Local food 2.0: training a new generation of farmers in Western Massachusetts.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Date: 22 June 2017

For Rafael Herrero, farming is a family tradition. Though he admits, it skipped a generation. "My grandfather was a farmer in Puerto Rico," he says, "but none of his sons became farmers themselves." Today, Herrero is reviving his family's heritage by training a new generation of urban farmers in Massachusetts.

As Director of Agriculture and Environment for Nuestras Raices, a Holyoke-based community organization, Herrero is overseeing an ambitious effort to train 100 new farmers in earth-friendly practices over the next two years. "A lot of our region's farmers are getting older," says Herrero, and many have no one to take over the farm when they retire. At the same time, he says, younger people who want to farm often lack the knowledge to be able to run a small farm successfully.

With funding from a Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grant, the New Farmer Training Program aims to change that. This year's class of 60 farmers-in-training began their apprenticeship in April. Ranging in age from 18 to 60, women just outnumber the men. Most trainees speak English, but for others in this largely Latino city, Spanish remains their first language. Each week through October, they will spend time in the fields at La Finca, Nuestras...