Shea Belahi worked in information technology until last year, when she escaped her crowded, windowless office to follow her childhood dream of being a farmer. Now she runs a 1-acre farm in Champaign, Ill., but her dream has brought troubles as well as joys.
"It's really stressful," Belahi said. "Usually, for two months in the spring I don't sleep, and I wake up in a panic attack."
This spring, cold weather delayed the harvest of her peppers, causing her to skip a farmers market. In June, torrential rains left spots on many of her tomatoes. In August, mildew killed most of her basil.
But she loves working outside, seeing her plants flourish, and going home tired and dirty at the end of a long day.
Belahi is the product of an education program aimed at preparing wannabe farmers for the hazards of starting a farm. She attended the Central Illinois Farm Beginnings program, a yearlong series of seminars, workshops and mentorships offered by The Land Connection, a nonprofit. The program's goal is for students to finish with a workable business plan.
"People come to us with a lot of passion, but they know they might not have the business acumen. Farms have a lot of unique traits that need to be addressed," said Jeff Hake, who runs Central Illinois Farm Beginnings. This year, the program had 19 students, its biggest class yet.
In the past decade, several farmer education programs have sprouted in Illinois. Promoters hope the classes will bring fresh faces to farming; from 1997 to 2012, the average age of an Illinois farmer rose to 57.8 from 53.2, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The classes are also aimed at establishing small farms that grow fruits and vegetables for Illinoisans to eat, rather than the corn and soybeans that dominate the state's farmland and are often exported and used for animal feed.
Illinois imports more than 90 percent of its food, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture -- "which seems amazing to me," said Bill Davison, who helps teach a beginning farming course at the University of Illinois Extension in Urbana. "It's important to help people realize that we can grow a huge variety of products here in Illinois and it will be fresher than what we get from California."
The Central Illinois Farm Beginnings program costs students $1,250 for nine weeks of seminars as well as workshops and a mentorship with an experienced farmer that altogether last a year. It attracts people from a variety of backgrounds, Hake said. In the past year he has taught two former military women, a refugee from the finance industry and a retired couple. Regardless, they all have enthusiasm for the pastoral lifestyle, he said.
Novice farmers face a range of challenges, such as raising the capital for land and equipment. The Farm Beginnings classes teach students to look for alternatives to buying land, such as renting or becoming part of a farming incubator, which offers plots to new farmers at reduced rates.
Many small farmers must also act as their own middlemen, seeking out customers alongside the daily grind of farming.
"There is demand for local food, but the problem is finding those customers," said Jenny Meyer of Angelic Organics Learning Center, a nonprofit that offers classes similar to those of Central Illinois Farm Beginnings. Farmers "are going to have to take time to make connections with customers, and they may not anticipate how much time that will take."
For example, Belahi, who rents her farmland through The Land Connection's incubator program, has had mixed success attracting customers. She sent a dozen emails to restaurants asking if they'd like to buy her goods, but only two responded, and only one buys from her.
She has seven people in her community-supported agriculture group, or CSA, which allows customers to pay a subscription at the beginning of the growing season to claim a portion of a farmer's output. She also sells from a shared table at a farmers market in Urbana. But she isn't making enough to turn a profit.
Farm Beginnings classes also reveal to students how tough farming can be. About two-thirds of graduates go into farming, but some realize they aren't ready to become a farmer, which Hake considers a good thing.
"We don't want people to start farming and they're already regretting it at the beginning," he said. "To put it bluntly, it's just really hard ... it's taxing physically, mentally and emotionally."
SundayMonday Business on 09/07/2014