6. Good Organic Gardening - November-December 2016 AvxHome.in

future feeders | GARDENING COMMUNITY
Opposite: Joel Orchard
Words Jo Immig
Photos Jo Immig & Joel Orchard
Meeting young farmer Joel
Orchard was one of those
exciting moments in life when
you realise you’re looking into
the eyes of someone who will actually make
the world a better place. Standing among
the tulsi basil, alive with bees, words tumble
enthusiastically out of his mouth about the
future of farming and the role young farmers
can play given half a chance. And he grows
bursting-with-goodness food, too!
Originally from Warrnambool, Victoria, Joel
was raised growing backyard vegetables
surrounded by rich dairy country. He then
headed to Melbourne to study science and
got involved in the urban food movement.
After a crippling drought in country Victoria,
he set his sights on the NSW Northern
Rivers where he lives today, drawn by its
incredibly rich farmland, which he describes
as “embarrassingly underutilised”.
Jigsaw farming
Inspired by the movement of young farmers
returning to the land in the USA and other
parts of the world, Joel founded Future
Feeders, a collaborative movement bringing
together young farmers to address the social
sustainability of farming in the face of the
growing global and national problem of an
ageing farmer population and fewer young
people getting into farming.
“We need a complete change in the
dynamic of how young people are going to
access land and develop their own farming
enterprises,” says Joel. “We’ve lost what was
once a family farming model where the farm
got passed on generationally.
“We’re seeing this transition to young
people who are interested in getting into
farming and more or less coming from urban
backgrounds, but not able to afford to buy
farms or farmland.”
One of the ideas he floats is a return to
tenant farming. “In the NSW Northern Rivers,
there has been a wave of landholders who
are essentially hobby or lifestyle farmers,”
says Joel. “They have 100-acre blocks where
they run a few cattle to keep the grass down,
but that’s not growing food. It’s possible they
could provide a couple of acres of land for a
young farmer to have a house and get a start.”
Joel farms on two acres at the
Mullumbimby Community Gardens where he
grows food using a community-supported
agriculture model (CSA). CSA is a system
whereby subscribers commit to supporting a
farmer for a season, or longer, and in return
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