What You Will Learn

Become a stronger farm owner, operator, and entrepreneur. This six-month series will support you in:

  • Learning the importance and process of keeping good financial records
  • Understanding your farm, your brand, and your market
  • Gain a deeper understanding of historical inequities in agriculture and financial systems
  • Developing support systems to navigate old and new resources.

This primarily virtual course structure is:

  1. Weekly instructional emails launched on Monday morning from November 21st, 2022– May 30th, 2023
  2. 10 pre-recorded video lectures are provided from November 2022-April 2023
  3. Live engagement sessions with BIPOC experts in areas of social justice, Black Agrarianism, Urban Farming, Accounting, Finance, Lending and Marketing will be provided for each of 10 modules.
  4. A shared google folder for all registered students will house each module information. Individual students will receive a private, personal google file for uploading course assignments.
  5. Option to attend an in-person farm production session either in Detroit area, Genesee County, or West Michigan and learn directly from agricultural experts.
  6. Opportunity to schedule a 1-on-1 session with a Farm Expert to get individual farm support.

The virtual course modules will consist of short videos to watch, links to readings, other online resources, and digital assignments supporting learning in: concept design, harvest and inventory control, risk management insurance, funding and lending resources, history of race and equity in agriculture, navigating biased, and imperfect systems to create a pathway of farm success, budgeting and benchmarking and much more!

Each module will contain 1.5 hours of content with 1 hour of Zoom live participation. 100% participation is encouraged, 50% or more participation is required to complete the course and receive a stipend. The entire series offers 30 total hours of content including instruction, conversation, reading and assignments total. This content would require 5 hours per month of each participant to gain the skills of operating a successful farm business.

This material is funded in partnership by USDA, Risk Management Agency, under award number RMA22CPT0012390.

Center for Regional Food Systems

Farm and Farmer Development

Food System Infrastructure, Planning and Policy

Michigan Good Food

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