Organic grower Jim Koan reflects on the mindset needed to succeed with perennial crops like apples that require longer-term investments of labor and capital.

Joe Scrimger describes how introducing and maintaining healthy soil life can help farmers improve hydration and strengthen crop plants, then reminds us it’s all about producing healthy feed and food.

Joe Scrimger on how strategic crop rotation and cover-cropping can enhance the bacterial/fungal balance in the soil and jumpstart the phosphorous system, which improves uptake of many needed minerals.

Soil life holds the soil together. Joe Scrimger gives examples of how well functioning soils can produce good crops, resist erosion and runoff, and withstand adverse weather events.

Anything that damages soil biology can stress crop plants and put farms at risk. Joe Scrimger explains.

Joe Scrimger shares how nitrogen applications affect soil biology, including ways to better harness soil life to strengthen your crops.

Joe Scrimger connects the dots between nitrogen use on the farm, soil health and water quality.

Amanda Sweetman describes how a small farm on the hospital campus of Trinity Health St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor is having a big impact on food, medicine, community health, and local agriculture. Cultivating relationships (in addition to vegetables, flowers, and hay), The Farm at Trinity Health features a CSA that connects people with fresh produce from local farms.

Imagine a year-round, 7-day farmers market that sells only locally produced foods. With the opening of Argus Farm Stop in 2014, Kathy Sample and Bill Brinkerhoff made that happen, creating a win-win for the whole community: Customers have convenient access to fresh local food supplied by over 200 producers while producers receive 75 cents on every dollar sold by Argus on consignment. Listen to Kathy and Bill share about the farm stop model, which is now being replicated in other communities.

When an exceptional piece of farmland became available in Scio Township, Michigan, longtime land conservation specialist Barry Lonik and township officials found a way to protect it through an innovative “Buy-Protect-Sell” transaction strategy.

Organic no-till farmer Eric Kampe speaks to the practices that he and his farm partners have used to maintain the integrity and viability of small farm operations in their community.

Organic no-till farmer Eric Kampe shares experiences and perspectives on launching a small farm enterprise with a focus on both personal values and farm economics.

Wali Via of Winter Green Farm in Oregon shares about farm leadership succession in the context of an LLC. The older farmers wanted to take a step back while ensuring the continuity of their successful land stewardship practices, and to remain in residence on site. The subdivision and sale of the larger business enabled stakeholders to balance economic benefits and responsibilities through contractually defined roles and written agreements.

Bob Bower describes the challenges and strategies of a community coming together to assist in the farm succession process at Angelic Organics farm in Illinois, where he worked from 1995-2010. A nonprofit organization emerged as a vehicle for community engagement that supported the longtime farmer through leadership transition.

John Bloom of the Yggdrasil Land Foundation talks about the role of the foundation in assisting the leadership transition on Krusen Grass Farm, located in Southeast Wisconsin. The foundation had a hand in supporting the farmer in finding a successor, provided financial backing, and helped integrate the operation into the local economy and larger community.

This segment describes how farmers stabilized day-to-day farm operations at Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch through direct marketing and community involvement, and how the separation of land ownership from farm operations helps protect the land in the long term.

Bob Wills and John Thomson share the story of how shared vision, individual personalities and emerging circumstances combined to form the land ownership and farm management model currently in place at the Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Community Farms Co-op.

Bob Wills and John Thomson discuss how Tablehurst Farm was revitalized through a reorganization process that included transfer of land ownership to a trust and the onboarding of new, community-focused leadership for farm operations under a cooperative business entity.

Farmer David Junghans shares about the importance of building a unified vision and how people's desire for quality food drives success on a community farm. “The word is agriculture and not agribusiness,” Junghans says. Consequently, the ethos of culture and care needs to be part of all decision-making on the farm.

Longtime farmer Peter Brown describes the evolution of the management and ownership structure of Tablehurst & Plaw Hatch Community Farm Cooperative to create sustainable farm operations. Includes a discussion of how larger political and economic realities require such farms to generate multiple kinds of value for their communities.

Chris Marshall describes why community is essential in sustainable agricultural enterprise and land stewardship and outlines the organizational structure that Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Cooperative Farms have used to safeguard the land while supporting farm operations.

With decades of experience in on-the-ground organizing for land preservation in Michigan, Barry Lonik describes the benefits of publicly funded conservation easements and outlines paths for community involvement to make it happen. Barry cites many examples showing how the needs of multiple long-term stakeholders can be satisfied while protecting green space and agricultural land.

Jean-Paul Stewart-Courtens shares how after losing the lease on the land he was farming he was able to find and add to a piece of farmland while protecting it for agriculture long term. Success required creative thinking, partnerships, and a mix of funding sources supported by tools such as conservation easements and resale restrictions. Also includes a discussion of leadership transition.