During Farm Aid 40, Chisago County, Minnesota, farmer Chelsey Zaavedra, shared her story. “There are a lot of barriers to all kinds of farmers, but particularly emerging farmers. The biggest struggles we face are access to land and market access.” Zaavedra has had to rely on help from others to get to where she is today. “I wanted to graze livestock, but I didn’t have the capital to start that. I also didn’t have this built-in social network that a lot of people do when growing up in farm country, because so much of the land changes hands off the market. It’s really a lot of who you know, not so much what you know.” Zaavedra credits the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for its programs for new and emerging farmers. “We’re so lucky here in the State of Minnesota, we have down payment assistance programs, which are incredible. No other state is giving away money for farmers to buy their first farm. That’s only to go to the down payment, which is huge.”
