Make A Difference, Buy Local

If you're a farmer without a farm, there are a ways to make a difference.

There are farms across the United States that are waiting to be adopted, share by share. Farms where you get to know the farmers and their families , gaining an understanding of the importance of farming. You might also really learn what sustainability means.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is rapidly gaining popularity. Buy a share in a farm and get a big basket of freshly grown fruits, vegetables, herbs and sometimes even flowers, each week.

Urban Ranchers Want More

Urban Ranchers usually know little or nothing about rural living, but want to try. They might want to escape the city, raise children with farm animals, vegetable and flower gardens, have a lush green yard, wildlife, or maybe even a pond or two with fish.

This type of lifestyle connects people, just like it did decades ago. Today Urban Ranchers are getting tips from their local co-op, their kids have free range chickens and are collecting and selling eggs for spending money, eating and cooking fresh foods from their ranches and could very well be selling fresh produce by the pound to friends and neighbors, like my grandmother did.

Several years ago, I began to recognize and feel the disconnect younger generations were having from the family farm. The backbone feeding America and the world had been reduced to “plows and cows” and was far from hip. If you asked children where their food came from, they generally said “the grocery store.” Most didn’t realize bread was made from wheat, dollar bills were made from cotton, and a nice lawn or green space helped cool down the environment.

Although my family and I had a small garden and were avid composters and recyclers, at some point, I felt we needed to become land stewards of more than just a suburban lot. I created a website with a co-worker, The Urban Rancher at Texas A&M University, chronicling our quest to find and purchase one to ten acres, typical urban ranch size. Included in the website is information and links about necessary things needed to own rural acreage, like how to build a dirt road. I quickly discovered there were lots of people wanting to migrate outside of the city limits. The Urban Rancher phenomenon and website even got mentioned in Time Magazine.