The Beginner Farmer Training Program (BFTP) aims to replenish the aging farmer population with a workforce trained in sustainability from the get-go. The 3-level program is year long and has a competitive application process. By the end of 2019, Future Harvest will have produced nearly 350 graduates and have received 230 applications for the 2020 class.
The Field School uses farmer-to-farmer knowledge transfer and expert-led presentations to help farmers make fully informed production and marketing decisions for the long-term sustainability of their businesses, natural resources, and communities. The Field School holds about 35 farmer- and consumer-education workshops, tours, and intensives each year on farms and food businesses around the region. This year due to Covid, those sessions pivoted online. Programs are open to the public and draw annually about 700 people – farmers, consumers, food businesses, and other advocates and educators.
The Annual Conference is held every January and is the largest sustainable agriculture conference in the lower mid-Atlantic. It draws about 600-700 people every year, mostly small-to mid-scale farmers as well as educators and advocates. The event features seven tracks, a full day of pre-conference workshops, and 2-3 plenary speakers.
Community building happens through our membership and partnerships. FH has about 800 members comprised of farmers, consumers, food businesses, landowners, nonprofits and ag educators. We also convene partners outside our membership, as well as participate in a range of external networks of food system actors.
Future Harvest’s Voice 4 Change program works collaboratively with others to advance policies and raise awareness of issues that will help advance the Future Harvest mission. We have had great successes, including the passage of the 2017 Maryland Healthy Soils Act and cost-shares for farmers converting row cropland to pasture.
Our most recent program is On-Farm Research. We’re conducting a 7-10 year soil benchmarking study where we will test soil on select farms over time to help participating farmers better understand and share with others how their practices affect soil fertility. We are also starting study circles with intermediate farmers to facilitate information sharing and strategies around farm finances.
Future Harvest has a Safe Food, Safe Farms education campaign to help farmers comply with food safety regulations; the Go Grassfed multi-media and education campaign to step up supply and demand for meat, dairy, and other products from animals raised on pasture; and the Million Acre Challenge to advance regenerative agriculture in the region with a multi-year, multi-partner, multi-approach collaborative. Future Harvest awarded 22 grants from the Feed the Need Fund, which raised more than $40,000 for the farming community in the Chesapeake region to address food access. Future Harvest selected 14 Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color out of the 22 grantees as part of the commitment to racial equity.
