A Short Introductory Series on Farm Cooperatives
For food, fiber, and flower farmers in Humboldt, Del Norte, and Tribal Lands
There’s more than one way to operate an agriculture business in cooperation with others. In a worker-owned farm, everyone shares the profits and the leadership, allowing everyone to reap the benefits of what they sow. In a producers cooperative, a number of farms join forces to share equipment, professional services like bookkeeping and insurance, labor, marketing, and distribution. The North Coast Growers Association, Worker Owned Humboldt, and guest instructors took an inspiring look at the benefits and approaches for creating Worker-owned Farms and Agricultural Producer Cooperatives. Find more info on this series here.
For food, fiber, and flower farmers in Humboldt, Del Norte, and Tribal Lands
There’s more than one way to operate an agriculture business in cooperation with others. In a worker-owned farm, everyone shares the profits and the leadership, allowing everyone to reap the benefits of what they sow. In a producers cooperative, a number of farms join forces to share equipment, professional services like bookkeeping and insurance, labor, marketing, and distribution. The North Coast Growers Association, Worker Owned Humboldt, and guest instructors took an inspiring look at the benefits and approaches for creating Worker-owned Farms and Agricultural Producer Cooperatives. Find more info on this series here.
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Watch a short overview of agricultural worker and producer cooperatives here. Then decide if you are interested in one or both or the full webinar recordings with deeper dives below. |
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Introduction to Worker-Owned Farms, with special guest Jasmin Segura from Redwood Roots Farm Cooperative. Thursday, 28 Feb 2023, 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Watch Webinar Recording & download the resource packet In 2022, with support from Worker Owned Humboldt, Redwood Roots Farm became Redwood Roots Farm Cooperative, and is now owned by its employees. Join Ivy North from North Coast Growers Association, Tobin McKee from Worker Owned Humboldt, and the worker-owners from Redwood Roots for an inspiring and informative discussion about becoming a worker-owned farm. In a worker-owned farm, everyone shares the profits and the leadership, allowing everyone to reap the benefits of what they sew. |
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Introduction to Agricultural Producers Cooperatives, with special guest Drew Barber from Uplift Co-op. Thursday, 7 March 2023, 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Watch Webinar Recording & download the resource packet Uplift Cooperative is an agricultural producers cooperative in the Petrolia Valley. In a producers cooperative, a number of farms join forces to share equipment, and professional services like bookkeeping, insurance, labor, marketing, and distribution. Join Ivy North from North Coast Growers Association, Tobin McKee from Worker Owned Humboldt, and Drew Barber from Uplift Cooperative in an inspiring and informative discussion about forming an agricultural producers cooperative. |
Want to learn more? Check out this PDF: Links to Resources for Worker Owned Farms and Producers Cooperatives
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A collaboration of the DNATL Community Food Council, Humboldt Food Policy Council, and North Coast Growers Association. A series of interactive sessions, discussions, & panels to unearth the opportunities and gaps that exist in growing our local food economy.
This series took place in the middle of a busy farming season so many people who wished to participate have not been able to attend. Therefore, we have recorded our sessions and made them available here as an educational archive to share with our community as we move forward with these important discussions of critical and exciting emerging opportunities. |
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Small Farm Land Match Stakeholder Meeting. June 9th, 2022 Access to affordable land is a frequent barrier to starting or expanding small farming operations. Hear about the potential that a localized program for Land Matching may have for increasing economic opportunity and food production throughout the North Coast. Review the June 9th session in the "Emerging Opportunities to Grow Our Food Economy" series to learn about land access issues, hear what successful models of land matching have looked like in other regions, and be a part of a discussion about what we need in our region. |
What exactly is a land matching program? Well, it can look any number of ways, but generally a land match program will provide matching and business support services to new or expanding farmers looking for land to farm as well as landowners interested in finding someone to farm their land.
Featuring: * Information about state-wide land access issues and matching programs with CA FarmLink. * Hear from Sierra Harvest about a successful land match program in Nevada County called Forever Farms.
Featuring: * Information about state-wide land access issues and matching programs with CA FarmLink. * Hear from Sierra Harvest about a successful land match program in Nevada County called Forever Farms.
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North Coast Food Trail Stakeholder Meeting. June 16th, 2022. Would the North Coast benefit from the creation of micro and region-wide“Food Trails?” This session included an overview of what a Food Trail is, and the successes and challenges of Food Trails in other communities. Together we will started to identify local needs, potential benefits, drawbacks and collaborators for a program and discuss the positive impact it may have for increasing economic opportunity and food access here in North Coast. |
Special Guests included Rachael Callahan, Statewide Agri-tourism Coordinator for UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) to share an overview on the importance of agri-tourism and the benefits of food trails. Vivien Straus of Straus Home Ranch will shared design, development, and successes of the CA Cheese Trail. Nan Devlin, Executive Director for the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association & North Coast Food Trail shared the story of their food trail, economic benefits, and promotion of the trail. Followed by a participant discussion on creation of a North Coast Food Trail.
The North Coast Small Business Development Center and the North Coast Growers’ Association proudly partnered in 2021 to offer special programs for Farmers, Ranchers, Dairy folk and other agricultural businesses on the North Coast to enhance their business skills.
(video link repair coming soon)
4/19/2021
State of the Industry for Humboldt Farmers & Info Session for the upcoming Small Farm Business Workshop Series
Farmers of Humboldt County were invited to attend a virtual panel where we will explore the "state of our industry" in 2021. We heard from a select panel of experienced and upcoming Humboldt farmers who considered the many complex challenges we face with Covid-19 while keeping our eye on local impacts of climate change and our ever-changing economy. Together we aimed to develop a more diverse understanding of the health of our food system and gain insights into lucrative business pivots as we all move forward into 2021. A Q&A will follow the panel discussion. This panel marked the beginning of an exciting season-long series of workshops put on in collaboration between North Coast SBDC and the North Coast Growers' Association. Information about the upcoming series was be provided. This panel was moderated by: Melanie Cunningham, Regenerative Farmer at Shakefork Community Farm & Ivy North, Director of Programs for the North Coast Growers’ Association. Panelists: Sarah Brunner, Cody Nicholson Stratton, Adam Pickett & Amy Neukom
4/19/2021
State of the Industry for Humboldt Farmers & Info Session for the upcoming Small Farm Business Workshop Series
Farmers of Humboldt County were invited to attend a virtual panel where we will explore the "state of our industry" in 2021. We heard from a select panel of experienced and upcoming Humboldt farmers who considered the many complex challenges we face with Covid-19 while keeping our eye on local impacts of climate change and our ever-changing economy. Together we aimed to develop a more diverse understanding of the health of our food system and gain insights into lucrative business pivots as we all move forward into 2021. A Q&A will follow the panel discussion. This panel marked the beginning of an exciting season-long series of workshops put on in collaboration between North Coast SBDC and the North Coast Growers' Association. Information about the upcoming series was be provided. This panel was moderated by: Melanie Cunningham, Regenerative Farmer at Shakefork Community Farm & Ivy North, Director of Programs for the North Coast Growers’ Association. Panelists: Sarah Brunner, Cody Nicholson Stratton, Adam Pickett & Amy Neukom
(video link repair coming soon)
5/31/2021
Integrated Pest Management
How do we avoid crop damage from pests & diseases on the farm? Farmers use a range of practices to keep our crops thriving, yet sometimes pests & diseases come anyway. What level of damage is worth taking action on? What can we do to preempt these problems, or react once they arrive. This workshop will discussed the practices known as Integrated Pest Management and the broad range of techniques we use to manage plant health, taking examples from our own experiences as farmers.
Eddie Tanner is the owner of Deepseeded Farm, a 9 acre vegetable and fruit farm focused on CSA memberships. He has been farming for over 20 years, and is the author of "The Humboldt Kitchen Gardener". He holds a B.S. in Soil Science from Humboldt State University and a M.S. in Ag - Plant Health Management from Washington State University. He lives in Arcata with his wife and two sons. Featured Guest: Amy Neukom, co-owner of Neukom Family Farm in Willow Creek.
5/31/2021
Integrated Pest Management
How do we avoid crop damage from pests & diseases on the farm? Farmers use a range of practices to keep our crops thriving, yet sometimes pests & diseases come anyway. What level of damage is worth taking action on? What can we do to preempt these problems, or react once they arrive. This workshop will discussed the practices known as Integrated Pest Management and the broad range of techniques we use to manage plant health, taking examples from our own experiences as farmers.
Eddie Tanner is the owner of Deepseeded Farm, a 9 acre vegetable and fruit farm focused on CSA memberships. He has been farming for over 20 years, and is the author of "The Humboldt Kitchen Gardener". He holds a B.S. in Soil Science from Humboldt State University and a M.S. in Ag - Plant Health Management from Washington State University. He lives in Arcata with his wife and two sons. Featured Guest: Amy Neukom, co-owner of Neukom Family Farm in Willow Creek.
(video link repair coming soon)
6/7/2021
Cutting Edge Small Farm Tech - Ecommerce trends to help you broaden your e-toolbox
Learn about cutting edge farm-specific ecommerce platforms to modernize your operation and reach new customers.
Experts from The California Alliance of Family Farmers Tech Hub provided insights into ecommerce trends to help you broaden your e-toolbox to establish or improve on your CSA management, integrate platforms for agrotourism and farmstays, and develop or improve on online sales systems and learn how to smoothly integrate your existing social media accounts and website into your ecommerce site(s). Featured local and non-local farmers andf other experts shared lessons about technology-based solutions that have solved their direct marketing challenges. This workshop welcomed all types of food farmers, ranchers, and dairy-folk from the North Coast.
Presented by:
Elizabeth Vaughan, CAFF Farm to Market Tech Hub Specialist.
& Alicia Baddorf is a Contractor with the Small Farm Tech Program at CAFF.
Featured Guests included: Chris Moore, Kelly Smith and Misty West Grey
6/7/2021
Cutting Edge Small Farm Tech - Ecommerce trends to help you broaden your e-toolbox
Learn about cutting edge farm-specific ecommerce platforms to modernize your operation and reach new customers.
Experts from The California Alliance of Family Farmers Tech Hub provided insights into ecommerce trends to help you broaden your e-toolbox to establish or improve on your CSA management, integrate platforms for agrotourism and farmstays, and develop or improve on online sales systems and learn how to smoothly integrate your existing social media accounts and website into your ecommerce site(s). Featured local and non-local farmers andf other experts shared lessons about technology-based solutions that have solved their direct marketing challenges. This workshop welcomed all types of food farmers, ranchers, and dairy-folk from the North Coast.
Presented by:
Elizabeth Vaughan, CAFF Farm to Market Tech Hub Specialist.
& Alicia Baddorf is a Contractor with the Small Farm Tech Program at CAFF.
Featured Guests included: Chris Moore, Kelly Smith and Misty West Grey
(video link repair coming soon)
8/2/2021
Regenerative Farming
“Carbon farming (aka regenerative farming) is agriculture’s answer to climate change. Simply put, the goal is to take excess carbon out of the atmosphere, where the element causes global warming, and store it in the soil, where carbon aids the growth of plants. The principle is pretty straightforward – the practice, not so much.” (Modernfarmer.com) We heard from Jeff Borum (The East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District) who covered the science and soil benefits of carbon farming regenerative practices. Local farmers Chris Moore, Kevin Cunningham and Hannah Eisloeffel shared their real life experiences in regenerative farming practices including the use of cover crops, no till or reduced till, crop diversity, incorporating animals, and compost. Doreen Hansen from the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District shared information about financial resources for regenerative farming.
8/2/2021
Regenerative Farming
“Carbon farming (aka regenerative farming) is agriculture’s answer to climate change. Simply put, the goal is to take excess carbon out of the atmosphere, where the element causes global warming, and store it in the soil, where carbon aids the growth of plants. The principle is pretty straightforward – the practice, not so much.” (Modernfarmer.com) We heard from Jeff Borum (The East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District) who covered the science and soil benefits of carbon farming regenerative practices. Local farmers Chris Moore, Kevin Cunningham and Hannah Eisloeffel shared their real life experiences in regenerative farming practices including the use of cover crops, no till or reduced till, crop diversity, incorporating animals, and compost. Doreen Hansen from the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District shared information about financial resources for regenerative farming.
10/4/2021
Financial Resources for Farmers & Access to Land
Financial Resources for Farmers & Access to Land