Looking to Ecology to Build a Cooperative Farm Future with Andrew Adamski of Full Circle Community Farm

Andrew Adamski, or walkie talkie callsign gopher, is one of the farmer owners of Full Circle Community Farm in Wisconsin, the land of coops in the US. He came back to his generations old family farm in 2017 after college, along with his now wife heather, to not only continue the family farming tradition, but diversify both its production and membership. He talks about his returning to the farm, their simplified and flexible business structure, using what he learned about ecology to develop the farms ownership/membership model, and that you don't have to have it all figured out to begin to include other members of the farm in the decision-making process.

Heather, his wife, is the manager of the Slo-Farmers Coop, a farmer marketing cooperative of eight small farms providing a free choice, direct to consumer CSA, and we get into how that evolved over time, took off during covid, and how keystone farms can leverage their production capacity to not only sell more produce, but make space for beginning and specialty farmers, as well.

They, and I mean the now five farmer owners of fun circle community farm, were awarded the marbleseed farmers of the year award in 2024. If your interested in hearing more about what they are doing, both Andrew and Heather will be presenting at Marbleseeds 2025 conference happening February 20th through the 22nd.

Folks who support the show...

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ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) will offer the Business of Farming Conference on Saturday, February 22, in Asheville, North Carolina. Find out more at asapconnections.org

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