Editor's Column - June 2011

The shift to a younger farm community is under way, slowly, but very steadily. It seems that we have come over a hump in the curve, as younger yet cautious young farmers and ranchers are preparing to take the wheel. It first dawned on me when I heard Peter Martinelli, Loren Poncia, Dominic Grossi, and David Evans present at a community event in Point Reyes Station. After listening to these young men, I walked away with feeling that the torch had just been passed, quietly, but certainly. Our new intern, Marissa Thornton, is part of this transference of knowledge and practice to the future generation.

At Marin Organic, the youngish staff is becoming fused into a common vision and action, exemplified by the Organic School Lunch Gleaning Program, a brainchild of past executive director Helge Helberg. These young men and women are working their not-for-profit organization, as a real tool for food-to-fork transformation, by selflessly bringing local produce to Marin’s kids and schools. Hard to beat that one.

Farmers are logging into social networking, bringing the farmers’ day-to-day activities, lifestyles, and products to an increasingly serious audience of consumers. UCCE Marin’s recent social networking workshop at the “Fork,” the Robert Giacomini Dairy and Cheese plant, run by Bob and Dean’s four young daughters, was a success and evidence of this trend.

At the hands-on event, everyone logged on to the Internet and learned new ways to put their farms, ranches, and products into cyber-space.

All this is fueled by a tangible and enthusiastic commitment to farming and ranching from the next generation of agriculturalists. -- Steve Quirt, editor