March 10, 2011 As the season begins to change to Spring, I’ve noticed a lot more attention being paid to the small farmer. Last week the New York Times ran a piece on the growing interest of small farming with 20-30 year olds.

“Garry Stephenson, coordinator of the Small Farms Program at Oregon State University, said he had not seen so much interest among young people in decades. “It’s kind of exciting,” Mr. Stephenson said. “They’re young, they’re energetic and idealist, and they’re willing to make the sacrifices.”

Just yesterday Civil Eats published an article about the recently released UN report, Agro-ecology and the Right to Food (PDF).

“We won’t solve hunger and stop climate change with industrial farming on large plantations,” Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and author of the report, said in a press release. “The solution lies in supporting small-scale farmers’ knowledge and experimentation, and in raising incomes of smallholders so as to contribute to rural development.”

And then today I saw, via twitter, the Top 5 Eco Career Opportunities listed on Yahoo! News. Organic Farming placed in the number 2 spot!

To wrap, I’d like to share this video I came across today entitled “Love of Farming”. Made available by the Northeast Beginning Farmers Project, where you’ll hear from a variety of farmers express exactly what it is that drew them to farming in the first place and why they keep doing it. Very inspirational.

Do you see interest growing in your area? How? If you have any more stories or links to share – would love to read/see them.