Next Generation of Farmers
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute- East Troy, WI
The future health and vitality of agriculture, the food system, and rural communities depends on the successful entry of all who want to pursue a farming livelihood. A third of all farmland owners are of retirement age, and over the next two decades an estimated 400 million acres of U.S. agricultural land will be passed on to heirs or sold. While a growing number of young people and new immigrants want to enter into farming, they face a myriad of challenges such as the rising cost of farmland, a critical shortage of training, and lack of financing.
The MFAI Policy Program puts much effort in programs that assist the next generation of farmers, making it more likely that aspiring farmers will have the tools and financial resources they need to get a start on the land. Specifically, we helped secure passage in the 2008 Farm Bill of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program which provides grants to entities that offer training, mentoring, and land-link opportunities for new farmers, and we advocate for its funding in our appropriations campaign as necessary and when prioritized by the members of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP)
The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program is a competitive grant program designed to help beginning farmers and ranchers develop their enterprise through funding for education, extension, outreach, and technical assistance. As of 2009, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), a department within the USDA, administers funding for the program. Grants are evaluated on relevancy to priorities set for the fiscal year, technical merit, achievability, expertise and track record, and applicability of results. The 2008 Farm Bill states that funding priority will be given to non-governmental and community-based organizations as well as grants that are regionally diverse.
In the 2002 Farm Bill the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) was passed, but only received authority for discretionary funding, and during the life of that Farm Bill, congressional appropriators never funded it. Through much hard work from program stakeholders across the country, including MFAI, BFRDP was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill to receive $75M in mandatory funding over the five-year life of that bill. This amount is allocated at $18M in 2009 and $19M from 2010 to 2012.
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute’s Policy Program continues to work hard to assure the program’s optimal implementation and to protect its funding levels as passed by Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill. In fall of 2008, we interviewed Wisconsin beginning farmers and beginning farmer educators in 2008 to understand more precisely ways what Wisconsin stakeholders hope the BFRDP will accomplish. MFAI's Associate Public Policy Director, Bridget Holcomb then took these views to an October, 2008 USDA hearing in Washington, D.C.
Like all programs authorized for mandatory funding, the BFRDP is still vulnerable to cuts from appropriators, especially in tight budget times. Thus, much of MFAI’s policy work is organized around protecting its funding as part of our nationwide and multi-issue appropriations campaign. MFAI’s policy team also conducts outreach to Wisconsin beginning farmers and ranchers and groups that support them to encourage application to this program.
Read more on BFRDP .
Definition of Beginning Farmer or Rancher by the USDA.
For more information on how to apply for this grant, visit Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service.
One of MFAI’s strategies for assisting beginning dairy and livestock farmers in Wisconsin is to support management intensive grazing. This low-capital approach is well-suited to start-up farmers; nearly half of the state’s dairy farmers turn to grazing systems to begin their operations.
Read about our work advocating for management intensive grazing.
Keeping Cows on Pasture in Winter