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Title: Professor of Horticulture, Local Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture; Executive director of the Louisiana Farm to School Program, co-state
coordinator of Louisiana SARE and principal investigator of the Grow Louisiana
new and beginning farmer training program
Location: LSU AgCenter School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences, Baton Rouge
Strategic Goal Focus: Support small business startups and workforce development.
Carl Motsenbocker oversees the Grow Louisiana beginning farmer training program. It was was developed to support new and beginning sustainable and organic horticulture farmers with a year-round training program that provides weekly in-class extension horticulture and business education from extension personnel and mentor farmers. The training has night classes in the spring and fall, several all-day trainings on the weekend, and on-farm trainings and site visits.
There is a great unmet market demand for local foods in Louisiana and an opportunity for small-scale sustainable horticulture producers to fill that niche. There is also a need to provide support and training for sustainable horticulture producers and increase the number of farmers — literally grow farmers — in Louisiana.
“It has been a pleasure to be able to provide the Grow Louisiana beginning farmer training program for sustainable horticulture farmers and soon-to-be farmers around the state. I have been pleased to see the feedback from our participants and how Grow Louisiana opens opportunities for those interested in farming sustainably but don’t have the tools or the resources to fulfill their dream. The Grow Louisiana program is a good way to start their farming journey. It is interesting to see a ‘new community’ develop and grow over the course of the year-long program. A good example is the Lafayette cohort started working together during the program in sharing resources, such as plant materials and transplants, and they eventually started a farmers market that is still in existence.”
The Grow Louisiana program is vital to support new and beginning farmers to provide them science-based knowledge in sustainable horticulture and business practices. Many of these small-scale sustainable farms don’t normally have access to or knowledge of the LSU AgCenter’s resources and personnel or governmental support programs for farmers. The Grow Louisiana program fills that niche. The program also provides an opportunity for farmers to network, work with mentor farmers and visit working sustainable horticulture farms.
