Whole Foods Market Partners With National Young Farmers Coalition To Launch $1 Million Next Generation Farmer Fund

Providing Farmer Relief

First generation farmers have to start a business from scratch, whereas others inherit a business.

As a first-generation farmer herself, Hughes deeply understands the struggles many of the farmers in the organization’s network face, previously working in large animal medicine and raising hogs in Pennsylvania. “I did a lot of day-one piglet care, chasing down baby pigs and helping mama pigs give birth,” she says. “I fell in love with farming. Young farmers are often brought into agriculture by accident.”

Hughes was inspired to launch the Next Generation Farmers Fund with Whole Foods Market after seeing the success of another initiative the grocer recently kickstarted, the Wilding Project, which, in partnership with Mad Agriculture, funds initiatives around the country to regenerate ecosystems and restore biodiversity.

The Next Generation Farmers Fund is also a meeting of like minds. Hughes also met Whole Foods Market Head of Quality Standards, Ann Marie Hourigan, who introduced her to Leibert and Nijia Zhou, who leads Climate, Nature and Supply Chain Standards for Amazon Grocery. They all kept collaborating on ideas for many months until crafting the way in which they felt they could impact young farmers the most, through this new Fund.

“These folks really care about investing in the future of young leadership because they understand that it’s investing in the future of food,” Hughes says. “We see the average age of a farmer and the price of farmland continuing to go up. The point of corporate sustainability teams is to try to work against some of that with the power that they hold.”

The grant program serves as a lifeline; family farms going out of business at record pace, federal grant programs disappearing, and much of our farmland sitting dormant and underutilized. Entering the farming business without generational wealth is extremely difficult and grant programs like this make it even slightly more welcoming. “The picture is grim for the young farmer who is coming in as a regular person trying to acquire land. Land is a sign, a demonstration, and an embodiment of wealth,” Hughes says. “We have a lot of very small farms and a lot of very big farms, and are losing a lot of family farms in the middle of the farm economy.”

Whole Foods Market, owned by Amazon, has a long history of providing a platform to farmer-owned brands and acts as a corporate leader in the space. Grocery stores have an opportunity to bridge the gap between consumer and farmer, but often fall short, making consumers feel that the only way to support American farmers is to shop at a local farmers market. That’s a fantastic way to support family farms, but lacks the opportunity for substantial scale. This initiative is an example of why Whole Foods is an exception and one of the only mainstream grocery stores in America that creates personal relationships with farmer-suppliers.

“A match of this size sends a powerful message at a time when we’re in a crisis in the farm economy,” Hughes says. “This partnership is a bridge between a lot of folks who feel like they’re consumers of Whole Foods Market, but don’t know how to engage with something like the next generation of agriculture.”

Hughes adds, “These funds are going to go a long way for a young farmer who otherwise wouldn’t engage or be eligible for a program…Young farmers have generally been forgotten about and left behind.”

During the month of August, 1% of all revenue from Whole Foods’ signature Berry Chantilly cake goes directly to the Fund. “Two American icons,” Leibert says, “farmers and the Berry Chantilly cake.”

Today’s Young Farmers

Cody Brown is a first generation Texas farmer who plans to apply to receive a grant from the Next Generation Farmers Fund.

“I need some funding so that I can expand my operations to meet my current demand,” Brown tells me. “The demand that I’m facing right now is a good problem to have, but people are asking me for more product and I’m tired of saying no.”

The 34-year-old, who grows produce like mushrooms, zucchini, peppers and okra in San Antonio, did not intend on pursuing a career as a farmer. His parents worked in public service and public education, and he initially pursued a degree in communications. But growing up, he would visit his grandfather, a retired Sheriff, in Mississippi. “He was a hobbyist gardner,” says Brown. “I had my first experience shucking corn, throwing rotten tomatoes at each other, eating cucumber right off the vine to help Pa do anything in the garden.”

Brown eventually decided to pursue a degree in agriculture, even earning a Masters degree. While higher education is not a typical path for farmers, he wanted to gain the experience necessary for someone beginning a career in farming with no background. “I wanted to have knowledge about the world that exists around me,” Brown says. “We will always need agriculture and there’s no way around it. I felt grounded and purposeful in that career choice.”

This is the reality of most young farmers today. They become farmers because they feel a deep desire to steward the land, despite the inevitable roadblocks they will face. New research from the National Young Farmers Coalition shows that the vast majority of farmers, like Brown, begin the career in order to engage in conservation and regeneration. ”By supporting the next generation of farmers, we’re not only supporting the future of food, but the future of food we seek to see,” Leibert says. “This is a career of passion, science and art. I’ve never left a farm feeling anything but inspired by the hard work.”

She adds, “young farmers face so many barriers…the access to land, access to capital, healthcare costs, affordable housing, high production costs, student loan debt, climate change, immigration issues, access to federal programs…without targeted intervention, we risk losing this entire generation of agricultural talent before they can even establish themselves.”

Like other first generation farmers, it took Brown methodical planning to start his business and search for the specific land that he could farm, eventually finding a 100 acre plot after working at local farms to gain mentorship to understand how to farm regeneratively and organically, giving him the confidence to begin the path with his own hands at the wheel. “You start writing a business plan and putting numbers together so that you have an understanding of what it’s going to take to keep the business running so that you can do this for a living,” he explains.

Brown is now working to pay that education forward, becoming a mentor himself and empowering other young farmers to enter the business. His farm will now become an agriculture education center for aspiring farmers to learn everything he has learned as a first generation farmer, opening the Small Farmers Academy in Spring 2027.

“Being a young farmer today is hard work, but man, I wouldn’t change it,” Brown says. “It’s a lifestyle. It puts me at ease to know that my career aligns with my life. The mission of growing food for the health of the land and for the community gives you a sense of purpose.”