Idealist, realistic group 'revving the engine' for new ag

By STEVE BROWN

Capital Press

VASHON ISLAND, Wash. -- Get a couple of hundred young people together and you've got a party. Get a couple of hundred young farmers together and you've got a movement.

Tiny Vashon Island, in the Puget Sound between Tacoma and Seattle, hosted a young farmer mixer on Oct. 4 that included a potluck, square dancing and plenty of opportunity for education and cultivating connections and new friendships.

The event kicked off a West Coast tour organized by The Greenhorns, a grassroots, online nonprofit that recruits, supports and promotes young farmers, representing a generation both idealistic and realistic about the future.

One trailblazer for the burgeoning movement is Severine Von Tscharner Fleming. Her documentary film "The Greenhorns" tells the stories of young farmers exploring and learning, and willing to get dirty doing it.

"This feels like a great start," Fleming said. "Everyone who came felt our own momentum, the physical charisma of our community. At the end of the night, we were no longer strangers."

Though technical difficulties prevented the showing of her film at the event, Fleming plans to show it at other mixers and workshops in the next few weeks.

"The film is still in draft form," local organizer Chandler Briggs said. "It's scheduled for wide release in 2011. We'll e-mail a web address and password to everyone who registered so they can see it."

Lack of a premiere showing didn't deter events at the Grange Hall. An abundance of food, live music and a double-the-expected turnout meant plenty of fun and enthusiasm.

"I was blown away by the support," Briggs, a 26-year-old Vashon Island farmer, said. "Nonprofits, private businesses, government -- everyone was eager to help. All the beer, wine and sodas were donated, and they paid for music and the venue. They said yes to almost everything we asked for."

This is where the groundswell starts, he said. People came from across Washington state.

Subsequent events will have a similar mix, he said. Some will be built around workshops, but "they will all have educational and celebrational components."

"When I first heard about Greenhorns, I jumped in and wanted to be part of it," Briggs said. "We have power to make things happen, to make changes in our community."

Fleming is experienced in farming as well, having co-founded the organic farm at the University of California-Berkeley, where she studied agro-ecology.

She also has nearly a decade's experience in bringing people together.

"I've found when there's something that needs a bunch of people -- whether it's seeding, butchering, pruning, planting, digging -- music and preferably beer help," she said. "It gets a lot of bodies together. That's what American agriculture needs is more bodies."

Fleming has organized similar events in the East and has seen that it's not just farmers who come to Greenhorns events.

"Many work at a bakery or a farmers' market. They're in the food industry but not yet self-employed, but they're learning skill sets to succeed at that," she said. "People want the lifestyle. And when they come, they learn they can lean on each other."

"We're revving the engine," Briggs said. "We found we could rally together and get our feet in the door with politicians and the press. We'll be following up with meetings about what we'd like to see in the next farm bill."

About half the people there were between 21 and 30, Briggs said, "and it was great to see the elder generations there to support us."

Information tables were manned by representatives from Washington Tilth Association, PCC Farmland Trust, Farm Service Agency, Cascade Harvest Coalition, Washington State Farm Bureau, Sustainable Connections, WSU Extension Small Farms Team and Washington Farmers' Markets. The Vashon Island Growers Association co-sponsored the event.

"We'd like to keep building those connections," Fleming said. "We can introduce populations of older and younger farmers, build relationships across the generations. We want to learn from and encourage them."

West Coast tour

* Oct. 10, 3:30-8 p.m. -- Western Oregon Young Farmer Mixer and Greenhorns Guide for Beginning Farmers Book Launch; Naomi's Organic Farm Supply, 2500 SE Tacoma St., Portland, Ore.

* Oct. 15, 4:30-9 p.m. -- Redwood Valley Revival Revelry; Frey Vineyards, 14000 Tomki Road, Redwood Valley, Calif.

* Oct. 20, 3-9 p.m -- Nevada City Young Farmer Mixer; Living Lands Agrarian Network, Nevada City, Calif.

* Oct. 24, noon-3 p.m. -- Greenhorns Fundraiser Luncheon: Agroecology in the Vineyard; Scribe Winery, 2300 Napa Road, Sonoma, Calif.

* Oct. 28, 4-9 p.m. -- Pescadero Young Farmer Mixer; Pie Ranch, 2080 Cabrillo Highway, Pescadero, Calif.

* Oct. 30, 3-10 p.m. -- Young Farmer Media Training; 18 Reasons, 593 Guerrero St., San Francisco, Calif.

* Nov. 10-12 (times TBA) -- Quivira Coalition Conference; Embassy Suites, 1000 Woodward Place NE, Albuquerque, N.M.

* Nov. 18, 2 p.m. -- Beginning Farmer Training Program Launch and Mixer; Center for Land Based Learning, 5265 Putah Creek Road, Winters, Calif.

Information: anya.kamenskaya@gmail.com

Online

www.thegreenhorns.net

www.serveyourcountryfood.net

www.youngfarmers.org