The Farmhand Foundation (FHF) is working to help growers in Southern California transition to pure practices. They serve farmers by means of education, advocacy, and entry to property.
Justin Herber, Griffin Barkley, and Justin Schneir started FHF in Ojai, California to help farmers who want to make use of additional sustainable practices, nevertheless may not know the place to start out out. Consistent with the U.S. Division of Agriculture, just one p.c of farmland within the US is pure.
Herber tells Meals Tank there is a “willingness” amongst farmers “to go pure, for the sake of the land, their households.” Nonetheless he explains that yield loss and administrative work can discourage them from transitioning.
“Farmers face a mountain of challenges in transitioning to pure or regenerative practices, from figuring out certification to masking costs,” Barkley tells Meals Tank.
Making the change from typical farming practices to pure is a three-year course of, and comes with a set of steps. Growers ought to meet the USDA’s Pure Necessities, and can should research a variety of latest farming methods, in keeping with SARE Outreach.
Farmhand Foundation hopes to produce help to farmers on the doorway end which will help them navigate the transition. They’ll launch the first cohort in 2025 with three farms. Barkley says this, “seems like the right dimension to supply each participant personalised help.”
Schneir says that smart experience, like entry to mentors, workshops, and devices for regenerative practices are an vital part of the work, nevertheless not all of the goal. “Better than that, we’re creating an space for [farmers] to connect, share, and actually really feel empowered to carry these sustainable practices forward…We wish them to walk away realizing they’re part of a gaggle that’s obtained their once more,” he tells Meals Tank.
Sooner than launching the Foundation, Schneir and Barkley started Tractor Beverage Agency in 2015. Herber was amongst Tractor’s first advisors, and received right here on full time as Chief Mannequin Officer in 2021.
“We on a regular basis wished to do one factor additional with the mannequin, and we on a regular basis believed that enterprise could very nicely be used as a tool for good,” Herber tells Meals Tank. FHF will start with citrus and berry growers inside the Ojai area—what Herber calls their very personal “yard”—because of these are parts in Tractor Beverage merchandise.
FHF’s methodology is unique, Herber believes. “We’re keen about it just about as a mannequin, fairly than how a normal group could. Truly working to promote the need for pure, the meaning of pure,” he tells Meals Tank.
Starting Tractor, and creating an pure have an effect on tracker, showcased a necessity for additional shopper education, Herber says. “There’s an unlimited shopper misunderstanding about what pure means. People weren’t associating pure with lack of chemical publicity,” he tells Meals Tank. “So, what we wished to do [with the tracker] was measure what variety of pesticides we had been actually stopping from going into the meals system by sourcing organically.”
Whereas Tractor Beverage and the Farmhand Foundation are distinct operations, the two are working in route of the equivalent goals. And the founders say what’s good for one is sweet for the alternative. Barkley says that FHF’s efforts can “strengthen Tractor’s present chain” by means of relationship establishing with growers. He tells Meals Tank that this helps to ensure prime quality sourcing. Tractor moreover participates in 1% for the Planet, using these funds to help FHF. As Herber says, “the upper Tractor does, the additional have an effect on Farmhand might make and vice versa.”
The Farmhand Foundation hopes to develop. “As quickly as we’re successfully established with our model in Ojai, we’re planning to grow to be completely different areas…It’s about making a ripple affect, empowering growers to make a dwelling whereas stewarding the land,” Herber explains.
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{Photograph} courtesy of Justin Herber.