| PROJECT SUMMARY |
| The Linking Youth with Farming Enterprises (LYFE) Project addresses 1) plans and tools to address succession, estate planning and health and well being, 2) product and enterprise diversification and 3) direct, wholesale and processing markets. The project establishes linkages between retiring socially-disadvantaged farmers (mentors) and beginning farmers who will assist mentors with current production to gain skills. Mentors will provide land and other resources for new, small-scale specialty crop productions; collaborate with legal/estate planning experts to develop protocols necessary for land ownership transitions between them and beginners. Project staff will identify beginner farmers, conduct four training workshops to foster their success as direct market retailers of horticultural crops and conduct two estate planning workshops for mentors to identify steps necessary to keep farms in production after retirement. Twenty beginner farmers will attend workshops 15 successfully beginning enterprises; twenty mentors will attend estate planning workshops and 15 will develop estate plans. |
| NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 35 |
| TOPICS COVERED |
| Product and enterprise diversification |
| Direct, wholesale, and processing markets |
| Plans and tools to address succession, estate planning, health, and well being |
