Quivira Coalition's Taylor Muglia sits down with Michelle Hughes, the Operations and Impact Director at National Young Farmers Coalition. Michelle speaks about her background in farming and livestock production and how she transitioned to advocacy work, then became staff at NYFC. She talks about the challenges and successes of weaving racial equity into an agricultural organization, and how accountability must be a part of that system. Michelle also speaks about her experience on the Equity Commission at USDA and how each young farmer can find their voice.

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Quivira Coalition's New Agrarian Program Colorado Manager Taylor Muglia sits down with Akwese Mbendang Milene Majolie. Akwese was an intern this summer with Quivira's Carbon Ranch Initiative. Working remotely from Rwanda where she attended school at the African Leadership University Rwanda, she helped with biochar projects and educational guides, and expanded her knowledge of regenerative agriculture with Quivira staff located in New Mexico. Originally from Cameroon, Akwese is passionate about sharing regenerative techniques with smallholder farmers in her region and innovating ways to reduce post-harvest loss. In this episode, she shares her story and dreams for the future.

Find Akwese on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. And her project Chakula Poda on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC) Land Advocacy Fellowship is a two-year advocacy and leadership fellowship for current and aspiring young farmers and ranchers. In this episode, host Taylor Muglia sits down with Benú Amun-Ra, Tanisha Diggs, and Óscar Vital, three Fellows from right here in Colorado. They talk about their land access goals, how it can be even harder for BIPOC to access agricultural land, capital, and resources, and they share their policy suggestions for the 2023 Farm Bill as a part of the One Million Acres for the Future Campaign—an initiative to ensure that land is equitably transitioned to the next generation of farmers.

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Land Advocacy Fellowship

NYFC National Survey Report

One Million Acres for the Future Campaign

Caroline Caldwell is a rancher, academic, traveller, Corgi-owner, and Quivira's very own Northern Plains Manager here at the New Agrarian Program. In this episode, we pick Caroline's brain about land transition and her work with American Farmland Trust, her perspective on how new agrarians can find success without inheriting land, and what qualities you can work on to become a great ranch manager.

Find Caroline on Instagram

Photo credits: Charles Sullivan, Ada Smith, Bart Morris

If you've ever had to rush through evening chores, change your smelly boots, and make it to town in time for a date, this podcast will feel very relevant to you. Martha Skelley, Farm and Livestock Manager at Paicines Ranch sits down to talk about her "fast-tracked" path into agriculture, the general culture of workaholism she has noticed and embodied during her career, and the reality check of wanting more out of life (Ahem... Romance? Hobbies? Kids?) after being laser-focused, and quite successful, in reaching her career goals for the past 12 years.

Formally, you might know Donne Gonzales as the Los Sembradores Farm Trainer & Youth Education Coordinator at the New Mexico Acequia Association, but it's impossible to parse out where her personal passions end and her professional work begins. In this episode, Donne teaches about the magic of acequias, her work teaching farming skills (however big or small a garden might be) and preserving the traditions of her community for future generations. If you need a heaping dose of farming motivation, give this episode a listen!

Caity Roberts, 2nd year Apprentice/Apprentice Coordinator at Ferrell Ranch/4L Grazing in Beaumont, Kansas sits down to talk about her journey in agriculture, and particularly how she has learned to care for her mental health and mindset while working on vineyards and ranches. Caity has helped Ferrell Ranch build their own apprenticeship program and has discovered the beauty and joy of living in the Flint Hills of Kansas.

Quivira Coalition's Taylor Muglia sits down with Geoffrey Van, Program Director of the Changing Hands Program at Rogue Farm Corps. Geoffrey talks about a childhood surrounded by concrete in Hong Kong, then moving to the US and finding his passion in farming, first on a goji berry farm, and then in raising livestock. He found himself learning butchery in Brooklyn, New York for a bit, which solidified his love for soil and being outside in the countryside. He started his own operation with some friends called Spoon Full Farm in 2017, then decided to walk away from that venture and help other farmers develop business plans and navigate the resources for starting a farm through the Changing Hands Program. We talk business plans, dreaming smaller, and advocating for what you need for a healthy life balance.

In this episode we speak with Shalini Karra. She's the Holistic Livestock Manager at Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California. Shalini didn't come from an agricultural background, but took several important opportunities - including a New Agrarian Program apprenticeship and working with Gabe Brown - that allowed her to develop a career in regenerative agriculture. She talks about the bumps in the road, but also some things that never lose their magic, including a healthy baby lamb.