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In farms around Southern Oregon and elsewhere, seeds of change are growing. Their expected yield: a new crop to reverse the alarming decline in the nation’s farmers. In 1870, nearly half of the U.S. population was employed in agriculture. Mechanization and consolidation whittled down that number decade after decade until today, only 1 percent works the land. The average age of the American farmer is expected to increase steadily when the next agriculture census, published every five years, appears in early 2019. The Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates the number of ag workers to decline 8 percent from 2010 levels by 2020. “The art and skill of farming has been passed down typically from family to family and generation to generation,” said Megan Fehrman, education director for Rogue Farm Corps, an Ashland-based program that trains new farmers and ranchers with hands-on experience. But with each passing generation, despite the emergence of the local food movement, America’s farming knowledge has thinned. “Now we’re seeing that knowledge has to transfer in other ways,” Fehrman said. The backwoods are often the frontlines in restoring farming skills. Up Little Applegate Road, on the banks of Yale Creek, Khadijah Massoud has worked the past seven months at By George Farm & Creamery. The 86-acre setting is one of more than a half-dozen farms where Rogue Farm Corps places interns and apprentices each year. The 25-year-old native of Saudi Arabia was teaching outdoor education at Sienna Ranch in the East Bay Area when she decided to dig deeper into sustainable lifestyles. “The lack of a younger generation getting into farming is a big problem, we all need food,” Massoud said. “There’s a demand for sustainable, local and organic food. If we’re not producing it, there will be more food grown on gigantic farms.” Fewer and bigger farms have been the norm for years, and statistically there’s little to suggest that will change. The USDA’s last census, covering activity between 2007 and 2012, painted a dismal landscape — not even 1 in 100 Americans farmed and the average age was pushing 60. “Just in that five-year period, there was a 20 percent decline in beginning farmers,” said Julia Freedgood, assistant vice president for the American Farmland Trust. The next census will reflect activity between 2012 and 2017. “We’re hoping that (decline) has stopped and maybe even we’ll see a bump this time. We’ve put in a lot of work since then.” Her gut feeling is that the 2007-2012 numbers were skewed because of the economic malaise during that period. “We were in the depths of the Great Recession,” Freedgood said. “It was harder to get land. I was working with a lot of beginning farmers who wanted to get in and were frustrated by land costs. Farmland went up throughout the country, especially in the Midwest.” Programs across the country such as Rogue Farm Corps that are training industry newcomers such as Massoud give Freedgood hope the tide may be turning. Women have increasingly joined the ranks, undeterred by the long hours and grueling tasks. “There’s a lot of things that are physically demanding,” Massoud said. “But I’ve worked on a ranch before and it comes with the job.” She often was out the door at 5 a.m., but the chores varied, something she appreciated. “I like getting up early and getting things started,” Massoud said. “Every day is different, because you’re learning something new that day. I might be making a new cheese or doing something fun in the vegetable garden.” While most of her Rogue Farm Corp cohort worked at vegetable farms this spring and summer, Massoud absorbed the fine points of working with dairy cows, cheesemaking, and selling fromage blanc, a soft, spreadable cheese, curds, feta, yogurt, brie, and hard cheese at growers markets. Massoud plans to expand her knowledge of butchering and meat curing. “It’s one thing to know theory, but actually working the farm day to day is a different experience,” Massoud said. “There’s always something to do, day in and day out. It’s hard; but it’s rewarding.” Rogue Farm Corps interns arrive on host farms from mid-March to early April. They’re put through a group orientation and then start classes and farm tours. Over the course of the season the aspiring farmers attend 15 to 20 classes and farms, learning among other things about soil science, weed management, poultry management, seed saving, winter farming and season extension, beneficial insects, and planting for pollinators. Twice they’re given a skill evaluation and assessment to determine what’s left to learn and help them prioritize their learning and education for the rest of the season. “Wrapped up in our work is also the need to rebuild local food systems, local economies and rural communities,” Fehrman said. “We expose our students to a wide variety of how they might participate.” Jon Steiger, one of the owners of By George Creamery, is among the younger agrarians who view their work with the next generation as a necessity. “It’s important to keep these small-scale traditions alive,” Steiger said. “We have to remember this is how we started. It may not be the ultimate way to feed the world, but it’s a great way to feed yourself, it’s a great way to feed your community.” By design, his local food operation is just that. By George Creamery products are sold only within a 60-mile radius. His preference would be for a thousand other creameries to function in like manner throughout the country. “I enjoy what I do immensely and if I can teach someone else to have a self-sustaining lifestyle, doing what they enjoy, even if it is in the middle of beautiful nowhere, then that’s what I want to do,” Steiger said. Rogue Farm Corps typically engages 23- to 30-year-olds. “Most are college educated, some are choosing this as an alternative to college,” Fehrman said. “Some go through school and figure they want to do something physical and land-based.” Following their internships, participants move on to apprenticeship. Apprentices live and train on host farms for up to two seasons. They also learn business and management components — overseeing farm and harvest crews, tractor cultivation, field walks and observation, record keeping, product deliveries, marketing, irrigation and general maintenance. They also participate in Oregon State University Extension Small Farms classes. The apprentice tuition is $350 annually, and depending on where the apprentices are placed, they receive a stipend or hourly wage as well as room and board. The majority of participants in Rogue Farm Corps’ program are first-generation farmers. It will take them 10 or 20 years before they are considered successful farmers, Fehrman said. “You have to learn your craft, and there are a lot of steps along the way," she said. “There are organizations for farmers, providing education, support, and resources along the way. You have to map it out and build a career path, just the same as a lawyer or doctor.” Once Rogue Farm Corps and others train the next generation of farmers, obstacles remain. Chief among them are land, capital and credit. “Younger people in particular don’t have a large credit record,” Freedgood said. “If they’re not from a farming background, and aren’t inheriting land, it’s even harder.” In weighing the impact of graying farmers, Freedgood said the average age isn’t the issue. “We’re not as concerned that the average age of farmers keeps creeping up, but that over a third of principal operators are now seniors aged 65 or older.” As of 2012, more than twice as many principal operators were 75 or older than their 35-and-younger counterparts. The proportion of senior principal operators increased 86 percent from 1982 to 2012. Fehrman sees her work as part of a broader effort to revitalize rural America. “When we look at rural communities in the United States right now, they have been dying,” Fehrman said. “There aren’t people there to continue to work the land and provide for that rural economy and community. Farms are a huge part of that. Some of this, in a sense, is a return to old times, but it’s also a path forward, and a way that we see as crucial to building community food systems, local economies and rural communities.” Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @GregMTBusiness or www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31.