FARMpreneurs™

Affordable. Enriching. Connective. Truly ROOTED in place. The annual Community Alliance with Family Farmers California Small Farm Conference at Green Valley Farm + Mill brought together FARMpreneurs™ alumni from both California and Washington cohorts. This year’s California Small Farm Conference theme was, “Rooted in Place”, which honors the vital relationship between farmers, communities and the land they steward. The FARMpreneurs™ are entrepreneurs who seek out opportunities for continual personal and professional development. It was such a treat to reconnect with them in person and hear their progress since the strategic sprints. We feel so lucky to be connected to this community of farmers who are dedicated to land stewardship and growing nutrient-dense food that is accessible to their community! Thank you CAFF (Community Alliance with Family Farmers) for your commitment to empowering the California farming community. #regenerativeagriculture #organicfarming #climate #entrepreneurship #food #agriculture #california

Meet Eric Popp. He is currently the Director of Regenerative Agriculture at Carnation Farms, where he oversees the agricultural enterprises on the historic 820-acre farm. This includes vegetable, hay, and livestock production using regenerative practices. Eric Popp is a farmer with over 20 years’ horticultural experience. At 23, he spent the following summer working on his first farm, a 40-acre CSA and direct-to-consumer operation outside of Richmond. Inspired by his farming first experience he moved to California, spending the next 7 years working in organic and biodynamic farming, and habitat repair and forestry, gaining a well-rounded knowledge of farming and the ecosystems it supports. During the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint Eric focused his attention on developing a plan to showcase the economic viability of rotational grazing on their farm, while serving as a regional catalyst for farmers looking to integrate livestock into their operations. This goal includes potentially purchasing a licensed USDA Organic mobile processing facility and retrofitting an existing poultry processing building for cut and wrap, giving them a path to sell their meat at their farmstand while opening up processing capacity to neighboring farms. #regenerativeagriculture #organicfarming #climate #entrepreneurship #food #agriculture

Emma Jagoz of Moon Valley Farms joined us for the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint last month as a faculty guide in Washington at Carnation Farms. She is an alumni of the FARMpreneurs™ program in 2020, and she has accomplished an incredible amount since then. When she arrived at the program, she just purchased land of her own after 8 years of farming on 6 separate leased plots. She arrived with a big vision to create local jobs, build a resilient food hub, and grow healthy food for her community in the Chesapeake Bay. Since the program she has profitably scaled her business 7x — all with grant funding. We are also proud to say that Emma Jagoz of Moon Valley Farm, holds an organic seat for the Governor's Agricultural commission in Maryland. One of our goals at FARMpreneurs™ is to develop alumni into future faculty guides for future strategic sprints. Participants of the strategic sprints receive valuable perspective by hearing firsthand from alumni faculty how the program transformed the direction of their farm and how they used what they learned to achieve their goals. #regenerativeagriculture #entrepreneurship #farming #agriculture #climate #food #organicfarming

Check out this story of John and Halee Wepking from Meadowlark Farm & Mill. John Wepking attended the first FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprints in 2019. When he arrived at the program, they were in the midst of a complicated, high potential generational transition with a long-time Wisconsin grain farmer, Paul Bickford. A few years later in 2023, their mentor Paul passed away, which immediately thrust Halee and John into a position of leadership and responsibility. Enjoy this short video production by Mad Agriculture and Albert Lea Seed that captures their journey and story.

Meet Samantha Gregory, the co-founder and Farm Director of Little Saint Farms on Westside Road in Healdsburg, CA. Since 2020, she’s converted about half of the 8-acre property from neglected Pinot Noir and Old Vine Zinfandel Grape Vines into a diverse ecological production farm offering a wide array of fresh fruits, vegetables, cut flowers, and a full-service floral design program. As a queer trans woman, Samantha feels inspired to connect with authentic ways of being embodied. The farm has offered a place to reflect on growth, identity, and nourishment, and has been a pivotal environment that has encouraged her to live her truth with pride. During her time at the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint, she worked on her Big Hairy Audacious Goal. She wants to “farmify” the entire property, including the areas that are currently residential, to create a property-wide production-oriented demonstration farm and education center, in tandem with their Little Saint Healdsburg. Samantha brought so much energy and passion to the strategic sprint. We are excited to watch her and Little Saint Farms grow over this season and many to come! #regenerativeagriculture #entrepreneurship #farming #agriculture #climate #food #organicfarming #california

During the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint, we bring guest speakers who have lived experience to share their learnings with the participating farmers. Anna Knight from Old Grove Orange joined us at both FARMpreneurs™ cohorts in January to share her farm’s success selling directly to K-12 school districts around Riverside, California. Her mission is to ensure that small family farms in her community can continue to operate and thrive in perpetuity. Through developing a farmer-led food hub, she has created a direct sales channel for neighboring farms to also access these school district customers. As her family’s farm business continues to evolve, they know on who they are, which customers they serve, and why they do what they do. This clarity has led to an expansion of opportunities within their existing K-12 customer base, including student tours, on-farm faculty development, and educational opportunities with those schools. By bringing expert guest speakers to the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint, participants are able to learn from those with lived experiences and gain insights from farmers who have achieved their own audacious goals. #regenerativeagriculture #entrepreneurship #farming #agriculture #climate #food #organicfarming #entrepreneur

Meet Nelson Hawkins from We Grow Farms. He attended the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint in California in early January. Listen to what he shared about his time during that week. "My experience during this strategic sprint has left me deeply inspired and empowered. I'm excited to bring what I learned back to my community. This year is going to be pivotal for us." - Nelson Hawkins, We Grow Farms Nelson is an agroecologist and farmer equity advocate with 15+ years of experience. He founded WeGrow Farms in West Sacramento, CA, utilizing regenerative methods to produce food while providing employment and increasing food access for underserved communities. He is a leader in organizations addressing systemic inequities in agriculture. He serves on the California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force to create policy recommendations that amplify the voices and experiences of historically underserved farmers. He co-leads initiatives integrating regenerative farming, equitable food distribution, and community engagement for Black farmers. We Grow Farms also works with a nonprofit workforce development program in West Sacramento as a host site for youth and young adults who face barriers to employment and show them what it takes to grow food for the community and gain agricultural experience. Their original farm site is slated for housing development, which is a heartbreak, but not completely as affordable housing is also needed for that community. Luckily, Nelson co-led a group that successfully advocated for $1.25 million of State funding to acquire 22 acres of land and co-founded Ujamaa Farmer Collective, a nonprofit committed securing resources for the success of Black Farmers in the greater Sacramento, CA region and developing educational programs for those interested in starting a farm business. This new piece of land was his area of focus during his time at the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint. His goal is to produce food for his community, while providing Black farmers the opportunity to lease their own land and grow food for the community. #regenerativeagriculture #entrepreneurship #farming #agriculture #climate #food #organicfarming

One of our goals at FARMpreneurs™ is to develop our alumni into faculty guides for future programs. Jesse Smith from White Buffalo Land Trust helped guide the 10 participants through the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint in Northern California. As the the Director of Land Stewardship at White Buffalo Land Trust, a non-profit dedicated to advancing regenerative agriculture, he manages the Center of Regenerative Agriculture at Jalama Canyon Ranch, a 1,000-acre site that integrates farming, ranching, and conservation. He is an alumni of the first ever FARMpreneurs™ pilot program in 2019, which was held at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in New York. During his time at the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint, he developed and refined a strategy for value-added products, which grew into Figure Ate. The program helped him develop a rubric for testing and prioritizing new product opportunities, while creating a clear strategy and presentation for the benefit of his organization's board and funders. Jesse brings a deep understanding and knowledge around product development, branding, marketing, grant cultivation, and land stewardship. His passion and expertise in agricultural system design and community engagement are a cornerstone of our strategy to achieve a systemic shift towards a regenerative food economy and ecology. #regenerativeagriculture #entrepreneurship #farming #agriculture #climate #food #organic

During the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint participants define and iterate their purpose statement. Below, Will Rosenzweig works with Nelson Hawkins to craft a purpose statement that captures why his farm, We Grow Farms, exists. By defining a purpose statement, participants gain clarity on what makes them unique. The purpose statement aims to distill the very essence of who they are, what they do, and why their farms exist. #regenerativeagriculture #entrepreneurship #farming #agriculture #climate #food #organicfarming #entrepreneur

Social entrepreneurs are constantly balancing tension. The tension of their future vision and their current reality. The tension between being profitable and their mission. We call this creative tension. At the FARMpreneurs™ strategic sprint, we represent this ever present force with an exercise resistance band. When the band is stretched to its limits, it can be hard to maintain that effort over a long period of time. However, when the band doesn’t have enough tension, it lacks both the potential energy and the excitement to attract the right people to help that vision manifest. The sweet spot for each entrepreneur is unique and an ever-evolving process. This creative tension model helps farmers illuminate the internal tension they feel when clarifying their vision and assessing their present circumstances. #regenerativeagriculture #entrepreneurship #farming #agriculture #climate #food #organicfarming #soilhealth #entrepreneur