“Being a naive kid, living in rural America…you get burned out on a community that you know everybody in and you don’t take it for what it is. Now, I realize how cool that is,” says Williams.

Today, he’s a sixth-generation pig farmer partnering with Niman Ranch.

Williams attended Iowa State University and intended to find an office job to build a traditional career. He quickly realized that wasn’t the path for him after working a couple of internships. By his senior year, Williams was trying to figure out how to return home and take over the family farm. Luckily, his father was just about to retire.

“To be a farmer, the biggest issue is having resources of land, machinery, and facilities. I’m exponentially lucky that my dad and my grandpa have those facilities, and the land is there for me to take over,” says Williams. “Going into it as a first-generation farmer, it would be crazy hard.”

Williams, his wife Hannah, and their toddler Lyle now live on Williams Family Farms, sustainably and humanely raising pigs and farming about 400 acres of cropland. But Williams says that the only way he was able to come back to the farm full-time was by partnering with Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small and mid-size independent farmers and ranchers across the United States.

“The best thing about Niman Ranch is how transparent they are. They’ve been in business for 25 years, they are very stable. Their support system with their field agents is great. A lot of their customers are very passionate about using their products,” says Williams.

Williams says that partnering with Niman Ranch is a great option for any beginning farmer, “because you can buy 10 acres, put up a few hoop barns, raise pigs, still have a full-time job, and then just slowly grow that if you want to.”

Williams was able to take advantage of Niman Ranch’s Next Generation Foundation Scholarship for financial aid during his time at Iowa State University. Later, he received financial assistance from Niman Ranch’s grant program as well as U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency loans, which he recommends to other young and beginning farmers.

Williams’ father was the eighteenth farmer to join the Niman Ranch network in 1998, so Williams grew up raising pigs “the Niman way,” which means allowing pigs to root, roam, socialize, play, and exhibit their natural behaviors. He continued the family tradition and within five years of taking over the family farm, he had quadrupled the size of his father’s business in terms of pig production.

“This is when I was single and 22 years old. I was just working [on the farm] all the time and loved it. And then I got married and started a family, and those 80-hour work weeks were not as enjoyable,” says Williams. “I was seeing that I could get burned out at some point too, and then not enjoy what I was doing.”

With the support of a guaranteed market for his product through Niman Ranch, and its network of resources, Williams recently cut back on his pig production. Now, he enjoys a healthy balance of time between farming and his young family.

“It’s not healthy to be on the farm 365 days a year…even if you love it, it’s still not healthy,” says Williams. “It’s good to get away for even a short weekend. I think that makes you enjoy what you do even more.”

But Williams knows that partnerships like Niman Ranch aren’t the industry norm. He recently became an ambassador for the company, because “if you want the business to do well, then you need to be part of the business and help them sell your product.” He travels across the country to talk with grocery store customers, chefs, and eaters about why he farms sustainably and humanely.

“It seems simple, but eating is something that you do three or four times a day…you should care what’s going into your body, that it’s a good product, that it’s safe, and that it’s healthy for you,” says Williams.

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Photo courtesy of Aaron Williams

The post Finding Balance as a Sixth-Generation Pig Farmer appeared first on Food Tank.

After a logging company destroyed much of their jungle’s ecosystem in the 1980s, Hin Lad Nai community members banded together immediately after the forest was ravaged to begin restoring their home. The base of the restoration work is in their rotational farming system, also called the fallow system or swidden agriculture.

Hin Lad Nai habitants communally clear a section of the forest by cutting down trees (but leaving large stumps to encourage regeneration) and applying controlled burning. A farmer then cultivates that plot of land before leaving it fallow for seven-to-ten-year cycles. Transition periods between active to fallow land are also accompanied by spiritual rituals.

The type of rotational farming that Hin Lad Nai engages in, which includes what is sometimes known as slashing and burning, did not originally fit with the Thai government’s conservation strategy.

“The discourse on rotational farming is that it is the cause of deforestation. But Hin Lad Nai has proved through scientific research that rotational farming is not causing climate change, but the opposite,” says Karen researcher Dr. Prasert Trakansuphakon to Food Tank. Trakansuphakon has advocated for Hin Lad Nai and Indigenous rights for decades, speaking at the United Nations (UN) and other international forums.

Hin Lad Nai partnered with Thai researcher Prayong Doklamyai and the organization Oxfam International to study the community’s carbon footprint. They report that while rotational farming releases about 480 tons of carbon per year through controlled burning, the regenerative fallow system stores 17,000 tons in the same time period.

And through another partnership with SwedBio, a program at the Stockholm Resilience Center, Hin Lad Nai co-authored a report which explains the spiritual significance of the rotational farming system, while also providing statistical evidence of its value for biodiversity. Their co-created research found that on some farms, the rotational fallow system led to greater agrobiodiversity, greater production, more reliable production, and richer soil.

Pernilla Malmer, Senior Advisor at SwedBio, tells Food Tank about the “multiple-evidence base approach”, which shows that “traditional knowledge of local communities is equally valid to science and brings critical value for complying with international environmental agreements.”

In three decades, Hin Lad Nai has restored 80 percent of their previously destroyed forest and revitalized populations of many animal species, some endangered. According to the Swedbio report, there are some 207 food crops cultivated in the rotational farming system used by Hin Lad Nai. “They earn income from forest products and beekeeping. That’s why they don’t have to do cash cropping and why they prohibit chemicals in the area,” Trakansuphakon tells Food Tank.

Hin Lad Nai uses their agricultural and spiritual system to feed themselves, keep their forest healthy and biodiverse, and earn a sustainable income. Convincing the Thai government of these benefits took time, but partnerships with researchers helped them secure their rights to the forest.

Hin Lad Nai has also leveraged awards from agenda-setting organizations including the United Nations to prove the value of their agricultural practices. A Hin Lad Nai community leader won the U.N.’s Forest Hero Award, their village was established as a Special Cultural Zone by the Thai Ministry of Culture, and the UN now recognizes rotational farming as a protected cultural heritage.

But Hin Lad Nai’s success is not shared by all Indigenous communities across the country. In 2021, the Thai government came under the international spotlight for burning Karen peoples’ homes, arresting women and children, and forcibly evicting Karen people from their ancestral lands in order to expand Kaeng Krachan National Park.

One of the GBF’s targets is to designate 30 percent of Earth’s land and sea as protected by 2030. And it emphasizes the importance of upholding Indigenous people’s rights to achieve these goals.

In response to the new GBF, Alice Matthew of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity tells Food Tank: “We hope that states will be more open to working with Indigenous Peoples and will focus on ending their suffering caused by ‘conservation.’”

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Photo courtesy of Pernilla Malmer

The post Indigenous People, Western Science, and Conservation in Thailand appeared first on Food Tank.

A trip to a farm in Cameroon inspired Gerardo Martinez, owner of Wild Kid Acres, and his family to begin the search for their own farm property. The land they found in the Chesapeake Bay was the ideal spot for what the Martinez family planned to be their homestead. But the property was in need of serious rehabilitation after becoming a dumping site and overrun with poison ivy in between owners. 

“Slowly we started really getting into regenerative agriculture because our land was pretty much toxic. Here to date we’re at over 65 dumpsters of trash taken off of the property,” Martinez tells Food Tank. 

Using methods such as hugelkultur, a layering technique developed for creating raised beds, Martinez filled in the large holes left after removing dumped materials. He made use of wood chips, an inexpensive organic resource readily available in the area.

While taking care of trash removal and house construction, Martinez and his family “jumped right into goats” for passively clearing invasive plants from the land. 

“What we started noticing almost immediately is where we would clear the trash and not put organic matter or the goats, the grass would die…but everywhere that we would put the goats…there was an explosive growth of beneficial grass and pollinators.”

This observation led Martinez and his wife, Jessica Mendoza, to investigate biodynamic farming methods. They believe their role as farmers is to mimic nature. 

After noticing significant flooding on and around the farm property, Martinez opted for a no-till method: pigs and a cow. These additional animals helped work moisture and fresh seed into the newly filled in land. 

Success in mitigating flooding and adding organic matter to the land encouraged Martinez to continue mimicking nature through biodynamic and regenerative practices. 

“Our practices evolve almost daily based on what’s happening within nature around us,” Martinez tells Food Tank.

Beyond the physical farming practices, Wild Kid Acres continues working to inspire, educate, and learn from the community. 

“When we started, we didn’t know what we were doing, but we knew that we believed…that the farm is the center of the community, not part of the community. We’re not on the outskirts; we believe that we should be the center for education, for faith or healing, or whatever it is that the farm means to you,” Martinez tells Food Tank.

This approach drives Wild Kid Acres to be an active community hub where visitors are more than welcome. Martinez credits his family’s humility as beginning farmers for the interpersonal connections they have made through the farm.

The farm plans to host a summer camp program after witnessing the major role young people play at Wild Kid Acres. Martinez hopes to inspire young people to take up farming in the future. “We’re working on our talent pipeline,” Martinez tells Food Tank.

Kids who regularly visit the farm return home to tell their families about the success of Wild Kid Acres’ regenerative and biodynamic practices. In turn, the farm has become a space for learning that attracts many different groups.

Hispanic and Latino residents make up over 11 percent of Maryland’s population, according to the latest census. “We started becoming this hub of education for those who are not usually catered to.” Martinez tells Food Tank that Spanish-speaking individuals come to Wild Kid Acres to learn about growing in the region. 

Martinez says that beginning farmers will always trust “a success story.” This is what draws many to the farm. In fact, Martinez tells Food Tank that Latino Farmers and Ranchers International is moving their headquarters to Wild Kid Acres.

Martinez tells Food Tank that creating resources for farmers beyond those provided by governments and nonprofits are important for marginalized growers. In support of this, Martinez and key partners started the Maryland International Agriculture and Environment Conference. 

A two-story community barn is currently under construction at Wild Kid Acres. The barn will house animals, host an aggregate farm stand, and offer a production kitchen. Martinez is excited about the benefits to both local producers and consumers. The community is equally invested in the barn build and the forthcoming opening.

“I can’t even tell you how humbled I am by the people,” Martinez tells Food Tank. “To say that the community has been helping is an understatement. [The barn] is 100 percent built by volunteers right now.”

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Photo courtesy of Gerardo Martinez

The post The Farm is Central at Wild Kid Acres appeared first on Food Tank.

“We really liked Niman Ranch’s concept of how they wanted to raise the hogs,” says Alaina. “The very humane nature of how they raise their hogs with access to the outdoors, really reminded me of how I raised my 4-H animals [when I was a child]. The quality of meat, you can taste it…you can tell when an animal has been raised on bedding and dirt versus concrete.”

Niman Ranch offers a guaranteed market for its farmers’ and ranchers’ products in exchange for a high standard of practices. Steven says that this gave the Imhoffs the opportunity to invest in quality equipment that make other aspects of day-to-day farm life easier. The Imhoffs were also able to begin raising hogs for Niman Ranch using their current farmland and facilities, rather than investing in expensive conventional housing.

“You can [raise hogs] on a smaller scale, and you don’t have to have a million-dollar-plus investment to get started,” Steven says. “You’re able to work with smaller facilities, smaller numbers, be more hands-on, and have an investment of your own, versus working for somebody else.”

Right now, Steven and Alaina both work off-farm jobs. They say that Niman Ranch is providing an additional path to grow their business—and, hopefully, work full-time on the farm one day.

“For a lot of people in the second generation—or however many generations—down, you’re probably going to have to have another job for a while before transitioning to the farm full-time, unless [your family has] a really large farm operation,” says Alaina.

While her family has been farming for at least four generations, there isn’t enough land for all of Alaina’s siblings to return to the family farm. And these days, few new farmers can afford to buy land, according to Alaina: In the Imhoffs’ area of Iowa, farmland can sell for as high as US$25,000 per acre.

Alaina emphasizes that more support is needed for young and beginning farmers, particularly to get started raising hogs. As a middle and high school agriculture teacher, she finds joy in educating the next generation about how to raise animals sustainably and humanely—and different ways to build a profitable small business, such as through Niman Ranch.

“Farmers get a bad reputation, they don’t ever seem to get the good promoted about them,” says Alaina. “There are so many amazing farmers out there raising the best product they can, no matter what method they’re utilizing, to feed this growing world.”

Young folks’ passion for agriculture and work advocating for it brings Alaina hope. She and her students speak with policymakers every year about the importance of agricultural education, aiming to show state legislators that young people are interested in working in agriculture and need support.

At home, Steven and Alaina are working to pass an environmentally and economically sustainable business to the next generation. Both of their children are raising their own animals and love helping out on the farm.

“Educating the kids, to me, is the actually most rewarding part of being a farmer,” says Alaina.

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Photo courtesy of Lauren McConachie, Unsplash

The post A New Hog Farming Model for the Next Generation appeared first on Food Tank.

ALAS, a Latino centered nonprofit in Half Moon Bay, California, began in 2011. The organization seeks to help children and families feel proud of their culture and identity, and has become a communal space for support. Volunteers, families, board, and staff are creating programs including culturally-centered mental health services, wrap-around case management, immigration, education, and social justice advocacy initiatives.

2023 has brought record levels of precipitation in California that have triggered destructive floods across communities and agricultural landscapes. When the first wave of floods hit the state earlier in the year, ALAS was among the first organizations to respond.

“The sooner we can mobilize and organize and be there to help, the better the families are to endure this,” Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, Executive Director for ALAS tells Food Tank. “Sometimes we can’t wait for the bureaucracy of other organizations to organize, we must be ready. ALAS is ready. We know how to mobilize with the community and get the word out.”

ALAS has found that one of the biggest impacts of the flooding is the barriers the destruction imposes on accessing food. The organization’s crisis food pantry, which was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, is serving its highest numbers of people ever, according to Hernandez-Arriaga.

While the food pantries relieve a financial burden on families, Hernandez-Arriaga discusses how money isn’t the only barrier.

“One of the things we have to prepare as organizations is how we are mobilizing to support farm worker communities who might be in more remote areas,” says Hernandez-Arriaga.

She shares how the flooding has caused extensive damage to roads, preventing farm workers from being able to drive away from their homes or work areas. In response, ALAS has developed programs to meet farm workers where they are.

ALAS brings gallons of water to Coastside farms once a week and collaborates with several organizations, such as Coastside Hope and Second Harvest Food Bank, to regularly distribute groceries. ALAS also coordinates Farmworker Friday, an initiative which brings lunch to farmworkers on rotating Fridays. Each lunch is sponsored by different organizations seeking to support their local farm workers.

At the end of 2022, ALAS launched the Farmworker Equity Express Bus, a mobile center that brings resources to farm workers on the Coast.

“We really need to go where farmworkers are,” says Hernandez-Arriaga. “We have seen the isolation and the limitation they have because of their work hours and the type of work they are doing.”

The Bus is equipped with Wifi laptops, teleteaching resources, telehealth, mental health commissions, and education and arts resources.

The organization emphasizes how the effects of flooding are ongoing, economically impacting farm worker families long after the water dissipates. As ALAS continues to provide crisis relief to farm workers from the flooding earlier this year, they are simultaneously preparing these communities for the floods to come.

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Photo Courtesy of Tim Mossholder

The post Ayudando Latinos A Soñar: Creating Support and Resilience Amidst Devastating Floods in California appeared first on Food Tank.

AgriPath aims to help small-scale rural farmers and extension agents in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia navigate the unpredictability of farming due to the changing climate. By employing focus groups and lab-in-the-field experiments, AgriPath identifies and scales effective and inclusive pathways for digital advisory services to reach smallholders.

farmbetter, The Grameen Foundation, The International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), The Center for Development and Environment at University of Berne, The University of Lausanne, and The Grameen Foundation of India collaborated to launch AgriPath. The project was made possible with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ) implemented through GIZ.

Benjamin Gräub, Co-CEO of farmbetter, emphasizes that prioritization of country-specific knowledge is essential when designing the user experience of digital advisory services. This is particularly true, he says, as land degradation, biodiversity loss, and the climate crisis affect each region differently.

“We feel that the country-specific knowledge and location-specific knowledge are the key for farmers to be able to take care of the soil, keep yields up, and be better prepared for droughts, floods, and even cold spells,” Gräub tells Food Tank.

AgriPath builds off of farmbetter’s existing products, including an app which provides information on how to adapt farming practices amid climate change. Smallholders input information about their farm into the app, including location, climate, and crop selection. The farmbetter algorithm then gauges the farm’s resiliency and responds with a personalized index of technical farming practices. Gräub explains that the platform is designed to make up for the limited presence of agricultural extension agents who act as knowledge keepers for smallholders.

The AgriPath project works to strengthen farmbetter’s efficacy by collecting anonymous data on users to better understand smallholders’ general engagement with the app. According to John Choptiany, Co-CEO and Resilience Expert at farmbetter, AgriPath’s initial focus group discussion and data collection has already begun to reveal the potential of digital advisory services adoption.

Place-based guidance is important to the project’s success for both farmers and extension agents. “Our main goal is to reach smallholder farmers in each of the project countries and provide them with tailored and locally-relevant advice that will help them with their agricultural production,” Maurice Tschopp, an AgriPath coordinator from the Center for Development and Environment at University of Berne, tells Food Tank. “Our project also aims to train extension agents and give them new tools to reach and engage with farmers.”

AgriPath recently held their first workshop in Nepal. Choptiany reports that participants were enthusiastic and eager to collaborate.

“We found that even though some differences like the use of Messenger versus Whatsapp are different, there are a lot of similarities between countries and the farmers there, needing access to more tailored knowledge to improve their farms and increase their resilience,” Choptiany tells Food Tank.

AgriPath works with the five target countries to analyze the overall effectiveness of different extension service formats. Gräub, Choptiany, and Tschopp agree that women and children smallholders are at the heart of the Agripath project.

“Women and youth are often marginalized and we have been focusing on how to make the app appealing and effective for these groups, from the design, hardware/software requirements in the phones and how extension agents can reach those without smartphones through messaging platforms like WhatsApp,” says Choptiany.

The AgriPath project’s preliminary findings support their decision to focus efforts on gender and youth demographics.

“Some of the first results that we got from [focus group discussions] are that women have lower access to smartphones, which is expected,” says Tschopp. “Many women feel they don’t know how to use these tools and are lacking confidence. Economic constraints are also important… Hence the topic of access to smartphones is linked to labor market structure.”

AgriPath is currently targeting 50,000 smallholders, as well as 250 extension agents. But AgriPath partners and contributors hope the findings extend far beyond the project and farmbetter.

“We don’t want to work in a silo. We hope that our main intervention can be up-scaled and we will share our research results with all relevant actors, including local populations. In that regard, AgriPath will be successful, if we can inform the debate on digitalization and develop new insights on how digital tools can contribute to the transition toward sustainability,” Tschopp tells Food Tank.

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Photo courtesy of farmbetter

The post AgriPath: Working to Benefit Women and Youth Smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia appeared first on Food Tank.

When the stock market crashed in 2008, the family was forced to sell most of their cattle and nearly shut down. Beeler took over the business full-time, but he struggled to balance the sustainable and humane practices that he learned growing up with animal health issues and the rising cost of equipment, feed, and labor.

“We were working with feed nutritionists that were just pushing their agenda, and we were trusting them because they sounded like they knew their stuff. But looking back, they didn’t have a clue. They would push their medicated feeds, push this product or that product, just as a sales pitch,” says Beeler.

It wasn’t until the Beelers started working with Niman Ranch in 2010 that all the pieces started falling into place. Niman Ranch is a network of more than 600 small and mid-size farmers and ranchers across the United States that adhere to high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices. When Beeler first learned about it, he says it sounded too good to be true. His parents told him that there must be a catch: “In the cattle industry, it’s not that good,” he remembers them saying.

But with the promise of a premium price and a guaranteed market for their beef, the Beelers decided to give Niman a shot. Now, Big Acres has grown from raising 20 cattle to more than 500 at two locations.

“Before, when the weather would go from 10 below to 40 degrees the next day, we always had sick cattle. And if we didn’t get them treated right away, they’d end up dying,” says Beeler. “Ever since I switched over to [Niman Ranch’s] style of feeding, I might lose maybe one or two per year…There are times when I might not even have a loss.” In conventional cattle production, Beeler estimates that losing five percent of the herd due to health issues is common.

Niman’s team of field agents works directly with farmers to cut through inaccurate sales pitches in the animal health world. “They’ll tell you the truth of it and then they break it down more,” explaining why certain methods are better for the animal and environment, says Beeler. For example, giving the cattle space to run around outside reduces stress, which can reduce the risk of viruses and diseases.

And Niman Ranch also provides fair payment for farmers’ products.

“A lot of these [meat buyers], their biggest goal is to buy at the cheapest level they can and then make that extra premium themselves,” says Beeler. “Niman actually pays the rancher or the farmer what their product is worth. They want to see us succeed just as much as their own business and their vendors as well…the last thing they want to see is the doors being shut.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, farmers are more than twice as likely as people in other occupations to die by suicide. Several of Beeler’s peers have divorced or died by suicide because of the pressure of finances, corporate consolidation, and rural development. Others have left farming and their land was sold to developers. For those still in the business, Beeler says that working a second job off the farm is common.

Joining Niman Ranch is allowing Beeler to stay on the farm full-time. He’s connected to a community that supports him through not only on-farm guidance but also personal friendships—an invaluable asset to his business and family.

“They really make you feel valued and appreciated,” says Beeler. “I’ve never had that, my parents never had that from any meat buyer before.”

Four years ago, when Beeler underwent heart surgery, his Niman Ranch field representative called throughout the week to check in, ask what the family needed, and offer to help around the farm. “That spoke a lot of volume, because you never see that [in the cattle industry],” says Beeler.

As the youngest cattle rancher in his township, Beeler thinks having buyers like Niman Ranch is critical to supporting the next generation of farmers and ranchers: “I personally don’t believe I’d be farming if we didn’t have Niman…I wouldn’t be able to afford it.”

Beeler’s main goal is to pass Big Acres on to his children, ideally debt-free. His oldest children’s passion for the work is what gives him hope.

“Just seeing that look in my kids’ eyes, their love and respect of the land, their love and respect of the cattle,” says Beeler. “There are just little fires at the farm that are stressful and take everything out of a guy with what’s going on in the world too…[The kids] put that little seed of hope back in.”

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Photo courtesy of the Beelers

The post A Farmers’ Network Offers Sound Business Advice—and Community appeared first on Food Tank.

“My business has always been food,” Dee tells Food Tank. The Sandquists left Iowa after college, and Dee worked as a registered dietician for about three decades, educating her clients about where their foods come from. When they returned home to Johnson Farms in 2008, “it was like we never left, in a way,” says Dee.

The Sandquists grow corn, soybeans, oats, hay, and turnips using sustainable practices like no-till, cover cropping, terracing, and buffer strips. They raise hogs for Niman Ranch, a network of more than 700 small farmers and ranchers across the United States that adhere to high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices.

“The best thing we’ve ever done is raise pigs with Niman Ranch,” says Dee.

As Niman Ranch farmers, Dee and Harold receive a guaranteed market for their hogs. This means a fair income without needing to market their product—and it’s been a critical support to help keep their farm going.

“The main thing I need to worry about is making sure the hogs are happy and healthy,” says Harold. This has also allowed him the freedom to focus more on diversifying their farm.

According to Dee, this type of business model is “hard to find in today’s world.” And the company works to make it accessible to new and beginning farmers.

Niman Ranch provides grant money for equipment—or even the pigs themselves—to help farmers get started. And the Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the company, has distributed more than US$1 million through scholarships and grants since 2006.

“There are a lot of incentives and help for people who really want to put in the work. And it is work,” says Dee. “This is more labor-intensive than other ways to raise pigs, but it’s worth it.”

The Niman Ranch network also allows the Sandquists to access community within the individualized and often-isolated world of farming. Farmers maintain their independence while receiving critical resources and support.

“You can tell Niman cares about their farmers. That’s the biggest difference,” says Dee. “It’s like a family. The farmers are able to get together…there’s a lot of sharing and camaraderie.”

The Sandquists have traveled across the country as Niman Ranch farmer ambassadors and spokespeople. They meet chefs that use their pork and talk to them about the farm’s sustainable practices and healthy pigs.

And according to Dee, the product speaks for itself: “It’s the finest tasting pork in the world. There’s no comparison.”

Back home, the Sandquists help local farmers get started with more sustainable ways of farming and provide mentorship throughout their community. They employed a new farmer to help on Johnson Farms while he builds his own farm business—something that’s difficult to do without a farming background or inheritance. “That’s been our way to mentor,” says Dee. As a thank you for their commitment mentoring their community, Niman Ranch named Dee and Harold 2022 Farmers of the Year.

For the Sandquists, farming has been about continuing the lifestyle and stewardship they grew up with.

“It’s about taking care of the land. That’s the way we were raised and that’s why we want the farm to continue,” says Dee. “We recognize how important land is, especially in a heritage farm.”

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Photo courtesy of the Sandquists

The post A Network for Independent Family Farmers: “It’s Like a Family” appeared first on Food Tank.

“I thought, ‘this is really stepping back. It’d be like giving up our cell phones today, going back to our landlines,’” says Flaherty. But after talking with Niman Ranch farmers, he was inspired to pursue it: “They said your equity is going to be your labor. And I said, well, I have that.”

Today, Flaherty raises about 900 pigs a year for Niman Ranch, a network of more than 700 small farmers and ranchers. Through the company, Flaherty receives a guaranteed market for his hogs in exchange for upholding high standards of sustainable and humane farming. But when Flaherty was getting started, many told him it wouldn’t be feasible.

“The biggest push is when somebody tells you it can’t be done,” Flaherty tells Food Tank. “There’s no one around me that raises pigs this way.”

When Flaherty asked for support from his bank to start this new operation, he was told he wouldn’t make it without antibiotics and conventional production methods. His parents were skeptical, too. They believed that the only successful hog farms were big ones. When Flaherty told his grandparents his plans, however, they were excited—this was how they remembered raising pigs growing up.

“In the Midwest here, you’ve [usually] got to be big or you got to get out. There’s no room for the middle guy or the little guy,” says Flaherty. But with Niman Ranch’s guaranteed market, the smaller operations have an opportunity to thrive.

“Niman Ranch doesn’t look out for just their bottom line,” says Flaherty. The company understands the financial struggles of its farmers and does as much as possible to help, including raising the price they pay to farmers when other factors—like the increasing cost of grain—put a strain on operations.

Flaherty has traveled across the United States representing the company: “I like telling my story and thanking [consumers] for buying Niman Ranch, because this is what’s keeping me on my farm full-time,” he says.

Flaherty wants consumers to know that there’s a face and a story behind each piece of meat that they buy, and that producers such as himself take pride in raising a good product. Traceability helps to tell this story.

Flaherty also emphasizes that this is not a typical 9-to-5 job: “Farm work is any day that ends in ‘Y’ and holidays, nights, and weekends. Anytime you’re needed.”

But he loves the lifestyle. Flaherty has cared for animals since he was five years old, and he always knew he wanted to be a farmer. For him, the most rewarding part is seeing his animals play in their natural element.

“When the sun starts to set a little bit, starts cooling off, there are pigs chasing each other around and around,” says Flaherty. “And out in the field with 20 or 30 calves, one takes off running, and the rest of them try to catch him…up and around the bales.”

Flaherty is thankful for those that doubted him when he first began, because it drove him to prove that it’s possible to thrive with this way of farming.

“You don’t have to be the biggest farmer in the county, you don’t have to be the one with the most animals…You can be small, you can do a great job, and you’ll be rewarded in pricing and the quality of animals,” says Flaherty. “There’s a lot of pride in that.”

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Photo courtesy of Martha Valencia

The post A Market for Small-Scale Hog Farmers to Thrive appeared first on Food Tank.

“When I was in the confinement barns, I knew that I liked the pigs, but there was always something that kept me from really loving my job,” Mickelson tells Food Tank. “I couldn’t quite put my finger on what that was until I started raising pigs for Niman Ranch.”

Niman Ranch is a network of more than 700 small, independent U.S. family farmers that receive a guaranteed market for their hogs in exchange for upholding high standards of sustainable and humane farming. For Mickelson, raising pigs in the open air was a new—and much more enjoyable—experience.

“I had the pig, but I didn’t have the pig in the right environment,” Mickelson says. Now, his pigs play around in their bedding, dig in the dirt, and eat grass.

Partnering with Niman Ranch also meant relearning much of what he knew about how to farm.

“I felt like I knew how to raise pigs. But I’ve found since working with Niman that most of what I knew was how to control a technological barn and give shots,” says Mickelson.

Factors like efficiency and cost of production are lower on Mickelson’s list of priorities with this new way of raising pigs. Instead, he focuses entirely on the pigs’ comfort levels and health—including feeding and filling water by hand.

“The pig will take care of itself if it’s well cared for,” says Mickelson.

Expertise and support from the Niman Ranch field staff—and the company’s farmer resource network—have been critical in making this transition. And now, Mickelson is thinking about how to diversify and increase sustainability throughout the farm, such as having more perennial pastures or longer crop rotations to boost soil health.

“I always thought that in order for me to make a living and leave something behind for my kids to make a living, we were going to have to ‘get big or get out,’” says Mickelson. “Raising pigs with Niman opened my eyes to different ways of doing things…I went from a mindset of ownership to a mindset of stewardship.”

Mickelson sees a growing awareness that small, diversified farms can produce a viable income for farmers. As more young farmers are eager to invest in “out-of-the-norm” practices—like raising pigs in the open air—he says this way of farming is no longer seen as just a hobby within the community.

“There’s something inherent within us that likes the idea of being a small, diversified farmer rather than just doing one thing all the time,” Mickelson says. “I think for a lot of us, it’s just the lack of awareness—we don’t know the options that are out there.”

Mickelson has found that working with the animals and nature, rather than against them, is a more fulfilling experience. And in the end, it produces a better product for consumers.

But most important for Mickelson is providing his own children with the type of lifestyle that he experienced as a child. He grew up seeing his grandparents every day and working together across generations on the farm. Now, his four young children are eager to help and take on their own farm chores—something that wasn’t feasible when Mickelson worked in confinement barns.

“Having moved away from Iowa for a while and done different things, I’ve realized that what I had was pretty unique, and pretty special,” says Mickelson.

“I do want my kids to be able to make a living on this farm someday if they so choose. It’s my responsibility, dad’s responsibility, and my brothers’ responsibility to make sure that this farm is better when we’re gone than it was when we inherited it.”

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Photo courtesy of Emily Mickelson

The post With a Guaranteed Market for their Hogs, Farmers Don’t Need to “Get Big or Get Out” appeared first on Food Tank.