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22 Fordham Envtl. L. Rev. 523 (2010-2011)
America's New Agrarians: Policy Opportunities and Legal Innovations to Support New Farmers

handle is hein.journals/frdmev22 and id is 529 raw text is: AMERICA'S NEW AGRARIANS: POLICY OPPORTUNITIES AND LEGAL INNOVATIONS TO SUPPORT NEW FARMERS' Prof Neil D. Hamilton* WHY THE NEW FARMER GENERATION IS SO IMPORTANT TO AMERICA'S FUTURE A strong argument can be made that no issue is more important to the future of U.S. agriculture - and thus to our food supply and social sustainability - than identifying who will be the next generation of farmers who will steward the land and produce our food. The good news is our nation is experiencing a surge in interest of people who want to be farmers - what we can see as a generation of New Agrarians.2 The interest of young people in food and agriculture is almost overwhelming, and such a stark difference from past decades when few in the younger generation wanted anything to do with *Neil D. Hamilton is the Dwight D. Opperman Distinguished Professor of Law and the Director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University Law School in Des Moines. 1. This Article grows out of the Center's work on new farmers and is designed to identify ideas for how the USDA and other organizations can consider new initiatives to assist new farmers. It was developed for a symposium held by the Fordham Environmental Law Review. It is the result of extensive travels and research conducted during the 2010-11 school year on a sabbatical from my teaching responsibilities at Drake University Law School. The Article represents the third installment in a related series of essays written during this period, all dealing with the future of America's food and agricultural system. Readers are encouraged to consult the other two companion articles. Neil D. Hamilton, Moving Toward Food Democracy: Better Food, New Farmers and the Myth of Feeding the World, 16 DRAKE J. AGRIC. L. (forthcoming 2011); Neil D. Hamilton, Farms, Food and the Future: Legal Issues and Fifteen Years of the New Agriculture, 26 J. ENVTL. L. & LITIG. (forthcoming 2011). 2. See, e.g., Isolde Raftery, In New Food Culture, A Young Generation of Farmers Emerges, N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 6,2011, at Al9. 523