Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** finances, advanced planning,…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** finances, advanced planning, weather, family concerns, and health care are large drivers of farmer distress, while extreme weather events create an added stress that impacts agriculturalists more deeply than other economic sectors. Increasing day and night time temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, unpredictable soil moisture levels, and new pest and disease pressures due to climate change are impacting farmers and landowners in our region in unpredictable ways. New and beginning farmers face steep entry costs, a highly competitive marketing and financial landscape, and production-specific challenges as they TRY to establish farm businesses. This is especially true for individuals from socially disadvantaged communities. Therefore, financial resilience and environmental risk mitigation are extremely important considerations with every production and business-related decision particularly for new and beginning farmers. In 2022, angelic organics learning center and close partner organizations including this old farm, conducted a qualitative needs assessment of our stakeholders which found similar results. The needs assessment was conducted through interviews and surveys of 52 farmers in IL, in, and WI, made up of almost exclusively new and beginning farmers. These individuals identified their top barriers to farm success as a lack of funding, economic uncertainty, pricing difficulty, climate change and personal health concerns. They identified their top learning needs to be improving production processes, increasing land health, finding the right products (enterprises) for their farm business, and exploring new marketing channels.regenerative agriculture, defined as an ecological approach to growing food that seeks to imitate natural ecosystems, merges the goals of profitability with environmental sustainability, therefore presenting both a strong climate risk mitigation tool and marketing strategy for new and beginning farmers. Regenerative strategies includeincreased use of cover cropping, perennial-based agriculture including pastured livestock production, rotational grazing, diversified cropping systems and rotations, and more. Incorporating these strategies into new and existing farm systems decreases risk related to market volatility while benefiting natural systems and improving farmer resilience. And yet, embracing regenerative farm practices is both an opportunity and challenge. Regenerative production systems require targeted and tailored enterprise design, financial planning, and especially long-term access to land to be economically viable. Marketing plans must be also adjusted as regenerative products often require flexible, more direct market chains from farm to consumer.?weathering change: holistic farm training for financial and environmental resilience will provide financial management training, climate change education, and land-based technical assistance to new and beginning farmers in the central and upper midwest. This, project will serve primarily farmers who implement or plan to implement regenerative practices including pasture-based livestock production, diversified vegetable production, or a combination of the two. As a result of this project, beginning farmers and ranchers will manage viable and economically stable farm businesses, be resilient to climate change-induced weather changes, and produce high quality food using regenerative farming practices. This project will be implemented by angelic organics learning center and this old farm, INC., two organizations which have worked together as part of the routes to farm alliance of farmer training organizations for over 6 years. This innovative collaboration expands our collective reach to benefit new and beginning farmers in n. Illinois, s. Wisconsin, indiana, w. Ohio and n. Kentucky, and combines the successes of a long-term non-profit farmer training program based in farmer-led, sustainable agriculture education with a business savvy, market-informed for-profit meat processing facility with first hand knowledge of the direct connection between production management and product quality. Together, we will provide cutting-edge support for regenerative innovation in our region.*bibliography and sources available upon request