Why The Avett Brothers Raised Their Voice For This Farm
When the Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm risked closure, these caring folk singers stepped up for the future of food — and so can you.
If you want to become a lawyer you go to law school, if you want to become a doctor you go to med school. But if you want to be a farmer, where do you go for that education, training and hands on practice?
Well before June, one answer would have been the Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm in Concord, North Carolina; where beginning farms can gain access to land and equipment to start their own farm business. “This is the vocational option for people that want to become farmers,” explained Elizabeth Read of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA).
In June, CFSA got word that the Lomax Incubator Farm was in danger of losing funding. The 30 plus acres of land donated by Elma C. Lomax was owned and operated by Cabarrus County until mid June 2014 when the county voted to cut all funding. As the only certified organic incubator farm in the southeast, the loss of Lomax would have had devastating repercussions for the local, organic farming community and the greater foodshed. On July 1, the county locked the doors, cut the power and restricted access for the farmers to crops in the ground and growing.
“We lost funding and for about ten days, the farm shut down with crops still in the ground. The lights, the power, everything turned off. There were crops lost, markets that we could not supply the goods they were expecting, families that did not get the food that they wanted that week,” Joe Rowland, a Lomax graduate, described passionately.
It didn’t take long for CFSA to step in and act as an intermediary. They entered into an agreement with the county to let the farmers have access to the fields and continue to run their businesses through the end of this year.
Almost immediately, The Avett Brothers stepped up, donating $10,000 to support the project through the end of the year. They grew up in Cabarrus County, not far from Lomax and showed great concern for local foods and farming. “The opportunity for the Avett family to help Lomax, when we heard that the lights were going to be turned off so abruptly, was a no brainer. Especially as close to where I grew up, and especially as close to where I spent so much time,” shared Avett. “But it’s a place with an educational mission and that’s very important to me as well.”
For Aaron Newton, featured alongside Joe and Scott in their video, Lomax closing meant that he lost his job as farm coordinator. “Someone like Joe who has put so much into this. Someone like Aaron who has put so much into this. Their hand is to the ground. They know how much of a sacrifice is being made,” Scott said thoughtfully. “But this is so much their heart and their soul.”
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT A FARM INCUBATOR?
“So much of the passing down of knowledge from farmer to farmer has been lost with the average age of a farmer being 58,” said Read. “If someone doesn’t grow up with their parents as farmers then that knowledge is not there.”
Generally farmers stay on site for about four years. During the first year they have access to a small plot and then they are accelerated and put in more time on site. They have the opportunity to develop their business plan with more acreage, and by year three, they are in peak production. In year four, they’re scaled down to graduate out of the program to start their own venture.
The Incubator Farm acts as a vocational training program for those who want to learn the craft, but don’t know where to start. It deals first with land access. The reality is that land can be hard to come by, expensive to purchase, and labor intensive to convert. Another big component is the mentoring and training aspect; how to use a tractor, what you should be adding to the soil, how to plan your production, etc. Finally, it gives these young farmers the opportunity to develop their markets before the embarking on the upstart costs of a new farm.
“Farming is not one sided. There’s so much that you have to understand from small mechanics and carpentry, equipment, the production, the packing, the storage, marketing. There’s so much going on,” explained Rowland.
As a graduate who now runs a certified organic farm called Rowland’s Row Family Farm fifteen miles away from Lomax, he is an evangelist of the program. “Now that I’m out on my own, I’m able to operate a successful business.”
WHY IS THIS FUNDING IMPORTANT?
“There’s more opportunity to make mistakes,” Elizabeth explained. “We know that repair costs for incubators are high because people are using tractors for the first time and figuring out other tools. But that’s part of the process of getting their foot in the door, establishing markets, and figuring out what they are doing without risking their livelihood.”
The farm costs about $100,000 to run annually on a bare minimum basis and the campaign on Barnraiser is one small part of that. However, as Elizabeth explained to me, simply having a resource to train beginning farmers in Cabarrus Country is essential for the larger foodshed. Access to land and the rising cost of land are a major part of this.
“Concord and Cabarrus County are sort of based in the Charlotte region, but there are virtually no farms in the county that Charlotte is in, which is just the county to the south,” Elizabeth explained. “Charlotte has over a million people, so Lomax provides food for that foodshed.”
SO, WHY BARNRAISE?
Massive support flooded in when The Avett Brothers stepped in. “When The Avett Brothers mentioned something from their twitter feed, a lot of fans stepped up and wanted to know how to help out,” Elizabeth stated.
There was a raffle of concert photos, fans painted oil portraits of The Avett Brothers to be auctioned off, and ‘I Saved Lomax Farm’ t-shirts were in high demand. Furthermore, as a city of about 83,000, Concord is big enough to be a relatively big city yet small enough that word gets around pretty quickly. So, when the news broke about Lomax, it was a big media story. “There were also a lot of people in the community who were upset wanted to find a way to get involved,” she said.
Crowdfunding seemed like a great way to both capture the energy and enthusiasm of our local community, and raise awareness to the good work being done at Lomax Farm to a larger audience.
SUPPORT THE FUTURE OF FOOD
“It’s important for folks to donate to keep this farm operating, to give young farmers the opportunity to learn in a hands on environment, a craft that will then go on and give back and benefit the community around them so much,” said Joe, who truly knows the impact of programs like these.
Join Scott Avett and the CFSA in support of raising a new generation of farmers, giving them tools and land for success, so they can go on an make an impact wherever they decide to plant seeds.
In the words of Scott, remember, “It takes a lot of littles to make a big.”
Barnraiser is the community powering the food movement, one project at a time. Our mission is to put a billion dollars into the hands of food innovators as they reshape a healthy food world. Join the movement and bring us your projects! Contact us: projects@barnraiser.us
