The Intervale Farms Program
Creating Opportunities for New Farmers
OVERVIEW
Founded in 1990, the Farms Program leases land, equipment, greenhouses, irrigation and storage facilities to small independent farms that agree to farm organically. Currently thirteen farms operate on 120 acres with over 60 full time and seasonal workers. Several of the farms are recent start-ups in an incubator status. Farmers have access to a cafeteria of technical and mechanical support as well as the benefit of marketing programs and business planning resources to help them establish themselves as profitable businesses.
The Farms Program removes start-up barriers that typically challenge new farmers: access to training, land, capital, and markets; farm experience; equipment operation and maintenance; and isolation. One of the great assets of the program is the cooperative spirit of the farmers themselves, the informal mentoring and support they provide to each other.
The incubator program is a unique resource for farmers who need beginner training at a time when sustainably grown fresh, high quality produce is in greater demand. Incubator farms receive coaching in setting up a business plan and the Intervale Center subsidizes costs of equipment, land and facilities. After three years as an incubator farmer, viable farms become enterprise farms. Enterprise farms are entitled to extended leases and their fees increase to cover full operating costs for Intervale services. Half a dozen farmers have graduated from the Farms Program onto farms around Vermont. Others continue to farm in the Intervale and may become Mentor Farms. Mentor Farms are mature farms which have been operating in the Intervale for at least five years and take on the role of mentoring Incubator Farms.
Click for a list of the independent farms operating in the intervale
Click here for an informational brochure about the Farms Program
GOALS
The goal of the Farms Program is to support new farmers as they venture into what we hope will become a lifetime of producing food for Vermonters. The independent farms in the Intervale provide the residents of Burlington, including low income and disadvantaged populations, with six percent or 550,000 pounds of their fresh produce needs. This represents over $500,000 to the local economy. The Farms Program has resulted in the rejuvenation of over 200 acres of historic agricultural land that had fallen into disuse. Over 60 farmers, hired staff, interns and students work the farms each season. The program creates job opportunities and training for low-skilled and semi-skilled workers, management opportunities for agricultural entrepreneurs and demonstration models for other farmers in the state and country.
Vermont agriculture faces numerous challenges. The average age of farmers is 54 and more than half of the farms in the state operate at a net loss. In Vermont, 90% of the food we eat is grown on large scale commercial farms out of state. That food travels an average of 1,500 miles from the farm to your table, burning fuels and losing nutrients along the way.
But there are opportunities as well. The fastest growing agricultural sector is the organic market, which, driven by consumer demand, is increasing at a dramatic rate. In the Burlington area there is about twice the interest in local farm products as the national average. The Intervale Center works to develop opportunities for young people to enter farming and to improve the economic rewards for farms. This is critical to the growth of the sustainable food market, the restoration of our agricultural lands, the quality of our environment, the security of our food system, and the health of our community.
As the demand for fresh, local and organically grown produce increases nationwide, Community Supported Agriculture farms are fast becoming one of the more popular ways to connect people to their local farms and locally grown food. Click here for more information about CSA’s.
For more information or to apply to the Intervale Farms Program, contact Mandy Davis by email or at 660 0440, ext 108.