Agraria_Journal_Summer_2022

32 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 Growing a New Crop of Regenerative Farmers BY TIA STUART AMY HARPER RFF Fellow Isabel Matos, an area high school student, comes to Agraria after school for her training. RFF Coordinator Tia Stuart, her daughter, and RFF Fellow Jorden Mapel. The seeds planted by last year’s Regenerative Farmer Fellowship (RFF) program produced a bumper crop of new Fellows for this year’s training program, which began in April. The 10 new Fellows, up from six last year, hail from Greene, Clark, Montgomery, and Hamilton counties. They come to the training with various levels of farming experience, from first timers to more experienced growers. They’ll learn about regenerative practices through work on the newly established George Washington Carver (GWC) Farm, a one-acre demonstration farm on Agraria. They’ll also focus on growing capacity at their own sites, selling products, and business planning. In the spirit of Carver and the Jesup Agricultural Wagon, the RFF will take the classroom on the road to participants’ growing spaces to teach and learn from one another. The Jesup Agricultural Wagon was a mobile classroom developed by Carver in 1906 to teach farmers and sharecroppers how to grow crops. It is considered one of the most significant contributions to cooperative extension. Now in its second year, the RFF was established in 2021 in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Central State University. The purpose is to encourage, support and train aspiring and beginning farmers with a special emphasis on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). Funding for this year’s program was provided in part by a grant from the Ohio Environmental Education Fund and private donations. The Fellowship is 25 weeks long and runs until early October. Participants receive a stipend for 20 hours per week to allow them to focus on regenerative farming practices and business development. For more information about the Regenerative Farmer Fellowship or to schedule a tour of the George Washington Carver Farm, contact Tia Stuart at tstuart@agrariacenter.org . Tia Stuart is coordinator of the Regenerative Farmer Fellowship and director of BIPOC Farming Initiatives.