interstitialRedirectModalTitle

interstitialRedirectModalMessage

The Martins understand the challenges small-scale farmers face. The Farm Bill could provide a path forward.

Three Generations Erin Martin and her daughter Elana plant leeks in the high tunnel at their family's farm in Mt. Olive, NC. Their farm, Footprints in the Garden, has been in their family for over 140 years. © Morgan Heim

On a breezy spring morning in Mt. Olive, N.C., Carrie Martin and her daughter Erin Martin are tending crops on their farm. While the women plant leeks and harvest the final snap peas of the season, Erin's two-year old daughter, Elana, runs through the rows of vegetables wearing bright yellow rainboots, trowel in hand.

This farm has been in the Martin family for more than 140 years. Fields that were once filled with tobacco and livestock now hold rows of corn, black beans, watermelons and other crops. For Erin, the land is a link to her ancestors.

“It gives me chills some days to know that they've walked the same land in the same footsteps,” she says while taking a break from working on the farm, called Footprints in the Garden.

It’s a legacy she and her mother are eager to pass on to the next generation.

Quote: Erin

It gives me chills some days to know that they've walked the same land in the same footsteps.

Sowing Seeds of Change (9:13) Carrie Martin and her daughter, Erin Martin, understand that surviving as a small-scale farmer is no easy task. When Carrie decided to build a new high tunnel on their farm, she turned to the Farm Bill for help.

The Martin family’s long tenure on their land makes them outliers. In the 20th century, Black farmers lost more than 90% of their land, largely due to discriminatory practices and a complicated legal system known as heirs’ property, or property that’s been passed through generations without a clear title or deed. As a result, those who did get into farming had very little land to farm on. “The African American experience with farming has been very tumultuous,” Carrie Martin says. 

And for the Martins, who only farm seven acres, there is the added issue of surviving as a small-scale farmer which, even now, is no easy task. An onslaught of challenges—such as severe weather events which destroy harvests to a lack of access to sustainable financing—has pummeled small farms from every side in recent years. As a result, thousands of operations like the Martins are shuttering each year. The Farm Bill and local organizations like the Black Family Land Trust and Fertile Ground have been able to start addressing some of these challenges, but with the love and labor of seven generations invested in this land, Carrie and Erin are determined to keep fighting for their farm.

Aerial image of farm with high tunnel and other builds.
Family Legacy Footprints in the Garden is a small farm covering about 7 acres, though the Martin family in total owns around 50 acres. As a small family farming operation, the Martins believe one of the biggest challenges is accessing patient capital to help scale their operations and access new markets. © Morgan Heim
× Aerial image of farm with high tunnel and other builds.
Hand picking a strawberry.
Strawberry Fields Forever Erin Martin has built a partnership with the University of Mount Olive where she grows berries and other crops. Together, Footprints in the Garden and the university are building a new food hub that will better serve the rural agricultural producers in Mt. Olive, N.C. © Morgan Heim
× Hand picking a strawberry.
Family Legacy Footprints in the Garden is a small farm covering about 7 acres, though the Martin family in total owns around 50 acres. As a small family farming operation, the Martins believe one of the biggest challenges is accessing patient capital to help scale their operations and access new markets. © Morgan Heim
Strawberry Fields Forever Erin Martin has built a partnership with the University of Mount Olive where she grows berries and other crops. Together, Footprints in the Garden and the university are building a new food hub that will better serve the rural agricultural producers in Mt. Olive, N.C. © Morgan Heim

Footprints in the Garden comes to Carrie and Erin by way of Carrie’s husband’s great grandfather, Harry Martin. The journey to landowner was not simple for him. He escaped slavery and served in the 135th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry during the Civil War. After the war ended, it would be another 20 years before he was able to purchase the land. 

Over the decades, the Martins ensured they had all the legal paperwork to hold onto their land and purchased neighboring plots as they were being sold. They knew that this paperwork was critical. Historically, economic and social discrimination left Black farmers without access to wills, land titles and other legal documents that showed ownership, leaving their land vulnerable to involuntary land loss. 

Nowadays, when Carrie and Erin stand on their farm, they see Martin family land in every direction. Yet many of their relatives have stopped farming in favor of more predictable and profitable jobs in Raleigh, N.C. and other nearby urban areas. 

Carrie and her husband, Tim Martin, were two of those people who left the country for greener pastures in Raleigh, only making the hour drive back to the farm to carry out basic tasks. Over the decades, the farm often produced just enough money to pay the property taxes. 

3 people farming inside a high tunnel.
High Tunnel High tunnels, often referred to as a hoop house or high tunnel greenhouse, are structures made of a pipe frame that is typically covered with greenhouse poly film. For some, high tunnels can be a simpler, more cost-effective choice for outdoor operations wanting to improve their bottom line, extend their growing season and increase their crop yields. The Martins considered many options, but felt a high tunnel would be the best choice for their farm. © Morgan Heim
toddler sits on farm in yellow rainboots.
Harvesting Hope - The Martin Family Erin's two year old daughter helps on the family farm in Mt. Olive, North Carolina. © Morgan Heim

What is the Farm Bill?

The Farm Bill provides funding for voluntary, incentive-based programs that help farmers, ranchers and other landowners address climate change while conserving their land and way of life.

The Farm Bill provides $6 billion annually for conservation. From incentivizing climate-smart agricultural practices to opening doors for permanent conservation through agricultural conservation easements, this critical bipartisan legislation benefits every single state in the country. 

For operations like the Martins, this legislation can help bolster regenerative agriculture practices, among many other things. The next Farm Bill should continue to fund programs, such as EQIP, which provide financial assistance to producers who implement sustainable agriculture practices on their land. 

 

In 2014, Carrie began to think about the next chapter of Footprints in the Garden. She wanted to pass along land that would be an asset rather than a burden to her children. She decided that a high tunnel—a long, tube-shaped greenhouse—would be the best next step for the farm. It would lengthen their growing season, help them control their water usage and create an area with rich, healthy soil to support a diverse mix of crops. 

But high tunnels are expensive. For support, she turned to the Farm Bill, the federal government’s largest investment in the conservation, management and restoration of private lands. The Farm Bill provides resources and tools to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners implement conservation practices on their land.    

The Farm Bill’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program financed 90% of the costs of constructing the new high tunnel. The Martins also received a water management plan from their local Natural Resources Conservation Service agents. 

While Carrie is grateful for the Farm Bill’s financial assistance, as a small family operation, coming up with the remaining funds, which totaled over $5,000, was a challenge. In her opinion, it’s just one example of how the Farm Bill could do more to support small-scale farmers who are less likely to be tapped into the legislation’s programs. 

“A lot of our problems revolve around access to capital, having slow patient capital,” Carrie says. 

The number of American farms has dropped from 6.8 million in 1935 to 2 million today, and, on average, the remaining farms have gotten much bigger. This is partly because small-scale farmers have struggled to access government funding, such as the cost share programs in the Farm Bill, at the same level as larger farms. 

Many lawmakers and organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, are advocating for changes in the next Farm Bill that would better support small farms which have long been the foundation of many rural communities. Proposals include increasing the availability of credit for land acquisition and other farm improvement costs, removing requirements that have prohibited small farms’ participation in Farm Bill programs in the past and creating more flexible payment options for cost-share programs, such as EQIP. 

Carrie wishes more lawmakers understood how difficult it is to be sustainable as a small farming operation. 

Two women work together tending crops in a large greenhouse. A young child hands one of the women a small handtool.
High Tunnel Farming Three generations of women from the Martin family plant and tend to crops of vegetables inside a high tunnel that was made possible in part by funding from the Farm Bill in 2014. © Morgan Heim

“Having more funds dedicated to small-scale farmers would make it possible to support the sustainability of their local communities,” Carrie says. “Allowing farmers and farm families to be able to take advantage of those programs would increase the availability of nutrient dense foods and decrease health disparities.” 

This year, for the first time since 2014, they’ve been able to access another Farm Bill program: the Conservation Stewardship Program, which pays agricultural producers to adopt conservation practices. Carrie and Erin are using funding from this program to establish a forestry conservation plan on their land, allowing them to access timber markets and generate additional income.

In the past few years, Erin has brought new energy to the farm. She’s spearheaded the planting of a small orchard of fruit and nut trees, the addition of an herb garden—whose harvest can be sold in bulk to wholesale markets—and a wash shed that allows them to clean and store their crops to sell to larger markets, such as grocery stores. She has also been working with the University of Mount Olive to create a new food hub, which will act as a middleman between local producers and purchasers, such as restaurants.  

To support their biggest asset—their soil—the Martins have implemented a range of climate-smart practices. In the off season, they plant cover crops, such as winter rye, which add nitrogen back into the soil. Many of their fields are intercropped with different types of vegetables to combat pests and increase soil fertility.  

“With our soil practices, we have noticed some change in our soil for the positive. There is less clumping and it's able to hold the water more,” Carrie says. 

Person standing on farm loading up delivery boxes between two high tunnels.
Rain or Shine There is no break for many of America's small farmers. Erin and Carrie Martin typically spend several days a week, including evenings and weekends, at the farm. They both also have off-farm jobs and are developing a new food hub with the University of Mount Olive. Erin also pulls together harvests that she delivers to the Feast Down East food hub over an hour away in Burgaw, NC. © Morgan Heim

Although the farm is seeing growth, both Carrie and Erin still must work off-farm jobs in Raleigh to support themselves. Carrie works for the Black Family Land Trust, which preserves and protects Black-owned farms and lands, while Erin works at Fertile Ground, an organization in Southeast Raleigh dedicated to increasing access to healthy, affordable food within the predominantly Black community.  

But they both dream of a future where they can thrive off the income generated from the farm. 

“For Erin, I don't want her to have to work three jobs to be able to fulfill her passion,” Carrie says. “I want her to be able to sustain herself and her family on one job.”

At the end of the day, this land is important to Carrie and Erin not because of money, but because of the legacy it represents. When Carrie’s mother-in-law passed away, she promised her she would take care of this property. It’s a promise she plans to keep. 

“Land is the only asset that if you take care of it, it will take care of you,” Carrie says. 


 
Close up of cover cropping including peas, winter rye.
Cover Cropping Wheat, pea and other plants serve as cover crops to protect soil in between use. The cover crop is part of the regenerative practices employed by the Martin family to protect their land. © Morgan Heim