The Paid Leave Podcast

Farmers in Connecticut are Growing Deep Roots in Their Communities

• The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority

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It is National Farmers Market Week August 3 through the 9th, and it is Farmworker Appreciation Day on August 6th.  

In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, I am focusing on Connecticut farmers. I talk with Ella Kennen, the Coordinator of the New Connecticut Farmer Alliance. We discussed supporting beginning farmers, particularly first-generation farmers. Caitlin Kimball is the Director of Agriculture at CitySeed, and she oversees the New Haven's farmers markets and owns and operates Sunset Organic Farm. We discuss the challenges faced by farmers, including land access, extreme weather events, and the importance of local food systems. The podcast highlights the benefits of the Farmers Market Nutrition Program and some of the new legislation that passed aiding farmers. Both emphasize the importance of supporting local farms and the role that CT Paid Leave plays in offering benefits to farmers and their workers.

To get in touch with Ella Kennen via email: newctfarmers@gmail.com or got to their website at: New CT Farmer Alliance | Building a Stronger Local Food System | Connecticut

To get in touch with Kaitlyn Kimball please go to her website at:  Home | Sunset Farm Their farmstand is open Wednesday through Saturday at Wheeler's Farm Road in Milford. You can find Kaitlyn's produce at Ridgefield farmers market, Monroe farmers market, and Naugatuck farmer's markets. Or go to Cityseed's New Haven farmers markets year-round! 

For more information or to apply for benefits please go to: CT Paid Leave

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Nancy Barrow:

Hello Connecticut, and welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. The title basically says it all. I'm Nancy Barrow, and I will be delving into this new state program and how it can help you and your family. This podcast will give you information you should know about Connecticut Paid Leave and maybe just a little bit more. Connecticut Paid Leave brings peace of mind to your home, family and workplace. Welcome to the paid leave podcast. It is National Farmers Market week, August 3 through the ninth, and it's national farm worker Appreciation Day on August 6, and I have two guests who can lend their expertise on these two observances and farmers in Connecticut in general. Ella Kennen is the Coordinator for the New CT Farmer Alliance, or the NCTFA, and Ella focuses on advocacy and fighting for Connecticut farmers. And Kaitlyn Kimball is the Director of Agriculture at CitySeed in New Haven. And she has a farm, Sunset Organic Farm in Naugatuck, and she is a member of the NCTFA policy working group. And welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. Ella and Caitlin. Thank you so much for being here.

Ella:

Thank you for having us.

Nancy Barrow:

Well, Ella, let me just start with you. What do you do as the Coordinator of the New CT Farmers Alliance, and who are you helping?

Ella:

So I'll start with who am I helping, which is or who NCTFA is helping, which is beginning farmers, which the USDA defines as people in their first 10 years of farming. So that's quite a quite a long stretch of time. And particularly, Nick for focuses on first generation, beginning farmers. So so people who haven't come from the land, people who need to figure out how to farm from day one, from the ground up. That's, that's our main constituency, though. I would like to say that we are sort of big fans of small, diversified farmers in all forms, and regardless of how many generations they've been farming.

Nancy Barrow:

How many farmers are there in Connecticut?

Ella:

There are well over 3000 farmers in Connecticut. 1/3 of them are beginning farmers. So it's quite a robust group of

Nancy Barrow:

Wow. What is the National Young Farmers Coalition? people.

Ella:

The Young Farmers Coalition is an organization that supports beginning farmers again nationwide, because beginning farmers have different needs than generational farmers. The most daunting thing about farming is land access. It's expensive. If you are coming into a farm as a second generation or seventh generation farmer, you have that land. You also have the infrastructure necessary to farm. Whereas beginning farmers have to start from the ground up, so they have needs that other farmers don't. Additionally, they have to figure out all the work behind it, how to be an entrepreneur, how to understand the soils, the weather, the things that you're producing. So there's just a barrier there that other farmers don't have, and young farmers nationwide works to advocate for policy and education that serves us needs.

Nancy Barrow:

Is it hard to attract young people to farming? Are you finding that younger people are getting into farming because it's it's cool.

Ella:

So I'm going to say that NCTFA is not in the attracting business. Farming is intellectually, emotionally, physically, and financially daunting. There's a lot of reasons not to farm, but some people feel compelled to farm anyways. And I'm glad to say that the number of young farmers is growing, which is really important, because the average age of farmers in Connecticut and nationwide is about 59 and so we need, we need that next generation and and it's happening. It's happening. People feel compelled to reconnect with the land, and people are realizing that the food that they're getting is not serving them is making their them and their families sick, and they want to do something different, right? So, so this next generation of farmers is coming, and our job is to help them through all those daunting challenges.

Nancy Barrow:

And Kaitlyn, can you tell me about what you do as Director of Agriculture at CitySeed.

Kaitlyn:

So I oversee our network of farmers markets in New Haven. So city seed runs all of the farmers markets in New Haven. There are four. So I oversee the, you know, the programming, vendor, recruitment, development, fundraising, all of our nutrition benefit, you know, logging and promotion. I also do some policy work. So I work with Ella and the new Connecticut farmer Alliance. I'm also on the board for CT NOFA, the Northeast organic farming Association in Connecticut. And so, you know, I work with, I dovetail on a lot of the great work of these organizations to help advance policies that support new and beginning farmers, bipoc farmers, as well as more sustainable solutions for farmers in the face of climate change and other things.

Nancy Barrow:

Tell me about your farm. Sunset Organic Farm in Naugatuck. Do. What do you grow and how did you start doing

Kaitlyn:

So my husband and I, my husband, Lawrence and I started sunset farm in 2019 we both had other careers before farming. We're first generation farmers. I was a high school English teacher for 12 years, and my husband worked at a company that builds Broadway show sets. So he's a very skilled carpenter and welder. We have a little bit of land at our house that we own, and then over the years, we've expanded quite a bit. So we started with about an acre and a half at our home, and then we started leasing some land from the town of Naugatuck. So that was about five acres as of last year, we're now at two locations. So we started leasing land in Milford, which is about 10 acres. So since 2019 with our little field of garlic and some lettuce, we're now on 15 acres across two locations. We employ 11 people. We're certified, yeah, we're certified organic, have people that come to the city, seed farmers so we were the first USDA Certified Farm in both Naugatuck and Milford. And, you know, we have a large CSA. We attend markets that have been coming every weekend for like 10 years, farmers markets, we do Farm to School sales. And we've also been able to donate quite a bit of food this year, which was, has always been a goal of So there are over 100 farmers markets in Connecticut. We have a really robust system, and I think one of the things that is so compelling about them is that it's a chance for people to get outside and connect with each other, not only get fresh produce from farms that you know and people that you have a connection with, but also just to gather in a sense of community. It's a really neat thing. And another thing that farmers markets do, to some extent in Connecticut is provide a layer of food security. And I hope that Kaitlyn, you can talk more about the fmnp program and what that means. getting their groceries, they're seeing their friends, they're having something to eat, they're listening to music, they're discussing. There's not a lot of places like that left anymore where you can go and do that that's not like a bar or a restaurant or your work. I also did want to mention too, that I am on the board of the newly formed Connecticut Farmers Market Association as well. And so this is a new nonprofit that is working towards formalizing the network of farmers markets in the state and offering more, you know, professional development for market managers, just to strengthen our market system that we have.

Nancy Barrow:

Are you finding that you're you're getting more people to these farmers markets?

Kaitlyn:

Yes, it is about the they are popping up more. But I think what we're really trying to promote is also like the quality of the farmers markets. You know, farmers markets differ from like street festivals or craft fairs or things like that, and that you're really purchasing items that you yourself are going to have to work with, like with the recipe or to cook. So a lot of times the crowd is a little different than like the normal festival or street fair crowd. So it's really about investing people in purchasing local and supporting your local economy, right, and making things from scratch in, you know, just kind of completing the food system aspect of that. So I think we want to just strengthen the network that we have and really inform people about why it's important to support local.

Nancy Barrow:

The Connecticut Commission on Women, Children, Equity and Opportunity wrote a report on the state of food insecurity and and the United Way does the Alice report, which is really daunting, to see how people live paycheck to paycheck, and they're finding it tough to make ends meet. And how do these farmers markets help these people with their food insecurity?

Kaitlyn:

Farmers markets are located, you know, within a close range of where people live, right? In some communities, there are not a lot of grocery stores or places to buy food, right? And so a farmers market might be an easier way for you to access that, I think, especially in urban centers like Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, Waterbury, you know, a farmer's market might be your only outlet to purchase like high quality fresh produce, because the quality might be lacking, or the supply in the grocery store that is not located near you and that you might have trouble accessing, right? So then we get into issues of like food apartheid, nutrition benefits are extremely important. Ella and I did a lot of work advocating for, you know, fully funding nutrition benefits since we've seen cuts at the federal level, you know, the state did fund the Connecticut nutrition benefits. So the Farmers Market Nutrition Program at similar levels than in previous years. There weren't as drastic of cuts as at the federal level. So I think, you know, especially at City seed in New Haven, we're really, really about promoting food access and equity and being able to access food. So regardless of your location in the state, regardless of your income status or what neighborhood you live in, we believe that you have access, you should have access, to fresh food. And I think, you know, just to add on to Ella's comment around the small farms, you know, I think there's a lot of work to do around the public's perception of what a farm is and what farmers are. You know, I think that's based on the kinds of policies and systems that our government has set up right which are largely to support very large and especially commodity growers, so corn, wheat, soy, things like that. Connecticut is unique because, one, it's a very small state, right? So it's one of the smallest states, and so therefore there is less land. And you know, like I said before, the majority of the farms in the state do qualify as small to mid size, given their size and like their revenue, but a lot of the systems that we have aren't set up to support small to mid size farms, so that's why it can be challenging for farms like myself to grow. There's also so many young people in Connecticut that want to transition into farming, kind of like I did and across the nation, and land access is just a huge issue, right? So people are farming across multiple locations, like I am. I know several beginning farmers are doing that same thing. People are trying to farm in urban spaces, like in empty lots, or working with their cities for that. So I just think it's really important for people to support the smaller farms, they're usually more diversified. So small farms usually grow like a longer list of crops than just these larger farms who are maybe growing a handful of things. And you know, there's a lot of that direct to consumer stuff, like I talked about at the farmers market. Market that can really help a business, a business grow like mine.

Ella:

You had mentioned food security within the context of farmers markets. And farmers markets for such a long list of reasons, are fantastic things, but they're not the only tool in the toolbox, right? And so we need to think wider. There's local food purchasing agreements for food banks and food hubs and for schools. And the federal government, earlier this year took away most or all of that funding, which is very devastating. Fortunately, in Connecticut, the legislature understood the need and provided funding back to schools to be able to purchase local foods. The Food hubs are not in as an amazing I mean, I'm sorry not the food hubs, the food banks, are not in an amazing space. Farmers markets are a great solution, but they're also a very privileged solution in that you need to be able to access that place when it's open, and need to be able to have the time to go grocery shopping somewhere else, because you can't get all your food needs at the farmers market, and so we need to make sure that food security is being addressed at all levels, in all places.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Why don't we just segue right there to the legislative session? Tell me how this last legislative session helped farmers. How did it go?

Ella:

Well Caitlin was just talking about land access, and land access being one of the biggest issues, and so we're very excited to say that one of the things that was passed this year is a very robust land access bill. Now that won't actually come into fruition for a couple of years, so we'll have to come back to you in a few years and see how the implementation of that goes. But there is going to be, hopefully, a historic amount of money available for farmers to be able to access and maintain farmland as working farmland. So that's very exciting. Yeah, the other thing that happened was, the other big thing that happened, a lot of things happened, is a good legislative year at the state level for farmers, and I'm just so happy about the bipartisan support that farmers experienced. So the other big thing that happened was the mini farm bill, which actually has 12 different components to it. I won't list them all, but some of them include tax credits so that farmers can invest in their farm infrastructure, a manure management program that's going to be ruled out liability protection for Agribusiness so that farmers can diversify their their business models, and then the farmers crop loss reimbursement grant program, which speaks directly to climate change and an acute weather events.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, and let's talk about that last couple of years, the extreme weather events, whether it's rain, hail, wind, whatever it is, how does that help farmers? Like how? What are we? What are we doing that can help the farmers when they lose the crops, what is their main income?

Kaitlyn:

My farm has a lot of experience with this, unfortunately. So our farm flooded in August of last year. It was a very localized rain event in like the Oxford, Naugatuck South Barrie area. We had 14 inches of rain in 12 hours, like, I forget the exact date, but in the third week of August, and so we are up on a mountain. So we had some pretty heavy erosion. We lost two access roads. We had a field like completely eroded on one side, on a slope. We have a field somewhat down the mountain that had about a foot of water in it for several days. So we had a lot of crop loss. We had, like, infrastructure damage. You know, I think the big thing that people do not realize is that the majority of farms in Connecticut and across the US do not have crop insurance because it's not designed for farms of of our size. So it's, it's a federal, you know, crop the crop loss Insurance Program is a federal program. However you use private insurers. There are a handful of private insurers in Connecticut, and we actually met with them after this rain event. And they only ensure a handful of vegetables. It's usually like corn, tomatoes, and then maybe some other things, and then a lot of like tree fruit and things like that. And also, you know, commodities, corn, wheat, soy, we had to grow with this particular. Sure that we met with we had to grow a minimum of two acres of tomatoes to have them be covered through insurance. The premium was several $100 a month, and then the payout was several $1,000 which two acres of tomatoes certified organic is quite more than several $1,000 and we're not growing two acres of tomatoes because we're a diversified farm. Yeah, so I it's just important to because after that happened, a lot of people just said, Oh, well, you have insurance. So it's fine, we have general liability insurance for our business, but many farms do not have crop insurance. So I think it's about, it's, you know, it's really important to educate people on how that works, because most farmers are left with nothing after things like that happen. A lot of people turn to gofundmes or other fundraisers, or they take out debt, right? So that is what we're seeing happening. We recently got a line of credit with our farm this past year, and when I was going through our various loan options and talking to someone at FSA, at the Farm Service Agency, you know, they had commented that they're having more and more people default on their lines of credit because they're not able to pay them back due to a variety of things, not just weather events, but weather events are kind of pushing people further into that, you know, including The rising cost of labor, the rising cost of supplies, the cost of food going down. And so, you know, there is no state fund currently that it was just passed into legislation, but there had been no state fund to cover farmers through this there. There's a block grant that's coming from the USDA. Hopefully, you know that the northeastern states, in Hawaii and Alaska received to you know, we could apply for funds that to make us whole from these damages from previous years. But this legislation is exciting. I also have questions like Ella about how it will be implemented. Farmers need kind of like an emergency thing. When something drastic like that happens that's out of your control, right?

Nancy Barrow:

There should be some kind of emergency funding for farmers, because it's a natural disaster. You would hope that they would help the farmers, but you're finding that's not the case, or with this new legislation, it will be.

Kaitlyn:

Yes, other states have adopted models that, and we discussed this a lot when we were advocating for this legislation where, you know, the state had worked with, like the United Way or Another nonprofit to raise funds and then distribute those Connecticut had not done that yet. And so, you know, we're just excited to see that people are paying attention and really starting to understand about how devastating these losses can be. And so there's a lot of farmers advocating for this. There's a lot of great organizations. And so I look forward to seeing how this can be implemented. And, you know, I really hope that the weather stabilizes a little bit more. It's just what we're what I'm seeing is like farmers are really in tune with the weather. It's just more extremes. Like when it rains, it rains several inches, exactly, yeah, 90 plus for several days. It's it's just more extremes.

Nancy Barrow:

It is national farm workers Appreciation Day in August and Caitlin, what does that mean for you? You have workers. How important are farm workers to the success of your farm?

Kaitlyn:

So we couldn't do what we do without our employees, without our crew, we've been very lucky to to work with some amazing, hard, working, diligent people, so I'm very thankful for that, you know? I think there's, like, the this, the conversation in Connecticut, and then also, like the national conversation, right? So, you know, I think there's a lot of of people in Connecticut who are really trying to advance, like just the positions of farm workers, right? There's actually a group that came out of Nick for labor management group where a group of farmers meet and we discuss some of the challenges and successes and just experiences that we have as employers. And a lot of farmer farm employers in Connecticut are really trying to just raise the bar for what we offer our employees. So we're paying above market wages. We're offering other benefits, you know, like paid sick time, professional development stipends, equipment stipends or tool stipends, because that that is we're trying to solve this, like farmer crisis issue, like, farming is not an attractive job in many ways, right? Like, it's really hard, physically, emotionally, you don't make a lot of money. And so I think, you know, I'm proud to say that we do try to offer attractive benefits like that and show our employees. That we really value them, you know, I think that's important. As far as the national conversation. You know, a lot of people don't realize that the majority of our food in the grocery store comes from California, right? And largely passes through migrant workers, hands that are paid and at extremely low rate, that have very little worker protections, things like that. And so, you know, we need to talk about that, and we need to discuss that. And people who are growing and harvesting our food, you know, deserve, deserve legal protections, deserve fair pay. So, you know, I think that's just important to mention overall.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, and I some Connecticut farm positions are permanent, and I've seen some come across, that they're looking for a permanent person to work at their farm, and there are seasonal workers like you're talking about, and they're so important to farmers. And it might be a good time to talk about Connecticut Paid Leave, because they do help small farmers who may be a sole prop or an LLC. Small farmers can opt into the Connecticut paid leave program and take that half a percent deduction out of their paycheck, and they can be covered, after a three month waiting period, for a period of three years. So if you're having a baby or you're adding to the family or fostering or adopting or you have a serious health condition, you can get up to 12 weeks of income replacement in a year to use in a block or intermittently or reduced schedule, so there's flexibility there. And as your farm grows and your hire people like you have Caitlin, whether permanent or seasonally, they may be covered if they meet the financial criteria and can use the Connecticut Paid Leave benefits as well for their own serious health condition, or if they're having a baby or or they have a loved one that has a serious health condition. How important are programs like Connecticut Paid Leave to farmers and their workers, that you can offer this to them, even the seasonal workers?

Kaitlyn:

It is another benefit, right? We're very lucky to live in a state that supports this. So, yeah, it is another benefit to, you know, making that transition into being a parent more supportive and helps me as the employer, kind of offset some of that financial responsibility if I were, you know, to be supporting someone having a child. So I'm very thankful for this option. I'm really grateful that, that I would be able to offer this to our employees. And, you know, I think, I think it just makes it easier to employ people long term. You know, we, there are many seasonal workers in Connecticut. We are a four season farm, so we do keep some people on in the winter. So this would just be a great way to to help with that.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, I think it's, I think it is just another layer of protection, right, for for you and for your workers.

Ella:

Right. I do want to speak really quickly to like it is potentially, if farmers choose to participate in it is potentially a huge benefit for farmers too, right? Because bodies and physicality are such an instrumental part of farming, and the seasons don't wait for you. If you are out for for two weeks, that's that's income that you're losing six weeks in the future or 12 weeks in the future, right? And so to have some sort of thing so that farmers don't need to so heavily fear what an injury will do for their year. It's worth of income, right? I think is a really important benefit.

Nancy Barrow:

What would you like to have people take away from this podcast with you?

Kaitlyn:

I think the more people learn about the different kinds of farming operations that are in Connecticut, and you know, some of the reasons why we're passionate about what we do and the kinds of products we grow and what we love to do, also the challenges that we face, I would hope that people would feel compelled to shop local. I say this a lot. It can be very overwhelming to be hit with so much information about the importance of shopping local, and you almost have, like, decision fatigue a little bit, and you get overwhelmed and shut down and say, Okay, well, this is too much. If you could commit to purchasing 20, 30% of your groceries locally, it would change a farmer's life, right? So, like our repeat customers, have changed my life because they have funded my business to the point where it's grown. I'm employing people, right? And that's because of our CSA members. That's because of people that shop with us. I think just learn more. There are, there is a farm located near you. There are meat producers, you know, produce producers, dairy, other things. And so I would just encourage you to to search out a local farm near you and to participate right in that process. It would, it would really change the life of a farmer near you to have another customer.

Nancy Barrow:

I love that. I think that's brilliant. What about you? Ella.

Ella:

Well, so I agree with with everything that Kaitlyn said, but to. To any aspiring farmers who are out there listening. Farming is not for everyone. It's really hard on multiple dimensions. But if you feel called to do it, know that there's a really robust, fantastic, enthusiastic, intelligent, thoughtful community out there who's who's willing to help you on your journey, you're not alone.

Kaitlyn:

We are farming in a state that has one of the biggest income disparities in the United States, right as far as highest income, lowest income, and so, you know, we are, we are really trying to serve all Connecticut residents and make food accessible to everyone. And so I think you know, as one of the smallest states, as one of the states with one of those biggest gaps, like I said, we're in a really unique position, and there are just so many young farmers stepping up to this task that want to take this on. And so there's a lot of great farms you can support in Connecticut.

Nancy Barrow:

I want to thank my two guests, Ella Kennen, is the Coordinator of the New Connecticut Farmers Alliance, and Kaitlyn Kimball, who's the Director of Agriculture at CitySeed, and also has her farm, Sunset Oganic Farm. Thank you both for being on The Paid Leave Podcast. It was a real pleasure talking to both of you.

Ella:

Thank you so much

Kaitlyn:

Yes, thanks for having us!

Nancy Barrow:

For more information or to apply for benefits, please go to ctpaidleave.org. This has been another edition of The Paid Leave Podcast. Please like and subscribe so you'll be notified about new podcasts that become available Connecticut Paid Leave is a public act with a personal purpose. I'm Nancy Barrow, and thanks for listening!

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