Farmer Training Program

As featured in FARMPLATE BLOG * CIVIL EATS, Young Farmer Series * CIVIL EATS * CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION * SEEDSTOCK * BURLINGTON FREE PRESS * WCAX

Dates: May 2 – October 31, 2013

The Farmer Training Program is a 6-month intensive program for aspiring farmers and food systems advocates that provides a hands-on, skill-based education in sustainable agriculture. This full-time program offers participants the unique opportunity to manage their own growing site, take classes from professors and expert farmers, and rotate as workers and learners on successful, diverse farms in the Burlington area. This program will provide an intense, supportive experience where participants leave with a Certificate in Sustainable Farming, a deeper understanding of agricultural management and small-scale farming, and the entrepreneurial skills to start their own operation.

Farmer Training Program
The program is designed for aspiring farmers and those interested in sustainable, local food systems. Strong applicants:

Are looking for a career in sustainable farming and food systems
Want to play an active role in the sustainable food movement
Value a comprehensive education in all aspects of the business of farming, including marketing and distribution
Want a hands-on farm education
Want to learn from Vermont’s vibrant small-scale, diversified farming community

Tours of the program will include an opportunity to meet staff, see the Hort Farm and work alongside current farmer training students. Email us at farmer@uvm.edu indicating your interest in taking a tour. Tours are one and a half-hours in duration. We will email you the tour dates when they are confirmed, so you can indicate which one works best for you. We encourage you to complete your application before coming on a tour.

Summer Tour Schedule:
Monday, July 15, 2013 from 2:30 – 4:00 pm
Monday, August 12, 2013 from 2:30 – 4:00 pm
Monday, September 16, 2013 from 2:30 – 4:00 pm

In the News…
	From The Farmplate Blog, Nov 01, 2012 The FarmPlate Young Farmers Series: Chaya Lipkin From Dreamland Harvest Read the article>>
	From Civil Eats, October 2012 Interview with a Young FarmerCivil Eats spoke to Robinson Yost, one of the current students in the program. After studying anti-colonial politics as an undergraduate student, he studied ecological building methods in New Mexico and participated in a reforestation project and low-impact living experiment in Southeast India. As a young farmer, Robinson is a telling example of the sort of unconventional backgrounds that many young farmers are bringing into the American food system. READ MORE>>
	From WCAX, Sept 2012 Training the next generation of Vt. farmers Susie Walsh Daloz is the director of the UVM Farmer Training Program and Will Gowen is a student. They both appeared on The :30 to talk about the program. Watch the video for more.
	From Burlington Free Press Growing Season SOUTH BURLINGTON — Marie-Eve Mongeau snipped at a bank of zinnias on a recent morning and gazed at adjacent rows of squash, radicchio, potatoes, chamomile and fennel. The sun shone and the air was fragrant as Mongeau helped harvest flowers and fresh produce to be sold at a farmer’s market that afternoon. The work was dirtier than the tasks that Mongeau, who has a degree in chemical engineering, performed in her former job at a Boston medical device maker. Read More>> (PDF)
	From Seedstock, August 9, 2012 UVM Farmer Training Program Teaches Students Sustainability Hinges on Financial Fitness “If beer is a reliable indicator, rosy times lie ahead for American agriculture and those who like fresh wholesome food. As the 70′s gave way to the 80′s, doomsayers predicted that if the going trend of consolidation continued only 5 beer-brewing companies would exist by the 1990′s. But something happened and that something was the rise of the craft brewer. Today this phenomenon is happening again, this time with peas and carrots. At agricultural training programs cropping up at such places as the University of California, Santa Cruz, New York’s Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, Michigan State University, and now at the University of Vermont’s Farmer Training Program, one diverse student group after another is endeavoring to reinvent and reinvigorate farming…” Read More>>
	From “The Chronicle,” Thursday, February 9, 2012 “University Programs Raise Crop of New Farmers” On a soggy, raw October morning, in a far corner of the University of Vermont’s Hort Farm, a dozen students gather by a picnic table and survey their three-quarter-acre plot. Since spring, as part of Vermont’s first farmer-training program, they have cultivated crops where weed scientists used to run trials. Today is their last market harvest. Read More>> (Requires subscription for full content.)
	Hear what CivilEats.com has to say about UVM’s Farmer Apprentice Program Farmer Apprenticeship Program Seeds Next Generation Small-Scale Farmers It’s not the first farmer apprenticeship program of its kind, but the University of Vermont’s upcoming curriculum aims to be just as revolutionary as its university counterparts. Farming apprenticeships at Michigan State and UC Santa Cruz, have already proven that college graduates are not only ready for intensive, professional training in sustainable agriculture, but are capable of turning their experiential education into sustainable jobs. As the demand for small-scale, locally-grown produce steadily increases, the mission of UVM’s apprenticeship is quite clear: provide graduates with an education and support system that encourage them to create and maintain sustainable farms and food businesses. Read More…