Hipcamp Partners with Greenhorns

“There’s a young farmers movement happening on campus farms, urban farms, historic farms, farms of the lands of retiring farmers, on leased land, in cool cities, in less cool cities…” –Severine von Tscharner Fleming, Founder & Board Director of Greenhorns

Hipcamp is proud to announce a new partnership with Greenhorns, an organization doing important work promoting, recruiting, and supporting new farmers across America.

What is Greenhorns?

Greenhorns is a nationwide community of over 60,000 farmers dedicated to changing our food system. Through education, community, and advocacy work for fairer farm and land policies, they hope to solve some of the biggest economic and social problems of our day through local, human-scale agriculture.

Why are we partnering with Greenhorns—and farmers in general?

We’re living amid an agricultural crisis—and Greenhorns is leading the revolution. “There are fewer farmers, less land, a degraded soil base and intensifying corporate control over production, processing and technology” in America’s agriculture system, according to Greenhorns. All the while, one third of today’s kindergarteners will develop type 2 diabetes.

This is starting to change, with special thanks to organizations like Greenhorns (and our other partner, LocalHarvest!). For the first time in 35 years, the number of farmers under 35 years old is increasing, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s recent Census on Agriculture. This group of young farmers is more likely to reject cheap, processed food for organic, hyper-local, responsibly sourced nutrition.

Not only is organic, locally sourced food better for your health, it’s good for the environment and local economies. Both of these are also—not surprisingly—good for you and your health.

By directly engaging with our food and ecosystems, Greenhorns understands intrinsically what we believe at Hipcamp—that we are one with nature, not apart from it. We are made out of the same stuff as the the soil, the oceans, and the stars. That’s a powerful idea to hold onto.

What does the partnership entail?

We’re partnering with Greenhorns to bring more young farmers onto our platform so they can earn additional revenue to run their farms and secure their lands.

For Hipcampers, this means new opportunities to learn how to milk baby goats, cuddle with piglets, and hang out with alpacas. These experiences will help inspire and recruit the next generation of farmers, nature lovers, conservationists, and land stewards who will help keep America wild and beautiful. Discover farm stays near you.

Thank you, Greenhorns!

Further reading

• The importance of staying on a farm—for you and the farm (Written by one of our very own Hipcamp Hosts and founder of the US Farm Stay Association)
• A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm (The Washington Post)
• How millennials will forever change America’s farmlands (Fortune)