America’s farmers are getting older, and they may not have a relative or friend who wants to take their land over when they retire.
In Michigan, these farmers have a new option to connect to people who want to get into agriculture with an online platform that may remind you of an old-school personals column.
The program is part of a growing trend nationally.
For most of his adult life, Thomas Lodge has been involved in agriculture, studying botany, creating a mushroom wholesale business and building an organic farm outside of Detroit.
A few years ago, he wanted to focus on his mushroom business full time, but didn’t want to completely give up the farm.
"I kind of built up the brand and was in some markets and got the organic certification, so I was really looking for somebody that kind of shared the same vision as me, Lodge said.
It's one in a billion that a turnkey farm was available 30 minutes from our door in Dearborn Heights.Simon Yevzelman
So, he made a post on an online platform in Michigan called MIFarmLink which connects land owners with farm seekers, and found Simon Yevzelman. He and his wife wanted to launch new livelihoods in agriculture and were excited about finding Lodge’s property.
"It's one in a billion that a turnkey farm was available 30 minutes from our door in Dearborn Heights," he said.
This is the second year the Yevzelmans have grown vegetables, flowers, mushrooms and herbs to sell to customers on the land they lease from Lodge under the name Cedar Field Farm.
They even grow specialty crops like molokhia, a leafy vegetable that's popular among Metro Detroit's Arab American population.
"One of the reasons we're able to do a second season, is that leasing, which hadn't been on our radar, was so much less of a risk than purchasing land, like I said, putting all the infrastructure on and doing all these capital heavy investments," Caitlin Yevzelman said.
For them, Cedar Field Farm is a stepping stone to them both working full-time on farmland they own down the line.
MIFarmLink program manager Jill Dohner says the way Lodge and the Yevzelmans found each other is becoming more common.
"Historically speaking, farmers used to just give their land to their sons or their daughters, and they would take over the operation. That's not happening anymore."
She says that issue is exacerbated as more of the country’s farmers get older. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, their average age is 58.
She says for many of them, the land they own is like a piece of them which makes passing it on, especially to someone new, a tough, personal process.
"Most farmers want that land to go a deserved farmer, somebody who can actually, you know, take it and do good for the land."
On the other end, Dohner says it can hard for people wanting to get into farming to know where to look to get started. She's had her own experiences with that.
Historically speaking, farmers used to just give their land to their sons or their daughters, and they would take over the operation. That's not happening anymore.Jill Donher
"I had the same struggles. We drove around all our country roads until we found a piece and sent it to our realtor and said, 'Can you connect this with this person?'" she said. "But that's not the way it has to be, right?"
MIFarmLink aims to make that initial introduction easier. Yevzelman says the concept is easy to grasp.
"It's just like any other online marketplace where people can share, you know, supply and demand," he said.
On the website, people share what they’re looking for, whether it’s land for sale or lease, or a mentorship, and then they inject a little personality into their posts.
Like this one: "Small town gardening girl looking to expand her farm."
Or there’s another about a family of “grow-getters” who are looking to “farm around and find out.”
The concept behind these programs, what’s known as land or farm linking, goes back several decades.
Shemariah Blum-Evitts is the Executive Director for Land For Good which manages a farm linking program in New England. It launched more than a decade ago.
"We're not growing any more land, so maintaining what we have available and making sure it continues to be there for future generations is going to be really key," she said.
There are currently several dozen farm linking programs active in more than 30 states.
We're not growing any more land, so maintaining what we have available and making sure it continues to be there for future generations is going to be really key.Shemariah Blum-Evitts
After operating in several individual counties in Michigan, MIFarmLink is going statewide this month with more than 300 farm seekers already signed up.
One of them is Maureen Maccomb who wants to farm for the first time.
"I kind of feel like farming has been like this well-kept secret passed down from generations, and if you're not in it, it's really hard to figure out how to break in it."
Her dream property for her family? Several acres where they can grow produce and flowers and maybe raise some goats and chickens.
Maccomb says she’s in the early stages of connecting with a farmer that will hopefully get her closer to that dream.
