Travis & Neysa

A visit to homegrown. org, the social networking site for the Farm Aid folks, is usually an uplifting, but just an hour ago we checked in and the most recent posting was pretty sobering. It is from a young woman named Neysa who, with her partner Travis, took up farming in 2009 and shared their progress on their blog Dissertation to Dirt .

Sad to say, Neysa reports that they have left farming. From her posting "Why We Farm: The Final Chapter:" After three years of trying to make farming our living, Travis and I are leaving the fields. We’ve taken different jobs, and we’re not planning on farming again until we can do it from a place of financial security and stability....Young people cannot reasonably have careers in farming in America. Here are a few reasons why it hasn’t worked out for me...[and they cite wages, land access and support].

Neysa's post elicited quite a few responses from the readers of homegrown, and I have a few of my own. She identified the big issues from a farmer's perspective, and of them support is one we can all do something about. Farmers do not ask for much; they will do the work, they just could use some support. Perhaps the most important thing we can do is provide markets for them. Each of us can help with that by shopping at greenmarkets or joining CSAs. Our personal choices about where we shop matter, and choices, good or bad, become habits. Are we in a Shop & Stop habit, or a CSA/greenmarket habit? Do we eat processed foods or fresh produce? Do we cook or order in?

And is there more we can do collectively? Does the story of Travis and Neysa (and surely other farmers) underscore the importance of the 2012 Farm Bill, which has been for a while and still is being debated in the august halls of Congress? What can we do about that?

We should not lose farmers like Travis and Neysa. Remember: No Farms, No Food.