Note from the Carrot Team
Greetings from an ongoing season of resilience, reflection, and renewal.
In recent years, the disruptions we prepared for ̶̶ and some we had not anticipated ̶̶ tested contingency plans, skills, and resources across our farm and food systems. Agricultural entrepreneurs faced challenges with no easy fixes. From the persisting impacts of the pandemic, to the rising waters and temperatures of climate crisis, or the generational barriers to equitable land access, the hurdles to a vibrant and equitable farm and food future are as steep as they have ever been.
In 2021, we answered the urgency of these threats to our clients’ hopes and livelihoods by equipping them with tools to face the unknown. Our trainings helped farm and food business owners think more intentionally about risk management and guided them to hone new strategies for resilience in the time of climate change and heightened risk and disruption. Through skill-building and personalized business support, we re-kindled clients’ confidence and strengthened their abilities to take proactive steps to secure their businesses’ futures against the unexpected.
These ongoing and intersecting crises also surfaced the inequities embedded in the systems we live and work within, injustices whose reverberations touch our clients and our communities. This season of renewal has offered an opportunity for us to reflect and expand our mission in service to entrepreneurs of color, women, and immigrants, refocusing our programs to nurture a broader, richer ecosystem of support for our region’s community of farm and food business owners.
This year, we found ourselves standing not only by our clients’ sides, but also in their boots — applying the same lessons of observation, adaptability, and diligence as we forged new solutions to meet their evolving needs in tough times. In this retrospective, we share stories that highlight aspects of our ongoing work and the new directions to which our 2023 Strategic Plan commits us.
Our annual report typically begins with a letter from an individual leader within our organization. This year, we share a message from our staff as a whole, representing the collaborative nature of this work and the energy, commitment, and leadership we each bring to carrying out our mission together. As we navigate these transitions, we remain inspired by our clients’ resilience, persistence, and commitment to building the vibrant and inclusive food system we envision.
Our Vision
We envision a just and resilient farm and food system, where successful farms and agricultural businesses are increasing in number and racial diversity, and are contributing to New England’s economic, environmental, and social well-being.
We support agricultural businesses, securing their futures by breaking down financial barriers and building their paths to sustainability. We do this as business advisors and through education, advocacy, and research.
We address the most important gaps at the intersections of financial security, racial and economic justice, financial barriers to farmland access, and farmers’ abilities to weather major disruptions.
Programs Overview
We tackle the challenges facing food and farm entrepreneurs by providing information, training, skill-building, and capital. We multiply our impact and catalyze change in the sector as researchers, collaborators, and advocates.
Cultivating a network of collaborative partnerships is one of our core strengths, and we design our programs to meet gaps in and complement programming offered by our partners in this work.
Uplifting Entrepreneurs
The Carrot Project supports financial management skill development and access to capital.
ln Southern New England, we work directly with:
- Farmers using sustainable methods.
- Food and agricultural businesses who source or serve their products locally.
Our programs are designed to serve farmers and food entrepreneurs facing barriers to support and financing.
Income Level at Beginning of Service
The Carrot Project Clients and New England Farmer Demographics Compared
In 2021, at least 11% of our clients identified as BIPOC and 30% as women; by comparison, the number of minority and women-owned farms in our region is 2% and 44%, respectively. We continue seeking ways to deepen our partnerships with organizations that serve entrepreneurs from historically marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC individuals, immigrants, and women. Our aim is to cultivate a rich ecosystem of support that can guide and uplift these entrepreneurs as they work to establish and sustain viable businesses.
Stage of Business
Services Accessed
Client Outcomes
These outcomes represent clients who completed outcome-based services in 2021.
Resilience in the Face of Uncertainty
As climate crisis causes more disruptions like increased flooding and sea level rise, farmers like McDonough (Mac) Scanlon need to become more adaptable and resilient than ever – and that means preparing for these disruptions long before they come to pass.
Mac originally came to The Carrot Project to learn how to manage her books, and returned for more support after losing two acres of crops to flooding at High Road, her coastal farm in Newburyport, MA.
Now Mac has implemented a climate-resilient crop plan that anticipates future flooding, securing her future on the land. We're focused on empowering our clients to adapt to unexpected scenarios like this.
Stewardship and Access to Land
Farmers are more than food producers: they are land stewards. Beginning farmers like Will O’Meara and Jill Verzino of Hungry Reaper Farm are navigating the long road to security on the land, especially as development encroaches on New England’s remaining farmland.
In his role as Land For Good’s Connecticut Field Agent, Will O’Meara helps other farmers access land. At the same time, he and partner Jill Verzino are working with The Carrot Project to achieve financial stability as they expand Hungry Reaper’s operations from two to fifteen acres in Connecticut. Hungry Reaper is also partnering with another Carrot collaborator to prepare for financing and conserving their farmland.
Their journey illustrates the need for a closely-woven community of support for agricultural entrepreneurs, one which we are strengthening through the Agricultural Viability Alliance. The partnerships, trust, and expertise our coalition has built over the last fifteen years come together to help farmers access and steward land for generations to come.
Vibrant Agricultural Communities
Our work has always centered on farmers who are in particular need of support to build thriving operations, originally focusing on farmers with low-to-moderate incomes, and now envisioned more inclusively.
Our 2023 Strategic Plan calls us to act on a commitment to find new ways to serve historically underserved communities, in partnership with organizations that are BIPOC or women-centered or led. As first steps in our long-term journey, we have been crafting our programming to better understand and meet the needs of farmers whose experiences are shaped by systemic racism. This long-term journey begins within our organization and extends to our programs, our evaluation process, and our commitment to following the leadership of BIPOC-led organizations and communities.
We are committed to taking the next vital steps to better serve New England's broad and vibrant agricultural community.
Uplifting the Sector
The Carrot Project seeks to catalyze change in and beyond our regional food system through research, collaboration, and advocacy.
We are hosting and helped launch the Agricultural Viability Alliance (the Alliance) with the Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corporation, the Vermont Farm and Forest Viability Program, and 37 other organizations. The Alliance’s goal is to increase the number and economic viability of farm and food businesses by bringing together business advisors from across New England and New York’s Hudson Valley to address shared challenges, facilitate more uniform high-quality service delivery and coverage, and more effectively share and expand limited resources.
Through the Alliance, we are shifting the status quo of service provision by elevating and supporting business technical assistance (BTA) to farm and food businesses and by weaving a professional network of expert providers that represents the diversity of the farm and food community in our region.
In 2021, The Alliance hosted an inaugural skill-share to connect peer practitioners; convened and trained BTA providers at the National Farm Viability Conference; and secured increased federal funding for agricultural BTA , as part of our mission to increase the quality and quantity of business support accessible to our region’s diverse and vibrant community of agricultural entrepreneurs. Learn more here.
2021 Financials
Total Budget: $535,522
