All of the producers we spoke with mentioned the benefits of communicating with other producers. This communication was often in the form of sharing resources, taking action together, exchanging information, ideas, and advice, and providing emotional support.

Sharing Resources

Many of the producers we spoke with brought up the fact that they often shared resources with one another from sharing machinery to organizing annual seed swaps to providing access to a commercial kitchen.

A2 and A3 both mentioned how, if you want to sell preserves or create any other ‘value added’ product by processing food, then you are legally bound to make those in a certified commercial kitchen. Many producers do not have access to such kitchens though since they are financially burdensome. “A lot of the stuff we do is illegal and we’re trying to make it legal,” said A2. A3 also mentioned the same problem and how someone had just opened a commercial kitchen in her area to host cooking classes. “It would be great if we could work out a deal with [the owner of the kitchen],” A3 said.

Taking Action Together

Other producers we spoke with brought up examples of when they mobilized other producers around a joint cause like increasing purchasing power or creating a new Farmers Market in the area.

P7 said that since most farms were too small to have much purchasing power individually, he approached producers and suggested, “if we can coordinate, we may be able to get additional discounts or negotiate better prices.”

P11 mentioned how some producers in her area had approached the Farm Bureau and Agricultural Land Trust to fund a Farmers Market but received little support from those organizations who responded saying, “We don’t have farmers in [the region]. We only have ranches.” So P11 and the other producers took it upon themselves to create their own market. “We put an ad in the newspaper that said if anybody wants to sell at the Farmers Market come to this meeting at the community center,” described P11, “We had 30 people show up and they were all backyard farmers.” That meeting eventually lead to the creation of a new association of farmers which still exists today.

Exchanging Ideas, Information, or Advice

In addition to sharing resources and taking action together, many producers also exchanged information, ideas, and advice about issues like growing practices, grafting, or new approaches to farming.

Some producers, like P8, felt that it was “important to learn different ways of doing things.” Others, like P9, said that “sometimes it’s technical give and take.” On the whole, most of our producers felt the same way as P6, who said, "I think it's really important, particularly in this realm of agriculture, to be able to share information."

An important part of this exchange included seeing how other producers were trying to solve some of the same problems. P2 mentioned how "farmers love to see other farms,” especially as a source of new ideas. A4 even told a story about how new ideas often came from other apprentices, like A2 who used an "organization board" to keep track of everything that had to get done on the farm. A4 saw this when she was visiting one day and liked the idea so she then implemented one at the farm she was apprenticing at.

One producer, P10, said that he really valued DIY “innovative farm hacks” from other producers. He strongly believed in the importance of “all these independent farmers all over the place who are coming up with very creative and innovative solutions to things...doing applied research on the farm in a very small uncontrolled way who are coming up with great ideas for new tools, how to fix old tools, and how to solve these problems."

He even recounted a specific example of when a producer in his area shared this type of information. P10 referred to this producer as an “innovative thinker” who was “constantly assessing systems and coming up with new ways to do things and other ways to do things.”

According to P10:

“[The producer] came up with plans to convert a cultivating tractor, which is this very simple tractor that was built in the 1940’s to weed basically…and he came up with plans to convert those simply using off the shelf parts to electric. He made these plans very much with the goal of sharing them and making them accessible to the farm community. There are tons of people doing this conversion now and we did this conversion. It’s like super helpful and a major asset. They’re quiet, they don’t break down, they’re cheap to run. That was a great piece of information that I was able to get from someone that was totally useful to me.”

Providing Emotional Support

Given the physical and financial challenges that many producers faced along with the potential for their work to feel isolating, it is no surprise that many said they used each other for emotional support.

P7 believed, “Another benefit would be support. This is a really hard way to make a living, it doesn't hurt when you're feeling down...'I'm having shitty year too’ .....or ‘Have you thought about doing this?’ or whatever kind of emotional support.''

A1 called it "grower support" and said they were “helping each other out” and P9 said that, with other producers, “we bitch about things...sometimes we talk about our ideals.”