From Georgia Farms to Emory Tables

Partnerships create new pathways

The pioneering partnership emerged from work being done at the Emory School of Law’s Turner Environmental Law Clinic, which each year provides more than 4,000 hours of pro bono legal representation to individuals, community groups and nonprofit organizations seeking to protect and restore the environment.

Staffed primarily by Emory law students — who helped draft the initial memorandum of understanding — the clinic has represented The Conservation Fund since it first conceived of the Working Farms Fund about six years ago, Goldstein says.

The idea for the Working Farms Fund came about, in part, because The Conservation Fund recognized that development throughout metro Atlanta was bringing with it the rapid destruction of viable agricultural land.

“Buying land is incredibly hard for anyone, but especially for beginning, young and minority farmers, who’ve historically found it nearly impossible,” Goldstein says. “Generally in America, you inherit farmland. Institutional racism often precludes that, and beginning farmers are just not in the pipeline.”

At the same time, local, sustainably grown food remains in high demand in cities across the country. Yet many of the small to mid-sized urban farms that could supply it are at risk of being lost to development, placing them out of reach to next-generation farmers.

Jamila Norman, who’s been raising organic produce at Patchwork City Farm in metro Atlanta for 10 years, has seen the strain that shift has placed upon the city’s urban producers. “I know at least three farmers who’ve had to move their operations three times,” she says.

For Norman, who walked away from a career in engineering to farm, buying her own land was a critical step toward stability. “I had to cash out my retirement and empty all my savings to find a property I could own outright,” she says. “You do what you have to do.”

Recognizing limitations faced by local producers, and resolved to meet its own sustainability goals, Emory took a proactive step: What if Atlanta’s largest employer began working directly with farmers, committing up front to purchasing their crops? What if Emory created its own pipeline for local, sustainably raised food?

“Through our partnership with The Conservation Fund, we wanted to send a signal to farmers: If you grow sustainable food locally here in Georgia, we will buy it.”

Ciannat Howett, Emory director of sustainability initiatives

Contributing to a sustainable food system is deeply woven into the university’s broader sustainability goals. Sustainably produced foods help support environmental health, worker welfare and wages, as well as preserve farm viability; working with local providers also reduces the impacts of transportation, helping to lower the university’s carbon footprint.

“Helping increase local food production is good for everyone,” Howett says. “Our sustainability goals also call for us to have a resilience plan — the ability to guard against disruptions to our supply chain. With climate change, you need to think about food access, including what it could mean for Atlanta and Emory.”

“As we plan for that, we need to put in systems that will continue to allow us to thrive,” she says. “Agriculture is a huge part of the Georgia economy. This partnership helps metro Atlanta have access to local food, while helping support farmers, farm families and farm communities.”

Emory already has a food purchase agreement with the Oxford College organic farm, an 11-acre farm adjacent to the university’s Oxford College campus that annually produces about 25,000 pounds of fresh, healthy food for Emory dining halls, CSAs and farmers markets, as well as providing hands-on learning opportunities for students across many disciplines.

Emory’s Atlanta campus currently purchases a little over 40% of its food from local and sustainable sources; Oxford College is closer to 45%, says David Furhman, senior director of operations for Campus Life. “Because of the enormous quantity of food served on this campus, we needed to look for new partners for doing innovative work,” he says.

“These ventures take time to come to fruition, so it’s critical to start now with a program that promises to be mutually beneficial to all parties,” he says. “We’re excited and proud. I can’t think of a better way to demonstrate our commitment to the community.”

The agreement will also encourage Emory faculty and students to conduct research on participating farms. That could range from studying carbon sequestration, climate mitigation and climate-smart agricultural practices to public health issues and purchasing models, notes Howett.

That’s welcome news for Vanessa Ishimwe, a senior studying environmental and political science in Emory College of Arts and Sciences who recently helped plan Emory’s Sustainable Food Fair.

“As an institution of learning and member of our broader community, Emory has a responsibility to educate ourselves and help educate others about how we can be responsible to our environment — how we can make sure that the resources that we get to enjoy are also enjoyed by future generations,” she says.

Changing agricultural landscape

On a misty fall morning, 24-year-old Demetrius Milling drives through a sleepy residential East Atlanta neighborhood filled with brick houses and tidy lawns.

Parking his Jeep at the end of the block, he unlocks a gate and strides into what has become both his workplace and classroom — a quiet pocket farm thriving amid a bustling cityscape. The swell of morning bird song rises against the steady buzz of airplanes passing overhead.

It took time for Milling to find farming. But in the four years that he’s worked as an assistant manager at Love Is Love Farm, he’s embraced a calling. There is satisfaction working in nature and feeding a community; no two days on a farm are ever the same.

While Milling can’t imagine anyone his age having the capital to buy their own land — and he and Reynolds have no immediate plans to move — he knows that for next-generation farmers, the Working Farms Fund could be a game-changer.

At 24, Demetrius Milling is part of a new generation of Georgia farmers.

In the U.S., farming is a shrinking vocation — national statistics indicate less than 1 percent of Americans are now farmers; about 96% of those farms remain family owned, according to the USDA 2017 Census of Agriculture. Like Milling, one in four of today’s producers is a beginning farmer with 10 or fewer years of experience.

America’s farmers are also aging; one-third are now over the age of 65. Yet as the USDA’s beginning farmer regional coordinator in Georgia, Rodney Brooks says he sees “diverse people from a number of backgrounds interested in getting into farming.”

“There is definitely an interest — I get all types of calls from people wanting to enter into the business,” he says. “You’ve just got to have access to capital and land to do it.”

That’s where the Working Farms Fund could make a difference, especially in serving emerging, non-traditional producers. For example, The Conservation Fund has already been in talks with a group of farmers in the Georgia Korean Farmers Association that is collectively seeking to farm about 100 acres of land.

“They already have solid demand from the Korean American community in Atlanta and have the potential to expand their current operations significantly,” says Kenny Fahey, a food ventures associate with The Conservation Fund.

Reynolds sees the value in those kinds of community collaborations.

“The number of small farms within the city is on the rise,” he says. “But we haven’t seen an explosion of farm ownership. As we watch the metro area continue to grow, The Conservation Fund is trying to make sure that we hold onto those important spaces. I think it’s a big opportunity.”