(soft instrumental music) - [Narrator] Alabama Public Television presents "Spotlight on Agriculture" - We have an exciting program for you today.

I think most of you know that in agriculture, families make a career out of it.

Grandparents pass along farming tips and ideas and land to the multiple generations that follow them.

And that has served us extremely well in America and throughout the world.

In the last decade or so, we've seen new entries into agriculture.

We've seen first generations going in and starting whether it be row crops or whether it be poultry or whether it be beef cattle, or growing organic vegetables.

We've even seen really restaurant tears that are growing stuff that they then serve in the restaurants.

Sort of farm to table very quickly.

So it's an exciting time for us.

You've got some exciting stories.

You're gonna hear about this new first-generation farmers, as the commitment is both from the traditional farmers as well as the new entries, to try to feed a growing planet.

(soft instrumental music) - Here at Auburn University, we have a project that I'm very proud of.

The Alabama Beginning Farmer Project.

This project is an education series, developed by extension specialists in the College of Agriculture.

Delivered through the Alabama cooperative extension system that provides farmers with background and technical knowledge they need to be successful.

Particularly those farmers entering for the first time.

This is accessible to folks providing products to local food markets.

It's also accessible to the many veterans that we see interested in becoming farmers.

(car engine rolling) - So the Beginning Farmer Program, is essentially right now in two phases.

It's in the second phase right now.

The first phase ended in the end of 2018, early 2019.

And we have so far trained about 111 farmers.

And I'm really happy to say that we have a huge diversity among those farms.

About 60% are women in agriculture which I'm really happy about.

So we have been reaching out to a lot of communities across Alabama and about 64, 70% success rate.

So they're still farming and we want to keep them farming.

The feedback really came strong from our advisory committees.

So we have a Beginning Farmer Advisory Committee.

Initially it was called the Organic Program.

but the same friends now are in the Beginning Farmer Program.

Then we have feedback from our producer organizations like Alabama Fruit & Vegetable Growers, Alabama Sustainable Agriculture, Southern Sustainable Ag.

And all these, they provided us the feedback.

And we also started to notice that a lot of small farmers were coming to our meetings and really wanted to learn more and kind of go back to the basics of farming.

So that was the motivation.

When we saw that in our surveys, it occurred to us that we need to create a separate program for this producers.

And the other thing that also came to us that I didn't realize before I began coordinating, is our huge population of of military veterans.

And I'm really proud to say the military veterans they're coming back and they want to farm and don't know where to start.

And we have a perfect program for them.

I can think of about two to three major challenges that I have seen repeatedly in our surveys and our conversations with beginning farmers.

One of the things is lack of capital.

In fact this afternoon, I got a call from a farmer who is looking for some funds to start buying some equipment.

So we had to direct them to our other friends and other networking agencies, where the money is.

So money and capital is one of the things.

The other thing is access to land.

So we have farmers who have their own land, we have military veterans who have land, but some don't.

So getting to know where land is available, maybe they can lease it.

How to lease it, that's part of the business plan.

Through our collaborators, we help farmers to sort those out.

And the last thing is information.

They are still needing information, be it through extension or through other mentor farms who are like them have been farming and what has been their challenges.

So that's what the farmer beginning farmer does is the networking.

It sets up the network and helps these farmers and keeps them motivated.

I think there's a couple of things that are very important.

Number one, when you are a beginning farmer, start out small.

Don't start out big and ambitious where you are essentially are set up for failure.

So starting with small steps is very important.

And again, we are here to help you.

There's a network of extinction agents across the state.

In fact, everybody has a smartphone these days.

And if you look up on your phone, "Farming basics phone app", you can actually directly communicate to one of our agents.

So start out with that, start off small, get your information and get networking.

The other big part is, know your risk with the weather.

Because we have seen increasingly in Alabama how the weather impacts agriculture.

We all know it.

But how it will affect your business is very important.

So these are small things that have come up in our surveys and we continue to work with farmers helping them be successful.

Also know about our online resources.

For example, we have a farming basics online course that is a four-hour course.

It's a certificate course that anybody can take it across the world.

It takes four hours to do it, about.

I took it.

Took me about four hours.

And it was a lot of fun because I learned food safety, which is not my specialty but I learned about it.

Pesticide safety, crop production and pest management.

These basics are covered there.

And it also opens your eyes to whether I should be in farming.

So you can do a self-evaluation.

Farming basics phone app, another grid tool.

Connect to your agent through their app.

Select your county, it automatically tells you who to call.

And then we have our newsletter.

Our newsletter which has about 3000 subscribers.

It's one of the largest in extension.

And we're very proud of that because it goes out throughout the year.

So again, know the people, know where the information is, Google us alabamabeginningfarmer.com and you'll find us.

- We got our first flock, October 31st of 2018.

We first started the process back in 2016 and things really weren't moving as far as building new poultry houses here.

That kicked off about the first part of 2018.

But we were set up with the bank and we were set up with everything to go.

When things started moving, we started building in May of 2018.

We got our first flock in October.

Currently, we're going 40, 2 day old bird.

It's about five pounds and we can fit 45,000 in a house.

So we'll have 180,000 right away.

We have about a hundred head of mama cows that we run into addition to our poultry operation.

We've got a lease place about 10 miles down the road.

That's where we keep our cows.

We raise commercial beef cattle.

That was something that I had always wanted to do.

And with chicken houses, I'm able to be at home and chickens and cows work really well together.

So I'm able to see to them and do the chickens too.

I laugh and tell people, they'll me what I do.

I say, "I fixed broken things".

Not growing up in it and not being around it.

I've broken a lot of things.

I've tripped myself up.

I've made some decisions that probably weren't the best but we've paid for them and we've moved on.

We're still able to eat regular and still have a house to live in.

So we're doing all right.

There's been several times, I've been paralyzed to make a decision because I didn't want to make a mistake.

And sometimes that can be a mistake in itself inaction.

But we keep our head down and we keep working.

And just have to overcome your mistakes and your setbacks.

Extension Office has been a huge help with us and starting out farming.

I have a lot of questions.

I don't know a lot.

And Google can only get you so far.

These guys have been here.

They've been in the community.

They know a lot of the problems that you're gonna come up with and they're there to help you.

- We've been farming for about four years.

We started with two cows and we just kinda grew from there.

It's very interesting being a first-time farmer, because you don't know what you don't know.

And the knowledge that people have of growing up in farming, that's a very valuable lesson.

My husband actually grew up on a small farm near Citronelle and they grew watermelons and peaches and then he showed stears but he didn't raise stears for food necessarily.

And so he has a little bit of experience with that but I had absolutely none.

Some days are hard.

Some days make me want to pull my hair out but I do love what I do.

There's a lot of satisfaction that comes with what I like to call repeat customers and happy little kids.

During the pandemic, we operated a berry drive-through.

So that we were as socially distance conscious as we possibly could.

Well, there was a little boy and he had come with his mom a couple of different times to get strawberries.

He was in the drive-through and I heard his mom saying, "Well, tell her, tell her".

And I said, "Tell her what"?

And he was all bashful and he had his hands in front of his face and he said, and he's about three, "I really like your strawberries".

And that just made my heart melt.

And I said, "Okay, well, all of these days, if I'm sweating or frustrated or whatever it happens to be, able to just remember this and go on".

We raise Angus beef for the most part they're Angus.

They have a little bit of other influence sometimes and we sell it as a freezer beef package.

So people can come to us and we take a reservation list.

They can get an eighth, a quarter or a half of an animal at a time.

And then we raise strawberries.

You have to have some intestinal fortitude and some resilience to do this.

But it can be very rewarding.

It's not anything that's easy and you're gonna have to work and you're gonna have to sweat.

But people are wanting to know now, where their food comes from more than ever, I think.

And I think that there's unlimited potential for young folks, if they wanted to get into farming.

Now there's a lot of knowledge that has to come with it.

A lot of equipment, land, different things but are always new ways of growing coming out.

And a lot of times, the younger population has a lot of really good ideas.

I know they're trying to do things over at Auburn, with growing things vertically instead of horizontally.

So you have less space.

And so I would really encourage them to get into things like FFA and your Ag classes in high school and just kind of play around and see what it is that they like.

- Challenges facing first time farmers, the biggest challenge would be just breaking into the business.

It's very costly to buy in, I guess you would say.

That's the biggest hurdle that challenged me and my family.

These houses are automated.

They're not automatic.

They've still got to have a physical touch.

But it has streamlined and simplified a lot of things.

We have controllers now that really allows us to really dial a house in as far as ventilation for efficiency, for productivity.

The challenges in the first year of this businesses, you get so much thrown at you all at once.

You've got to pick it up and retain it in a hurry.

Of course, you have field reps with the integrator that come around and they help keep you on a straight but they don't live here.

They're here for so long and say, "You need to do this, this and this".

And then it's up to you to figure it out.

But just efficiency is to me is the biggest thing.

Everything just in the nine years that we've been farming, the cost of everything it just keeps going up and up and up.

And profits are just smaller, smaller, smaller, if there is a profit.

And so efficiency is always on the forefront in a farming operation.

First order businesses stay in business.

Not growing up in farming and trying to get into farming, I would definitely say, "Do it".

My wife is a FFA teacher an Ag teacher and FFA advisor.

She comes in all the time talking about kids that they just feel defeated or they don't think they can do something.

And this is America.

You can do anything you wanna do.

But the world don't meet you halfway.

You got to go get it.

And if you want it, it's there.

It might take you longer to get there, reading a book, watching a movie, ain't never the same thing.

While you got it figured in your head, may be one way and the way it plays out another.

But you got to learn to adapt and overcome.

- I started out from the ground up.

When I was younger, we showed pigs and goats.

My dad helped me get into that.

But as far as the production agriculture, that's what I've always wanted to work towards.

And so in 2010, I went out on my own a little bit and started with eight acres.

A buddy of mine helped me.

Him and his dad farm together.

So we started with eight acres and I worked on halves and partnership with him, until I got it built up enough.

I could come out on my own and set up.

I'd start with all my own equipment.

And majority of it was a challenge but it was very, very rewarding.

Biggest thing I love about being in farming, is that success or a failure, is pretty much at the end of the day, you can look at yourself and say, "How did I play a part in the success or the failure in that?

For the most part, you're your own boss.

It's a sense of pride knowing that you created something with your own two hands and that you're helping to feed the world.

We all play a little part in a big piece of keeping everybody fed and clothed.

That's a very fulfilling feeling.

A lot of the younger generation that wants to farm that didn't grow up on a farm like me.

I felt like I was facing a roadblock because you got situations with land and working capital.

But a lot of times, there's somebody in your area, whether they don't have anybody that's willing to step in their shoes and take over the farm.

There's somebody in your area, you could usually cooperate with and just form a partnership with.

Start working with them and work towards gradually having some ownership in that farm or starting your own.

And letting them kind of mentor you and helping you with equipment and other processes to get started.

We raise primarily cattle, corn and peanuts.

Cows are kinda my bread and butter.

That's my favorite part of the farm.

When I started talking about them my face just lights up.

Second will be the cotton.

My least favorite is peanuts.

We're growing coz we have to pretty much.

But that's the my least favorite.

But I'm primarily a cattleman.

We had, I believe it'd be my dad's second cousin.

He used to tend our land.

And I remember from an early age just always watching him out there working and all.

And I said, "I'd like to do something like that".

And I didn't start out on that path.

I went to college and that didn't work out for me.

I took a position with UPS.

I was a nighttime supervisor.

And then I took a job at our local John Deere dealership.

During the day I was working at John Deere, selling parts during the day.

I was at UPS at night.

And as I became more accustomed to the farmers, my customers, I said, "I wanna get in this industry more and more".

So I left UPS.

I went full-time at John Deere.

Went into sales.

And the whole time that I was in sales, I started slowly building up my farm.

And then in 2016, I made the decision to come home full-time and farm.

I already had some employees.

The whole time I was building up my farm while I had a secondary income to back it up.

The fall of 2016, right before we started gathering, I made the decision to come home full time and I started farming and we haven't looked back since.

- There's always growers being phased out and retiring.

We have to have a certain amount of producers, poultry growers.

And so as those farms and growers phase out, we're always needing new supply of young farmers, dedicated and ready to do some hard work and enjoy life on the farm.

My role here at The National Poultry Technology Center is, I coordinate the daily operation of this building that we're in.

The NPTC Poultry Research and Demonstration Facility that we have here.

It's the only one in the world.

So we handle a lot of company and grower seminars.

We custom design educational programs for growers and for those poultry company life production employees.

So we have seminars, we do webinars.

We have a lot of resources that we do every day.

We write magazine and articles and we also develop a lot of content.

So some of those examples would be, like for first-time poultry farmers, we've published a book called "Poultry House Construction Guidelines".

For someone that is not familiar with poultry houses and how they should be built.

This is, I believe a 60, almost a 60 page document, that sorta helps lead a grower down through the process of building a poultry house.

We have a poultry calendar that we do every year.

For this one here that I'm holding up, is the 2021 Poultry Housing Tips Calendar that is designed for poultry growers to go in their control room and sort of walks through and keeps a fresh image in front of their mind each month about routine task, maintenance that needs to be done on the farm.

And kinda keeps energy efficiency and production in mind, in a calendar standpoint for those guys.

So that's another resource that we offer at the NPTC.

We also have a website, www.poultryhouse.com that has a long list of newsletters.

It YouTube videos.

It offers some useful tools that we use in the field to help them improve and increase the efficiency and production to their farms.

We also have for young farmers that are tech savvy, which most are these days.

My kids have their phone close to them at all times.

We also have a poultry tool kit app designed for growers and companies that has calculators, has checklists and it has newsletters available on the phone.

So when a grower or a company person does have a question or needs to know some technical information, not all of it's available, but a lot of that information is available right there on their phone.

So when they have a problem, they can look our information up and get an answer.

Or at least get a phone number they can call.

I get a lot of phone calls of people that are totally new to farming, totally new to poultry and really don't know what questions to ask.

How much money do I need?

How much land do I need?

Most people don't understand that they will have to have a contract and land in a certain location or proximity to a poultry company.

And the poultry company will help support them whenever they're looking to get into the business they sorta set those guidelines.

And some of that helpful information.

But a lot of times, people don't really understand what farming is about.

And the dedication and the love for farming is a big part of that lifestyle.

And so sometimes I actually talk people out of it.

Just understanding that they may or may not understand what type of dedication and what they're gonna have to do to make that poultry farm operate efficiently and profitably for 30 years.

On the other hand, there are a lot of questions that people don't understand about financing and insurance and planning.

The regulations that are in place to protect the poultry farm and other people that are not associated with poultry.

And I can't answer all those questions but I can point those people in the right direction.

A lot of times, I send them to the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association that has staff there, that will help kinda point people in the right direction and answer some questions that I can't answer myself.

Having a good attitude is big with anything.

I know a lot of farmers.

I've seen farmers on really great days that are living their dream.

And I've seen also other days that are sort of challenging.

With farming in general, there's always a challenge.

But it's something new every day.

I enjoy being on the farm when things are going well, the family's there and when you take that you've grown a successful flock and the best you've ever done and see those rewards being reaped by hard work and dedication and communication, is just something that you can't put a price on.

- Sweet Grown Alabama, is our state's agricultural branding program.

So our entire purpose is to connect Alabama farmers and families.

And we do that through an online searchable database, where consumers can visit sweetgrownalabama.org and enter their zip code, to find locally grown products near them.

We have had tons of success in the first year.

This has really been a program that consumers have craved.

People want to know where their products are grown.

And especially during COVID-19.

Consumers had a desire to locate products that were grown in the state of Alabama, where they could look a farmer in the eye and ask how their products have been raised.

Know whose hands have been on their products.

So the timing of our launch with the global pandemic, could not have been more perfect.

Sweet Grown Alabama primarily deals with direct to consumer agriculture.

So many of these farmers that are in our network, are first-time farmers.

So we see great folks, who have come from either a different career, or maybe starting out in their careers.

Who sell things like produce or beef or honey or container plants direct to consumers.

This is kind of a way that some farmers segue into agriculture.

They start out selling direct to consumer at maybe the farmer's market.

And then they're able to expand their operations.

Take it up to the next nought and sell to the grocery stores or to the restaurants or through the farm to school program.

Studies show us that for every dollar spent locally, about 60 cents of that dollar remains in the local economy.

For our rural Alabama economies, that has an important ripple effect.

Because then our farmers are able to hire two or three more individuals.

And those individuals build homes in your community and buy cars in your community and send their children to dance lessons and support the local football team.

It has such a ripple effect on Alabama's economy when you support local.

So we encourage you to, whether it be a cotton sheet or a tomato or a hydrangea that you're gonna plant in your front yard, buy it local first.

Support the local economy and it will pay dividends for our state.

- We're seeing a very productive farm enterprises in greenhouses.

We're seeing them in shipping containers.

We're seeing small producers operating on small land plots.

Producing at a very intensive level.

So there are many models for food production today.

And I think there's great opportunities for people to take advantage of these technologies and production systems.

Restaurant tours today are are following in what we're seeing this buy local and grown local movement.

And they're offering it because their diners want those types of products.

And many of the chefs want those products because of the higher quality that they receive.

So this is an opportunity for local producers as well.

I'd encourage local producers to seek out those opportunities.

It certainly gives you a market to sell into.

And for local producer, it gives you an opportunity to better brand or distinguish your product from other producers in the region.

- Vertical farming is kind of the wave of the future.

It's a state-of-the-art technology, like where we are right now.

You've got complete climate control.

So you can control the temperature, the humidity, the amount of CO2 that's in the air.

The plants are being grown hydroponically with water and their nutrients and you can grow 52 weeks of the year.

So it's pretty amazing.

Wherever you have a supply of electricity and water, you could put one of these containers.

And they come completely controlled.

Everything is accessible.

You have a smartphone app that you can use to run it.

So the lighting, the whole nine yards.

And you can produce literally 12 months of the year.

Harvest every single week of the year irrespective of what the conditions are like outside.

So you could do it in a very cold place or you could do it in a tropical place.

You could do it in a middle of a city or out in a rural area.

Pretty much any place.

Young people are probably our most technically savvy of all.

And they all have smart phones.

They know how to use them, even better than we can.

And you can literally control and monitor one of these freight farms, these shipping containers from a smartphone.

All the technology can be controlled.

The lighting, the temperature, the humidity, the CO2.

You can program it to have certain cycles that it runs.

And if you are of an interest in engineering, or problem-solving, growing plants, feeding people, providing for those who are less fortunate than yourself, these are fabulous way to get that kind of experience.

When we think about a restaurant owner who may be has a vertical farm of their own, or they're working with someone who has one that is near them, that's what we call hyper local.

So we talk about local foods.

So this is hyper-local.

Meaning you go out the side of the container, literally into the restaurant.

So the food is ultra fresh.

You may be serving it on the plate the same day it was harvested.

And so you have opportunity to really control the system.

So food safety is paramount.

Freshness is paramount.

You've got excellent quality.

It's fresh.

The eating, the taste, the flavors are fabulous and you can produce year round.

So you're not subject to the availability of produce that may be coming across the country, let's say from California.

And the chain of custody, so to speak, from when it's produced till it's consumed.

You know all of that.

You've kept it safe when it goes on the plate, you don't have any concerns about it.

So back in August of 2019, I got a phone call and there was a gentleman coming to campus that I was asked to beat, who was Jade Blunt.

And Jade was coming because he was interested in utilizing a farm that he had to provide produce for his restaurant.

And as I sat down and talked with him, one of the things that he was explaining to me, was he wanted readily accessible produce year round.

It's very difficult to do that outside.

You've got all the weather issues, you've got insect issues, disease issues, any number of things can mess you up.

And I said, "Have you ever thought about vertical farming"?

And he hadn't thought about it.

He didn't know about it.

So we started a conversation and I shared with him what I knew about the freight farm and the vertical farming.

And he got really interested.

Then we connected with Alabama Power and Southern company, because they were testing one of these.

It was called the Leafy Green Machine.

And they were getting ready to finish up their testing.

Jade went up to see it.

So odd they thought, "Well he's an Alabama power customer".

So they've actually brought it down here so he could start using it, learn how to use it and has subsequently expanded and has the second one.

There are a lot of people that are interested in growing food.

And I think more so now than ever.

And you just have to have a desire to learn.

I know of two successful hydroponic growers in Alabama.

One is former military.

One is a former IT person.

Neither of them grew up on a farm.

They have successful businesses.

They're smart, they're hardworking, they've done their homework.

They developed a niche.

They're providing high quality produce to restaurants and high-end grocery chain stores and so on.

And they're making a living.

It's possible.

But the advice would be start small and do your homework.

One of the beauties of have a farm like this and people think about a shipping container being a farm.

Really it is a farm.

You can produce 15 times the amount of produce, in this container in a year that you could on the same amount of land outside.

It's pretty impressive.

In the vertical farm, you can grow any number of crops.

Generally, they're gonna be small plants.

They can be herbs.

They can be micro greens.

They could be lettuce.

You could grow tomatoes, strawberries, small rooted crops and you can even grow flowers.

They're more than 200 different types of plants that have been tested in this type of container that can be grown.

And all of them are high quality and highly profitable.

- MGM Greens is a hydroponic garden, grown in shipping containers.

And they were incorporated with Freight Farms and Sweet Grown Alabama.

And we produce mostly lettuce and hardy greens.

I believe this is the future of farming because in a little space here, we have over two acres of land that we can produce on a regular basis.

Lettuce, leafy greens and we can outreach and feed the community as well as support our restaurants.

We have a lot of lettuce growing all the time and we do a lot too with the food banks.

And also we use this to support our two restaurants.

It's a lot different than a regular garden because there's no soil.

So it works hydroponically.

We supply everything the plant needs.

We give it light, we give it nutrients and we manage it through rotation, all the way to a grown finished product.

When you grow hydroponically in a contained environment, there is no pesticides.

There is no added anything.

Only thing we supply it with, is the nutrients and water and sunlight.

And it grows into a beautiful plant that will hold longer than your average grocery store product.

Because it is a living plant all the way till it hits the restaurant, right until they chop it up for a salad.

My best advice for anyone that's wanting to start and become a hydroponic grower, or just a farmer in general, is to just dedicate yourself to it, read about it, learn about it.

If something interests you that's regarding farming, there are plenty of resources out there that can help you grow.

And what we do is, we're offering internships for young people that just are willing to work and wanna learn the different systems of hydroponic growing and farming in general - My approach to cooking overall is simplicity.

I let the ingredients speak for themselves.

I'm merely a chef that is taking the ingredients, letting them shine and taste the way they're supposed to.

Using the freshest products mostly what we grow.

Which I really like to use a lot of plants we grow in the greenery hydroponically or out in our farm as well.

So really farm to table but letting the ingredients speak for themselves.

The farmer to chef relationship that we have is pretty unique.

I'm in the farm daily.

Checking to see how the produce is doing, what we're growing and really connecting with Dan, who's our head farmer and planning out what's gonna be next on our menu.

What can we do?

Really big benefit is, we don't have to focus on seasonality.

We can grow anything we want anytime hydroponically.

And it really makes for a unique relationship that I can really see the progress of what we're growing and use at any stage.

Whether it's as a micro green, young Swiss chard or fully grown turnips.

And it really lends itself to a unique perspective, that I get to interact and work with the product on a daily basis like that.

It adds an immense value to have all this produce right outside of our back door.

We're not shipping it from across the country.

The product is lasting a lot longer.

We're able to kind of really fix our costs that are associated with it.

These farms are amazing.

They produce all their own water through the air.

And we're able to really kinda save a lot in the environment.

We're really environmentally conscious as well.

And again, that product is gonna last so much longer.

We're harvesting on the roots.

And that value of that and not throwing away any food, is pretty much immeasurable overall.

So we do purchase other local products, extreme green hydroponics out of Opelika.

And that's great.

Ralph does an amazing job with his heirloom tomatoes.

We love to get his tomatoes and some of his lettuces as well.

We purchased a beef from Wagyu of Alabama.

Andy Tipton, he's great rancher and some of the best beef that we get comes from him.

- Originally in 2019, I met with Des Lane, Dr. Des lane at Auburn University about our traditional garden and Fitzpatrick Alabama.

And during that meeting, he mentioned Freight Farms Greenery, which is this model right here.

But during the meeting, he mentioned that two times, three times and it turned out that Alabama Power was actually testing the LGM model and Clara.

So we were able to go up to Clara and kinda work through and farm with Cheryl McFarland at the Clara Tech Center.

During that process, we basically formed a partnership where we would move the LGM container to Montgomery and we would purchase the greenery.

So we would have both technologies to test and compare and give Alabama Power more data.

We're growing cilantro, parsley, red and green oak leaf lettuce.

Downstairs is the Leafy Green Machine which is Freight Farms older technology.

We're growing Swiss chard, some turnips and Basil and a few other different things.

The containers are controlled.

It's a controlled atmosphere, where we can grow 365 days a year using no pesticides.

We have 18 hour days, 6 hour nights.

So it's really the best growing conditions you can find.

And it's controlled.

We can control everything in here and they're able to look in on the farm.

There's a camera.

I can be at home and pull up the app and control the lights, the pumps.

I can see the temperature, the humidity.

So it really is the future, I believe.

We've been able to get more of the cooks and employees involved in here.

Most trays have 200 seeds.

So we're able to get employees in here and they can plant, transplant and harvest and really the whole process.

Whereas in the past, we would get lettuce.

If it's lettuce from California, a lot of times it's 14 days old and already dying.

We do use Ralph over at Extreme Greens and he does a great job.

And so we do continue to use his product.

But when you go to Walmart or any grocery store and you bought bag lettuce, most of that is a dying product.

Whereas this is living.

- I love what the mentality of the new farmers now these days.

And how they all generation farmers being adapted of what's the mentality now of the chefs.

That is, instead of just growing stuff.

And that's what happened in the past.

Growing by season and growing, "Oh, I have these fields are gonna grow every".

No.

Now the communication between farmers and chefs are so good that the farmers are growing exactly what we need.

They're growing exactly the product that we need by season, for the season.

And we are able to purchase and use it all.

In the past, sometimes farmers used to show up, this is years ago, they used to show up with like 25 or 50 pounds of peppers.

I like, "What I'm supposed to do with this"?

Now we can communicate and be like, "Listen, I'm gonna need fresh butternut squash".

And then they bring 20 pounds.

I can use it all because I can create a special with it.

So it help both ways because it makes our life way easier to create these menus with the collaboration that we're doing.

But at the same time, they're selling the product.

They don't have a problem, an issue trying to sell this product.

And also we save on waste because if the farmer cannot sell it, what are we supposed to do with it?

Sometimes he goes and feed the cattle, feed the pig or just go to a food bank.

That's good, it goes to a food bank.

But the collaboration is way better.

We're communicating better.

We're a small group of chef here in Auburn and all of our support each other out on how and where and who has what?

So just by spreading the word with other chef, "Hey listen, you gotta try these jams.

You gotta try this.

They have this in season".

And by promoting that between us, by putting that in our menu, by telling people that we have those products, we will be able to help spread the word for all the local consumers and go and purchase those products.

I have people sending me message.

One of my guests send me message, "Oh, I got the mango peach habanero from Hornsby.

How do you use it in the restaurant"?

"Oh, you gotta grill pork chop".

So it just helps everybody because at the end of the day, what Auburn is really good at, it's just supporting.

Supporting small business.

And by us supporting the farms, then we support the locals, the local farmers.

And it's been great because they're supporting during this pandemic, they're supporting us, they're supporting the farms.

And it's a win-win situation for keep growing our town.

- Extreme Green Farms grows hydroponic lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and some herbs for mainly the local restaurant area, local community and the surrounding towns.

Well, your relationships with the chefs is, the chefs are the ones that determine the product and the quality of the product that they are willing to use in the restaurant.

Obviously there is price factors.

There is different varieties.

And so if you have a good relationship with a chef, they will come and talk to you and say, "Grow this variety for me".

Or, "I like that lettuce better than this one".

Or, "Can you grow it at this size for me"?

And we can pretty much accommodate that.

If you know the chef and you can talk to them about it.

It's more technology in the sense that things that can help you grow now.

But the work is still there.

A young farmer needs to have that aptitude and that willingness to do this.

And the interest to do it is one of the biggest things.

It gives you discipline.

It gives you the ability to look at things day after day and make sure that it gets done correctly.

It can sometimes be a little detrimental in the aspect that you want to be a perfectionist or have a specific way.

And it's not always natures way to do that.

It's always been a dream of mine to have a small business and to be an entrepreneur.

It's definitely one of those businesses that you have to be multi-skilled.

You need to be able to take care of the plants, take care of the equipment, have the desire to work with the chemicals and learn from a biology perspective what to do.

So it's a multifaceted business and that's one of the things that I enjoy.

I think one of the most challenging things when you start this business, is to scale it properly.

When you're small and only grow a case or two a week, it's hard for a chef or a restaurant to commit to you without seeing that you can actually supply them on a constant basis and a consistent basis.

And then growing from there, making sure that you grow within your means.

Extension agents, talking to other growers that do what you do regardless of where they are.

If they just do something closely similar to what you do, that is one of the biggest aspects.

And they're some companies out there that may sell you seed and sell you equipment and they are also willing to assist and provide some information on how to go about doing things.

- I started cooking, actually I opened Highlands in 1982.

So I started cooking in San Francisco back in the seventies and then moved to France.

And knew that I wanted to do something with food and wine.

I didn't know if it would be a restaurant or cooking or writing or growing or making wine.

But it was something that I loved about being around and making food and wine be a special part of one's life.

The relationship between a chef and a farmer, to me is really one of the core elements of our success.

And I relate it to growing up in Coleman and visiting my grandparents.

My mother's family's farm, where I would pick strawberries and asparagus and butter beans.

And she was a great Southern country cook.

But that love of the land, the love of those ingredients came to me, through the excitement just the lusciousness of the food.

When I was in France, I reconnected those farmer's markets with those ingredients that were picked maybe early that morning.

And every day you go to the market and you buy fresh that day.

And that connection as a chef to the farmers and with that respect for the land and for the farmers, I think has been just one of our key reasons why we are successful as a restaurant group.

With our small farm, Paradise Farm, that came as an idea that I learned from Dan Barber that where chef and restaurant tour could have his own farm as an educational center for our staff, as well as the ability to go out and to pick the freshest dill or parsley or chives or mint or savory marjoram, growing radishes and carrots and lettuces and all kinds of unique varieties of Treviso or radicchio.

And so, even though that's not a huge amount of the produce that we use, it is wonderful for our staff to go out, to learn a little bit more about planning, harvesting, growing.

And to go out and gather the eggs.

To be a part of that cycle of life.

That farming is such a wonderful, wonderful part of the Alabama tradition.

You just can't imagine how satisfying it is for me as a chef and restaurant tour to have our farm and to know that these eggs were from these heritage breed chickens and that they were out scratching and eating worms and bugs and grass seeds.

Besides tasting great, it's really good for the planet.

It's good for the earth.

When we first got Paradise Farm, I was able to work with some of the extension agents.

They were in Shelby County and then I had worked with an extension agent in Chilton County, near pedals from the past.

And of course they're some of the best farmers for fruit and figs and blueberries and blackberries and all of that.

And so in the early days, they kinda helped me get an idea about some of the things that we could do.

They also helped with cover crops.

And so to me, that's one of the important things about building up the vitality in the soil.

Is using cover crops to bring in diversity.

To get the soil so that it can hold water and that it can just be a much healthier ecosystem.

One of our varieties of okra, the jambalaya, I believe came from the Coleman Extension Office a few years ago.

I think that it's really important that we continue and that Auburn continues their leadership as far as getting young people excited about farming and realizing that they can be and have a successful business.

And really be proud of themselves at the end of the day.

- As the Sustainability Manager, I focus on leading and coordinating our sustainability initiatives.

And those include waste reduction and composting.

Also restaurant and business certification processes.

And our kind of supply chain and value chain and ethical sourcing practices, as well as education.

And a lot of that basically educating our staff and our guests, why these initiatives are important.

Finally, I work at Paradise Farm, most of the first part of the week, helping organize and kind of manage things here.

How things are grown.

My initial farming experience actually began here.

And that was very soon after I graduated from college.

I had studied Agroecology and Forestry and I wanted to learn more about agroforestry specifically and Silviopastoral systems.

Not that we do that here, but before going into my career, I figured I could learn firsthand how things are run and done on a farm.

And gardening especially, it was pretty much trial and error.

And I learned a lot from Freddy.

He was my coach and mentor and trainer.

And he learned a lot from local farmers actually, when we had first started our garden.

He got me involved.

In the spring we grow a lot of herbs, lettuce, asparagus, agrugula which is going right now in the greenhouse.

So that's the beginning of the spring.

And then in the summer we grow lots of cabbage.

We got tomatoes, carrots.

Also cilantro in the summer.

Dill.

My advice is patience and education.

Cause it takes a while to get the organic process going.

So just patience and time.

- We are very lucky, we have a really great system here.

We are able to use this land to grow really high-quality produce, and deliver it directly to the restaurant, and we do it in a way that is safe and sustainable, totally organic, but we also can use this space as an educational landscape.

One thing that a lot of restaurants don't have the access to because it's really hard, you know, difficult career, and you have to start working in the kitchen, and your head down, and you aren't aware as much of where that carrot comes from, or where the spinach is coming from, you might see the name, but the chefs, and the cooks, and the servers, and our restaurants actually can have the opportunity to come visit this space, they can see what's growing in the beds, they can see what it takes, and how long it takes for a seed to germinate in the greenhouse, and then to be transplanted, and harvested.

We like to offer this space for our community, for our cooks and servers to come out, and get that experience.

Consumers are becoming much more aware of where their products are coming from, and because of that, I think farmers can take advantage of that, they can use the restaurant tour, the chef, to tell their story for them.

If there is this strong relationship, and there are cooks that come out to visit the farm, and to get their hands in the dirt, there is a much better kind of emotional experience that that person can then relay to, hopefully, our guest, and their dining experience.

- As you've seen agriculture in Alabama is changing, and farming is changing, it's becoming more sophisticated, more technologies are being introduced into the field.

If you think you're interested in this field, we have the place for you here in the College of Agriculture at Auburn University.

If you think you're interested in becoming a farmer, I'd also encourage you to contact the Alabama Cooperative Extension System in your local County.