About New Roots
The Need:
Access to land is a critical issue for beginning farmers. A National Young Farmers Coalition survey of more than 3,500 young farmers and ranchers found that, regardless of geography or whether they had grown up on a farm, land access was their number one challenge.
A Solution:
New Roots Farm Incubator Cooperative was designed to provide support for beginning farmers by offering a lease to farmland, the shared use of equipment & facilities, and training that provide support for launching fresh vegetable production.
New Roots Founding Board
- Established as ND Co-operative, May 2018
- Founding board members, included 5 beginning farmers
- Co-op structured to allow for investments by non-profits
- Supported by Northern Plains Sustainable Ag Society
Our History
The original idea for this program can be attributed to conversations between Jack Wood, one of the founders/organizers for Growing Together (local non-profit managing a series of F/M gardens), and Verna Kragnes during the fall of 2015. Jack expressed a wish for an “economic development component” to be added to the gardens that were farmed communally by F/M area residents including many who had come to Fargo/Moorhead from other countries as refugees.
After further researching the local need, Verna found that local families owning ethnic groceries were traveling weekly to the Twin Cities to purchase produce because specific things they desired were not available currently from local markets. Verna wrote a USDA grant that provided Farm Beginnings© training to the area's beginning farmers, including many of the founding members of New Roots.
When Verna started working with Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society in the fall of 2018, she asked the NPSAS board if they would consider being the non-profit fiscal sponsor of New Roots. New Roots has now been embraced by NPSAS as a key educational program for beginning farmers.