TRJ Tell me about how FarmerJawn is working to inspire younger people to get into agriculture. CB I was really happy to be the commencement speaker this year for W.B. Saul High School, Philadelphia’s agricultural high school. It was a great honor of mine to be able to look out at these kids, mostly Black and brown, who have an interest in agriculture. But the truth is that once they leave high school, many of them will go on to college, but most of them are not going to keep up with their agriculture major. And it’s really just because it’s like, where are the jobs? They may think, I don’t want to live two hours away from a major metro. Can I be in the mix and still love agriculture and still contribute to a regenerative food system? That’s the direction that I’m going in because I truly believe it’s possible.
“With regenerative practices, people always think about the land and the soil, but it’s also about how you take care of your people. I pride myself on encouraging wellness, and I believe we have a very high retention rate of people not missing days of work simply because they love what they do.”
We have about 40,000 empty lots throughout Philadelphia. About 10,000 of those are owned by the city, so that means we have some lots that we could choose from. Now we just need to be able to erect farms there, then hire people so that each community can have their own local farmer. That’s how I envision it so that we can actually begin to see an increase in local food production and provide jobs for folks. There’s plenty of money in our budget to be able to give somebody a living wage to be a neighborhood farmer for a community.
There are people who have an interest in agriculture at all ages, but never look at it as a viable career path. They think, I don’t want to take a 50% pay cut just so I can go play in soil . That’s where we’re changing people’s minds around what it means to be a farmer, and what it looks like to be a farmer. I take great pride in showing up to spaces just looking great. I’m a city girl. I like being dressed. I like all the things that negate what people typically see as a farmer. We look good. We smell good. I love that my nails are clean. We’re changing what farming looks like.
TRJ FarmerJawn is a recipient of the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate- Smart Commodities. How does FarmerJawn plan to use the grant to get people excited about growing food on a local level? CB One of the things that we’re discussing right now is FarmerJawn’s apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship program. That’s definitely going to be the focus, and it connects back to my vision for urban agriculture specifically. I realize that training people is one thing, and training them to be entrepreneurs is really what my focus had been. But not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur; there’s also a great need for skilled people who want to work for other people. So I was realizing, we could train all these people who have an interest in being farmers, but then it’s like, where do they work? Where are the jobs? The problem is that we need more food production closer to people.
Visit FARMERJAWN.CO to learn more.
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ISSUE 02
AGRICULTURE AS CULTURE
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