STARTING A BILINGUAL FARM SCHOOL/INCUBATOR (VIVA FARMS)
Proposed by: Don W Mcmoran
Presenter: Mcmoran, D. , Agriculture And Natural Resources Extension Educator, Washington State University, Burlington, WA 98233
Having taught a beginning small farmer course called Cultivating Success in Skagit County Washington for the past four years, each year that I taught the course approximately 25% of the course participants would complain that they were unable to lease ground in the area and they couldn’t afford to buy any. This combined with a need to create more farmers to continue farming one of the last coastal maritime agriculture areas in Western United States prompted me to seek out funding to start the first ever bilingual farm school/incubator program in Washington State called Viva Farms. My presentation will focus on the trials and tribulations I have gone through in year one of Viva Farms including the educational programming the 36 Cultivating Success class members received, locating funding and renting the 33 acre farm, translating/educating a population that has a very low educational level, how Viva Farms plans on marketing its goods, infrastructure including new buildings (greenhouse, processing location, and welcome center) that will be built on sight , dispute resolution amongst participants, and equipment rental. My hope is that this presentation will encourage others in our industry to create farm incubators using VIVA as their model.