Young farmers from across Washington are gathering at the Vashon Island Grange on Oct. 4, and I feel like celebrating. I want to welcome and encourage them — to learn what brings them to farming, what challenges face them and what I can offer. My future, and the future of my children and grandchildren, depends on them.
We have a food system in this country that’s in big trouble. Farmers are disappearing, right along with farm land. Our industrial agriculture system depends on cheap oil that poisons our soil and water and contributes alarmingly to global warming. Much of the food produced by this system is neither safe nor nutritious.
The good news is that there is a new model of sustainable agriculture emerging across the country, and Vashon is home to some of these pioneers. Visit our Farmers Market or any one of the many Island farm stands and you will see the passion that underlies those beautiful fruits and vegetables. But we are far from achieving a sustainable food system, locally or nationally. We need more: new faces, new ideas, enthusiasm and optimism.
Why should we care that young farmers are organizing? Because to change our food system is going to require a lot more farmers — farmers who can grow beautiful, nutritious food, nurture their soil and water and articulate the issues, lobby for change in the pattern of government support for agriculture, demand reasonable access to credit and land. Farming is a system, as well as a vocation. The system requires dramatic change.
Our young farmers give me great hope. They are creative young people who are taking up the challenge to grow food and change our food system. Transformation is what our food system needs, and transformation takes talent, energy, commitment and, most of all, heart.
It won’t be easy; young farmers face multiple challenges. Land is expensive, water is dear, credit is limited and wages are low. Farming is back-tweaking hard work. Sixty-hour work weeks are a requirement; weeds, marauding critters and the unexpected crisis are constant. To grow the millions of new farmers our country needs will take effort on all our parts.
How can we encourage these new young farmers? I can think of some ways. First, we can listen: What do they need and want? We can offer advice and information when asked. We can help make land available in innovative ways. How about a local Farmlink program that matches people who want to farm with land that’s empty? We can invest in their ideas and purchase the fruits of their labor. We can urge King County to develop land-use policies that favor sustainable agriculture. We can welcome them wholeheartedly, celebrate their vision and join our voices with theirs.
This brings me back to the Young Farmers Mixer and Spit Roast here on Vashon. They are gathering in a way that encourages me — it’s not all about the “sturm und drang” of farming, though there is plenty of that to go around. Just look at this year’s local weather! Rather, these young farmers know that it also needs to be fun and enlivening. They have created a space for connecting, feasting on good food and dancing.
Wasn’t it Emma Goldman who said she wouldn’t join the revolution if she couldn’t dance? That’s the revolution I always wanted to join, and here it is, coming to Vashon on October 4. Join me in welcoming Washington’s young farmers.
— Merrilee Runyon, a long-time Islander, is a partner in the Lavender Sisters, a Vashon lavender farm.
