January 2025 Newsletter
As we step into 2025, Renewing the Countryside is busy planning and organizing, alongside its partners, for another full year of activities, initiatives, programming and more. From new programs to continued partnerships with our incredible community, it is shaping up to be another year of opportunity and growth.
- Mikell Melius, RTC's Communications & Development Manager
Go Farm Connect & The Marketing Assistance for Speciality Crop (MASC) Farmers Program
In early December, The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced a new program they were accepting applications for: the Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) program. This program would provide funding to specialty crop producers to help them expand markets and manage higher costs. The application window was only open for a month, four weeks. Cue Go Farm Connect (GFC) and its tenacious team of 36 Connectors.
In those four weeks, the GFC team, in strong partnership with county FSA offices in MN & WI, held three informational webinars, nine in person gatherings to assist farmers with applications, provided translation assistance
in nine different languages, sent countless emails and social media posts alerting farmers of the funding, and in the end helped sign up hundreds of specialty crop farmers for the program.
If you'd like to see more photos from this initiative, visit the Go Farm Connect Facebook page!
Who else is Renewing the Countryside?: Partner Shoutout
Like most areas of RTC's work, Go Farm Connect's incredible success on this initiative was in large
part due to a strong partnership. For this project, those partners were the Farm Service Agency (FSA) workers at local offices in MN and WI. FSA Staff stayed on webinars hours after they were meant to end, helped host in person events that were in the evenings and on weekends, and along with GFC's team, worked over the holidays to ensure as many eligible farmers as possible signed up for this funding. Thank you to all the FSA workers who put in the extra time and effort and extended their knowhow to hundreds of farmers. You helped us renew the countryside a little bit more and we are grateful for your partnership!
Wisconsin Women in Conservation (WiWiC) will host a two part webinar series offered in partnership with the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Council (WWBIC). It will focus on building a land-based business with both conservation and profit in mind. Both webinars will feature a WWBIC expert and a business owner. The first webinar is Jan. 30 from 12-1 p.m. It will highlight WiWiC's 2024 Bus Tour Host Cella Langer of Oxheart Farm and WWBIC Vice President Kathryn Dunn. RSVP Here.
We're excited to announce the return of Jennifer Nelson to the RTC staff! Jennifer is returning to help with the Wisconsin Women in Conservation (WiWiC) program. A bit about Jennifer: After teaching children, managing farmers markets, and a trip to Ecuador, Jennifer, along with partner Mike, birthed their son and began a little dream of a cut flower farm in 2013. With the help of FSA, they bought a 16 acre plot of land on the Eau Galle River Valley in western Wisconsin in 2015. After seven years of growing cut flowers, they now focus on growing garden starter plants in the greenhouse, providing starters to four co-op grocery stores in the Twin Cities, cutting hay, and stewarding a small herd of goats, rabbits & chickens.
Jennifer is passionate about connecting communities around conservation, women's health, and slowing down the frenetic pace of modern life to better match the pace of nature.
2. RTC's Allison Rian and Maeve Mallozzi-Kelly are presenting on Farmers' Market Food Hubs, a program area of Renewing the Countryside, at the Crow River Sustainable Farming Association's Annual Meeting on Sunday, Jan 26. Along with the presentation, there will be a Q&A about food hubs that pool products from multiple farmers and offer it to larger-scale buyers and groups of customers. Learn more here.
Look for Renewing the Countryside and it's programs at the following conferences:
GrassWorks Grazing Conference: January 23-25, Wisconsin Dells
OGRAIN Winter Conference: January 24-25, Madison, WI
Organic Vegetable Production Conference: Jan. 31- Feb. 1, Madison, WI
Sustainable Farming Association's Annual Conference: February 8, St. Joseph, MN
U of MN Extension's Women in Ag Network Conference: February 11, Waite Park, MN
Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference: February 20-22, La Crosse, WI
Q: What city is Renewing the Countryside's new office located in?
Email your answers to mikell@rtcinfo.org and/or look for the chance to answer on Renewing the Countryside's social media. Give us a follow below!
Looking for a way to make a greater impact?
To help foster just, sustainable, and vibrant communities?
Become a sustaining donor. Your generous, on-going support grounds our work and helps farmers, local restaurants, producers, growers, children, women in ag, and so many more.
Renewing the Countryside is a non-profit organization that strengthens rural areas and small towns by championing & supporting farmers, artists, entrepreneurs, educators, activists, and others who are revitalizing the countryside through innovative endeavors.
We build awareness and support for these initiatives by collecting & sharing stories of rural renewal, providing practical assistance & networking opportunities for those working to improve rural America, and fostering connections between urban & rural people.