D.C. Fly Advocates Young Farmers Concerns

The National Young Farmers Coalition had 10 young farmers in Washington, D.C. earlier this week speaking to their representatives and advocating for a 2018 Farm Bill that renews rural economics and enables a new generation of farmers to grow the nation’s food supply.

One of the participants of the fly in representing Colorado was Jocelyn Story on the Flat Iron Young Farm Coalition Leadership Committee and a Farm Manager of Cure Organic Farm near Boulder.

She share more about the issues and topics they discussed as they visited with legislators.

Story: “One of the things we are concerned about is that two-thirds or about 70 percent of the farmland is going to change hands in the next 20 years in the states. There is a six to one ratio of farmers over 65 to farmers under 35 — which goes to show we have a lot of old farmers. So land is going to be changing hands and 90 percent of these farmers don’t have a succession plan so that means that their land could go up for sale and become developed land. Which is not helpful for farmers. There are a lot of young farmers that are trying to break into farming industry that are having a difficult time doing so because of land access and the financial backing they need to do so. So that is our goal to be here in Washington talking to our Representatives and figuring how we can best move the farmland to the younger generations and assist young farmers getting their businesses started. So they can have a viable and bright future in farming.”