields located behind the Historic Kinney Bungalow where weddings and events are frequently held. Sunset Farm 19s famous pies have become synonymous with chowder and clam cakes in the area. Some of their most popular pies include the Classic Apple, the summer favorite Strawberry Rhubarb, and the Very Berry that is chock full of berries.

Mark Schneider is a former firefighter who turned full-time grower after he helped his in-laws, Kevin and Denise Kilgus, convert their truck farming operation into Living Water Farms. He is now President and CEO of the farm. LIVING WATER FARMS is owned and operated by the Kilgus/Schneider families. It is a small sustainable family farm, focused on growing the highest quality specialty greens and micro greens year round for top chefs, select distributors, and local retail throughout the Midwest.Their current goal is to develop markets and raise capital to enable a major expansion of it 19s greenhouse growing space, from 10,000 square feet to 170,000 square feet. They grow chemical/pesticide free, utilizing sustainable practices for fresh, healthy food you can feel good about.

Freddy Hill Farms began as a dairy store in 1972. The milk is processed and packaged right on the farm, and then sold in the dairy store. To complement the dairy sales, dipped ice cream is also offered to customers.After learning how to make their own ice cream at Penn State University's creamery, the Seipts expanded their ice cream offerings and began making ice cream cakes. The ice cream sales soon outgrew the small space and a full, sit down ice cream parlor was built in 1988. The partners' wives, Nancy and Lesa Seipt became involved in the business at that time giving farm field trips to school age children every spring. The Seipts wanted the public to know that they sold quality milk and give them some education about the farm and its workings. This field trip program soon expanded to include Pumpkin Patch Field Trips in October, where children and parents can take a hayride, pick a pumpkin, go thru a cornstalk maze, and eat some homemade ice cream. Thousands of people enjoy these field trips every Oct

Stacy and Tenzin Botsford are first generation farmers who are dedicated to the idea that caring for the land and growing high quality organic food can be mutually beneficial for the farm, the farmer, and the community. Their goal was to regain their relationship to the land and to the food that we eat, while helping to revitalize small farms in Central Wisconsin.This summer, they are embarking on a new adventure as they represent Wisconsin Farmers Union in the Farmers Union Enterprises (FUE) in a special Leadership Program. Organized by the five FUE states of Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, the program offers participants a chance to hone leadership skills and network with farmers from the five-state region. Activities enhance knowledge of cooperatives and the role of Farmers Union.

Roger Allison and Rhonda Perry raise cattle and grain on his farm in rural Missouri. He is also the founder and Executive Director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and Patchwork Family Farms.The Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC) is a statewide farm and rural membership organization founded in 1985 with over 5600 member families. Their mission is to preserve family farms, promote stewardship of the land and environmental integrity and strive for economic and social justice by building unity and mutual understanding among diverse groups, both rural and urban. Their innovative approach to family farm organizing includes challenging corporate control of the food supply, creating sustainable alternatives to the current farm and food system, and generating community participation to create a just, democratic society based on equity and fairness for all people.

Jesus Cuezzi grew up in Waukegan, IL and was introduced to farming after his junior year in high school. He applied for a summer job with the Green Youth Farm, in Lake County, and worked with 25 other teenagers, planting, maintaining and harvesting the produce in this 1.5 acre plot. He returned to the farm for a second season, but this time as a crew leader. This is when his aptitude for farming skills and teaching others really took off. Through his work at the farm he was able to come out of his shell and truly shine as a leader. So far, Jesus has mentored over a hundred peers and teens, connected with thousands of farm stand customers, sharing recipes and vegetable growing knowledge, and grown over 30-thousand pounds of sustainable produce for his community.Windy City Harvest Youth Farm educates and employs 80 to 90 teens each year, from low-income communities at three farm sites in Chicago and one in Lake County. As they advance through this program, they learn to grow food responsibly, work as a team, ad