How Farming Fosters Community

 By Mallaidh Mleziva

People have always gathered around food. We gather around the dinner table with friends and family, have awkward first dates over lunch, and celebrate holidays and birthdays with our favorite dishes. Historically we have also gathered for the preparation of food, including hunting, gathering, and farming.

On farms today you can often find young children gathering eggs, families working together to get the daily chores done, and neighbors coming together on a homestead to help someone with major barn repairs or the annual butchering of a pig.

City dwellers also enjoy a day on the farm, making the trip out to the country to pick strawberries, find the perfect pumpkin for carving, or enjoy a wagon ride or petting zoo. There are also farmers markets throughout the week that bring people together to get the freshest produce and meats grown right in their region.

With food being something we all share in a myriad of ways, there’s no doubt that farming is central to forming and fostering community. 

I recently returned from six months of living and working on farms across the United States, including Wisconsin, West Virginia, New York, and most of the New England states. At every turn, there were examples of strong, caring farm-based communities.

Community on the Farm

Farms are often run by a group of people. Many times, this group is a family. However, farms also bring people together from very different backgrounds and interests.

One of the farms I lived and worked at had several interns, employees, and renters centered on the farm. Some lived and worked at the farm, some simply resided there, and others worked for the farm but primarily off site.

They were a lively and harmonious group and had lovingly dubbed themselves the ‘farm-ily’. They gathered in the kitchen around the lunch hour grabbing a bite to eat in between the chores and tasks for the day. They spent the evenings chatting about each others’ days, the highs and lows, and the latest happenings.

From the outside, the farm-ily was a very diverse group of people who you wouldn’t imagine to be coming together at all. They had very different backgrounds, skill sets, hobbies, and knowledge.

But the thing that brought them together? The farm.

They believed in the farm’s mission to provide nutritious foods to the local area through regenerative agriculture and raising their animals in a way that allows them to exhibit their natural habits.

The farm brought together people from very different walks of life and created a community.

Community between Producers

One of the most special things I noticed at the farms I visited was the sense of unity. Vendors never considered themselves “competitors”, even though they were by the business definition as they sold overlapping products.

At farmers markets, if one farmer was rushing to set up before the start time, it wasn’t uncommon for other vendors with finished booths to come and help.

I was running a booth at a sheep and wool festival. It was the first time the farm I was representing was attending this event in this particular state. A rainstorm was quickly approaching, so vendors who had been at this location before took out heavy plastic and staple guns to cover the openings in the sides of the building and protect their products from any rain that came in sideways.

The first-timers at this state’s festival hadn’t known this was a potential concern as the event details had said that vendors would be in buildings, not specifying that there was a three-foot tall screen running the length of the building. We also didn’t know that sideways rain was a common occurrence at this venue!

It was too far from a store to go and get supplies before the storm arrived. We first-time vendors panicked at the thought of our expensive inventory getting soaked by rain.

However, the veteran vendors quickly came to our rescue, lending their extra plastic and tarps to cover the new vendors’ booths. They even went above and beyond, with the tallest people stapling everything up for others.

In a short half hour, everyone was protected from the rain and products were dry.

It certainly wouldn’t have been this way if vendors would have considered each other competitors. We were all in fact selling yarn and other woolen products, yet it wasn’t cut throat. Vendors walked to other booths admiring the different colors and textures of the skeins and inquiring after the breed of sheep that produced the wool.

It was a jovial event and a heartwarming display of community.

Community between Farmer and Customer

One of the most noticeable connections on a farm is the connection between farmer and customer.

Farmers who sell directly to consumers often attend farmers markets or have farm stands, stores, or CSAs. No matter their method of selling, farmers routinely interact with their customers.

Knowing your farmer is the backbone of the local farming movement. There is no doubt that farmers care about their customers and customers care about their farmers.

One of the farmers I worked with on my travels had an injury that made the hard farm labor very painful. But work still had to get done, so she pushed through but knew production would be lower than usual until her surgery could be scheduled. She emailed her customers letting them know.

At the first farmers market of the season, she brought an amazing spread of goods, including the first fresh greens of the year. Customers lined up at her booth before the starting bell even rang.

Nearly every other customer inquired after her health and pain levels. They were faithful customers who had known and supported this farm for years. Many offered advice from their similar experiences with this particular surgery. All gave well wishes for a speedy recovery.

Supporting Your Local Farmer Supports Community

It's a beautiful thing to see how a simple farm creates and enhances fellowship and community, from the on-farm workers to fellow producers to wonderful customers. As farmers, we strive to support our communities by providing healthy fresh food and beautiful hand-crafted goods. As fellow producers we work to help each be successful in this endeavor. And, finally, as customers we celebrate and support the farming community when we choose to buy local.

Support your local farms and the communities they create! 

 About the Author

Mallaidh is both a farmer and a marketer. As the owner of MJM Farm Marketing she helps farmers and rural business owners grow and succeed by using essential marketing plans and techniques. During her free time, you can find her giving her cows scratches, baking something new with sourdough, or buried deep in yet another home renovation project.