Conferences
Viva Farms
Don McMoran
Summary
Viva farms (vivafarms.org) is a 33 acre bilingual farm incubator based in Skagit County. It was created because of a lack of young generational farmers taking over the family farm and the ability for those interested in becoming farmers access to land. To meet the need, WSU Skagit County Extension utilizes the 12 week Cultivating Success Small Farming and Ranching curriculum (cultivatingsuccess.org) to educate participants bilingually in Spanish and English on sustainable agricultural practices in Skagit County followed by a bilingual 12 week Cultivating Success Agricultural Entrepreneurship course. Having completed the Ag Entrepreneurship course requirement of a certified business plan indviduals qualify to rent land from Viva Farms. Due to private funding, Viva Farms offers access to equipment and infrastructure (greenhouse/processing center/tillage/irrigation/marketing) as part of their lease. In year one there were 8 new farmers mostly of latino origin at Viva Farms. These farmers were able to raise over 30 different crops on approximately 10 acres of land, selling 95% of their products. For 2011 the program´s goal is to retain all of this year´s farmers and add 10 more while adding a cooler and a CSA.
Presentation Materials
Details
| Conference | 2011 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference |
| Presentation Type | 30-Minute Concurrent |