ELGIN, Minn, Nov. 3, 2009 – The USDA today announced the award of more than $17 million in grants to 29 institutions to address the needs of beginning farmers and ranchers and enhance the sustainability and competitiveness of U.S. agriculture.

“Beginning farmers and ranchers face unique challenges and need educational and training programs to enhance their profitability and long term sustainability,” Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said. “The training and education provided through these grants will help ensure the success of the next generation of farmers and ranchers as they work to feed people in their local communities and throughout the world.”

Merrigan announced the funding in Elgin, Minn., at the Hidden Stream Farm and was joined by representatives from the Land Stewardship Project, the local grant recipient that provides local and regional training, education, outreach and technical assistance initiatives that address the needs of beginning farmers and ranchers. Eric and Lisa Klein, the proprietors of Hidden Stream Farm, were some of the first graduates of the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course. Since graduating from Farm Beginnings, the Klein’s have developed a thriving pasture-based livestock operation that markets pork, chickens and beef in southeast Minnesota and the Twin Cities.

This funding announcement is part of USDA’s new ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative which was launched in September 2009 to emphasize the need for a fundamental and critical reconnection between producers and consumers. ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ includes such major agricultural topics as supporting local farmers and community food groups; strengthening rural communities; enhancing direct marketing and farmers’ promotion programs; promoting healthy eating; protecting natural resources; and helping schools connect with locally grown foods.

The grants were awarded through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA, formerly the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service) Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP). BFRDP is an education, training, technical assistance and outreach program designed to help U.S. farmers and ranchers, specifically those who have been farming or ranching for 10 years or fewer. Congress authorized the FY 2009 funding for this program in the 2008 Farm Bill, with another $19 million in mandatory funding for FY 2010. Under the program, USDA will make grants to organizations that will implement programs to help beginning farmers and ranchers.

Beginning farmers and ranchers interested in participating in any of the education, outreach, mentoring and/or internship activities are asked to contact the grantee institutions listed below.

Fiscal year 2009 recipients include:

Developing Innovations in Navajo Education, Inc., Flagstaff, Ariz., $674,507

Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corporation, Brinkley, Ark., $313,278

Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, Salinas, Calif., $515,862

California FarmLink, Sebastopol, Calif., $525,000

Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Fla., $225,079

University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., $596,219

University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, $508,618

Angelic Organics Learning Center, Inc., Caledonia, Ill., $750,000

University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., $749,883

Cultivating Community, Portland, Maine, $600,000

USDA National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Md., $1,498,137

Land Stewardship Project, Minneapolis, Minn., $413,820

Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., $506,170

Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute, Columbia, Mo., $730,722

University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., $692,198

University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., $541,239

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb., $644,408

Holistic Management International, Albuquerque, N.M., $639,301

Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $750,000

Fort Berthold Community College, New Town, N.D., $614,356

Langston University, Langston, Okla., $525,000

Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pa., 572,178

Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pa., 733,821

South Dakota State University, Brookings, S.D., $701,608

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn., $74,000

University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, Texas, $665,038

Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., $748,651

Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., $524,896

Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Spring Valley, Wis., $151,515

Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, NIFA focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people’s daily lives and the nation’s future. For more information, visit www.nifa.usda.gov .

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I’m an avid reader. More than that, I love books—the way they feel and smell. When I open a book for the first time, regardless of its condition, I feel a mixture of anticipation and belonging, as if the pages are beckoning me. I would rather read the book than see the movie. Like all readers, I revel in imagination—my own as well as others’. I know I’m not alone. There are book lovers everywhere, even on the Internet.

Google Books, Project Gutenberg, and Fullbooks.com have compiled an impressive list of titles, thousands in fact, that are in the public domain, meaning no one holds a copyright on them: they are free for the taking. I’ve downloaded hundreds of titles from these sites, titles like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Love Among the Chickens, and The American Farmer. As much as I enjoy searching for and downloading digital books, I still pine for the real deal now and then. And once again, technology has opened a whole new vista for book lovers everywhere.

BookMooch.com is a service that allows members to give away books they no longer want and get books they do want for free. Each member is responsible for paying the postage on the books they ship. Other than that, the service is absolutely free. It’s like a dream come true. I can trade titles with other book lovers and be part of a community of readers. I am actively trading books on BookMooch.com. I invite you to join me. Winter’s setting in, and nothing goes better with snow, sleet, and blizzard conditions than a cup of hot cocoa and a good book.

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After years of reading about the homesteading adventures of Countryside readers, it has finally dawned on me. The difference between the homesteading success stories and the  tales of smoldering ruin is that successful homesteaders are craftsmen/women. They didn’t choose a minimalist lifestyle; instead, they combined determination and knowledge to craft a way of life , a heritage.  A lifestyle takes money. A  way of life takes time.

Established homesteaders like Sue Robishaw of Many Tracks and my friends Roger and Ann from Confessions of a Tightwad, are masters of the craft. They know full well that homesteading is a gilded craft, requiring the knowledge of the ages to sharpen modern skills. In the pages of Countryisde, the words of sage homesteaders guide others through the often tenuous steps to mastering their own level of self-reliance. I’m often in awe at the personal mastery of the readers who write to us. They are willing to try, repeatedly, to forge a way of life that reflects who they are and what they’re doing here. If you want to know someone’s heart, simply look at the things they care enough to do for themselves. Homesteading isn’t about a lifestyle; it’s about personal mastery.

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In 1938, two women in their forties assumed ficticious names and set out across America to find jobs during what was arguably the worst job ever, especially for people over forty. The headlines at the time reflect the disparity chewing through the Nation’s spirit:

“NO JOBS AT FORTY” DEBATE RAGES; CURES OFFERED

“TOO OLD AT FORTY”: WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT? SPEAKERS OUTLINE THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS WHICH FOLLOW REJECTION OF OLDER WORKERS

COURT VOICES SYMPATHY FOR JOB SEEKERS OVER 40

The women, C. B. Thompson and M. L. Wise, developed a plan to find jobs, and then set out to prove that it would work. It did 70% of the time, and even when they weren’t offered positions, they were given interviews when others couldn’t get the time of day. Their book, We Are Forty and We Did Get Jobs, is full of tips that still apply today. So, if you’re out of work and feel like you’re out of luck and out of options, don’t despair. Here’s some advice from the ages:

Look your best. Nothing runs you down like that run-down look. Get out of bed every morning and get dressed in something other than sweats. We all know that we feel better when we have showered and changed into clothes that we like. Keeping yourself well-groomed at home will help you to feel comfortable and at ease in your “interview” clothes.

Root out the defeatist attitude. Sitting around worrying about how you will pay the mortgage or rent, how you’ll make the car payment, or all the other things we conjure up when we’re in defeatist mode will only keep you stuck where you are. Instead of worrying about what you have lost, channel all of that mental energy into planning how you will find the perfect position. Let your mind wander and day dream about all of the wonderful things to come, and start planning how to get them. No matter how small, positive actions effectively destroy a defeatist attitude.

Find all your employable characteristics. Write down every job you ever held and list every detail of each job. Every detail, no matter how small. Next list all of your hobbies and interests.

Survey all possible fields for your talents. This amounts to the modern-day mantra “think outside the box.” Be willing to go outside of your field. If you were a machinist, do you have talents that would transfer to another, completely different area? A machinist who loves to barbecue might make an excellent chef at a rib joint.

Take your talents to market. During the Great Depression, this meant reading every newspaper and bulletin board you could fine, as well as the telephone book. Today, it means posting your resume everywhere online. Use social-networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to build your network of contacts. Send a copy of your resume to everyone you know.

Put the employer’s needs before your own. Don’t talk about yourself; talk about them. Find out what they are looking for and explain how you can provide it. Keep your troubles to yourself. No one wants to hire a whiner. Things are hard enough these days without a negative Nelly or Ned hanging around.

When the Great Depression hit, there wasn’t any context for it. People had nothing to compare it with. They had to learn as they went. Fortunately for us, they left a record of their struggles. We can learn a lot from what they went through.

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So, you’ve taken a week or so to do inventory, and you’ve come up with a pretty good idea of what you consume in the course of a year. While your first instinct may be to go through the list with a red pen, striking out items that you’re sure you can do without, resist. The object here isn’t to do without; it isn’t to radically alter your lifestyle in the course of month. It’s about finding ways to be more self-reliant and a more responsible consumer. This isn’t an either-or proposition. The self-reliant tend to be responsible consumers, and responsible consumers achieve a degree of financial self-reliance.

Take a look at your food list. How much of what you eat can you produce or process yourself? Say you go through 12 large jars of garlic dill pickles a year. You might decide to make these yourself. Now, you have to decide if you can grow cucumbers, dill, onions, and garlic for your pickles, or buy them. Not everyone is in a position to grow their own produce. Not a problem. Buying in bulk and then processing the ingredients is also self-reliant.

It’s worth noting here that self-sufficiency often requires an upfront investment. If you are going to make your own pickles, you will need mason jars, lids and rings, among other things. When purchasing items that are integral to your level of self-sufficiency, it’s important to look for value. For example, don’t purchase something like mason jars just because they adhere to the latest green trend. Look for quality not trends.

How do you calculate how much you need to grow and how much room you need to grow it? This isn’t as hard as it might seem. Staying with our cucumber example: First, you need to know how many cucumber plants you need to supply enough cucumbers for pickling. Luckily, there are resources to help you figure this out—Yields for Common Garden Crops maintained by the Food For Everyone Foundation and this publication from the Maryland Cooperative Extension. I would also recommend checking with Extension in your area for specific information.

Next, you have to source your supplies and read-up on pickle-making. Again, no problem. Countryside has hundreds of articles to help you learn how to pickle. Our Website and our magazines are an indispensable resource for taking control of your consumption. Try a free issue of Countryside and become a part of a global community of self-reliant, responsible consumers. Don’t forget to follow Countryside on Twitter.

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