2019 Young Farmers Conference

Hear from those across the sourcing and purchasing spectrum to understand the nuances of building successful partnerships with sourcing managers and chefs. The conversation will showcase the progress that is being made by these organizations to support farmers, and will offer concrete guidance to farmers looking to strengthen their sales outlets with committed culinary and retail food partners.


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Have you considered creating a nonprofit farm but don’t know where to start? Do you want to create a community-based model that trains and employs community members as leaders for transformative change? Fresh Future Farm applies a multi-pronged approach to address health, wealth and quality of life issues. We grow healthy food to build strong communities by cultivating soil and genuine relationships for food, environmental, restorative and transformative justice in underserved neighborhoods. Our grassroots farm and grocery store are becoming a community gathering place where people receive dignity and support. We emphasize neighborhood job creation and affordable micro-entrepreneurial opportunities to create a circular economy. Germaine Jenkins, Fresh Future Farm’s Chief Farm Officer, will lead a presentation that covers FFF’s growth from concept to vacant lot to farm and grocery store, as well as our successes and challenges as a working-class black woman-led operation, with time for a question and answer session.

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This workshop will begin with a discussion about on-farm seed saving, seed restoration efforts, building relationships between farmers, seed companies and breeders, as well as the value of farmers participating in seed trials. The second part will be hands-on interaction with basic tools around seed inventory, seed trials and data by exploring Pick A Carrot and SeedLinked. Come with your smartphone, tablet or computer to sign up for a free trial and see first-hand the power of crowdsourcing seed trial data.

The growing number of land trust and protected State and NGO lands offer unique opportunities for collaboration that supports regenerative farming while also furthering ongoing conservation goals. This workshop will cover principles of generative agricultural conservation and discuss the framework to write a Conservation Action Plan (CAP) with a partner organization, using examples developed and implemented by Stone Barns Center and the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, a New York State park. We will also discuss the mutual benefits and potential that exists for farmers to develop a conservation stewardship partnership for improved land management.

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This workshop will provide tools, tips, and maps to practice entrepreneurial leadership - so when the buzz of the Young Farmers Conference has worn out you won’t be stuck asking, now what? In this active workshop, participants will meet two California farmpreneurs, Jesse Smith and Nikiko Masumoto, who were part of the first cohort of the Stone Barns Farmer Entrepreneurship Intensive (2018). They will each share key components of their entrepreneurial practice in their operations (one based in regenerative ranching, the other in organic farming). Participants will learn about unlocking place-based leadership, how to look at holistic decision-making, practice telling the story of place, and develop a plan to enact goals and dreams articulated during the Young Farmers Conference.