FIELD Goals
With a lineman’s grit and a farmer’s heart, Luke Bowanko uncovers a network of American agricultural training like Farmshare on his own path to better nutrition.
by LAURA MALLONEE photographs by ROGELIO PUENTE
/ DIRTY BOOTS SPR UT
As an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, football player Luke Bowanko consumed an inordinate number of calories to maintain his 6-foot-6-inch, 300-pound physique. That included a Chipotle burrito just about every day between lunch and dinner “as a snack,” plus an entire postgame pizza. But after multiple injuries forced him to retire in 2019, he began bingeing the documentary series “Chef’s Table” on the couch, and he realized his diet wasn’t exactly ideal for healing. He was inspired to start shopping at his local farmers’ market in Denver, where he bought veggies to scramble with eggs. Before he knew it, he was at a lumberyard buying wood to build raised garden beds. He loved growing his own food — tomatoes, squash, peppers — almost as much as eating it, and he fantasized about doing it on a larger scale. O ONE IN BOWANKO’S FAMILY was a farmer, and he wasn’t sure how to become one until 2023, when he moved to Austin, Texas, and discovered Farmshare Austin. Located 25 miles east of downtown, the 13-acre Real Organic–certified farm harvests more than 30,000 pounds of produce each year and trains new farmers in the process. It’s where I find Bowanko on an unseasonably warm December afternoon, his slightly lankier frame towering over a bin of cabbages he’s cleaning up for delivery to Fresh for Less, the farm’s food-access program.
“[Farmshare] throws you in the deep end, and you get to learn a lot quickly,” Bowanko tells The Rooted Journal. He’s wearing a shirt repping the University of Virginia, where he played center and offensive guard. “If you’re just growing food in your backyard, it might take you five or 10 years to figure out some of the stuff we’ve already learned.” Programs like Farmshare’s offer valuable experience to beginning farmers — those with 10 or fewer years of experience, as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Such farmers make up nearly a third of the nation’s 3.4 million agricultural producers. They’re increasingly important as the average age of farmers — 58.1 years in 2022 — continues to rise.
But they face significant challenges, the biggest being access to land and capital, according to the nonprofit National Young Farmers Coalition. To combat those challenges, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency offers low-interest farm ownership loans in amounts up to $600,000, but applicants need three years of experience to qualify for them.
Programs like Farmshare’s offer valuable experience to beginning farmers — those with 10 or fewer years of experience, as defined by the USDA. Such farmers make up nearly a third of the nation’s 3.4 million agricultural producers.
“It’s not just whether they’ve worked on a farm for three years, but have they also been active in making day-to-day decisions?” explains Amanda Robertson, the acting national coordinator for the USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) and herself a sixth- generation farmer. “We want to ensure that folks are ready for this.” There are multiple pathways to gain that experience, Robertson says. Many farms offer internships, which usually last a few months and tend to be broad in scope, providing training in everything from livestock
ABOVE: FORMER BALTIMORE RAVENS OFFENSIVE LINEMAN LUKE BOWANKO TURNED TO REGENERATIVE FARMING TO HELP HEAL HIS FOOTBALL INJURIES. OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM: FARMSHARE OFFERS TRAINING FOR BUDDING FARMERS WITH LESS THAN 10 YEARS EXPERIENCE.
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ISSUE 02
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