Future Farmer incubator

OPEN CALL for future farmers: send your brief plan/proposal to [email protected]
http://cycleX.info

FUTURE FARMER INCUBATOR (FFI) 2020 - 2022
CycleX is a newly established not-for-profit entity whose mission is to utilize its farmland by hosting and fostering hybrid farming and cross-disciplinary artistic activities. CycleX has designated its 23 acres of farmland in Andes, New York as an open space with a focus on sustainable farming practices and international and intercultural exchange programs. Farmers, artists, cultural workers, inventors, permaculturists and geeks are invited to jointly create, nurture, and grow ideas and food through yearly cycles of planting and harvesting.
In 2019, we initiated the “FUTURE FARMER INCUBATOR” (FFI) program for the farmland. Based on the concept of an “allotment” which allocates a plot of land let to an individual for cultivation and serves socio-cultural-economic functions, CycleX seeks emergent farmers, individuals and collectives, to pursue innovative hybrid, permaculture, regenerative, organic and small-scale farming. Given use of a lot of 1 or 2 or 3 acres, farmers are encouraged to plant unusual crops, conserve seeds, and plant diverse plants or fungi from other countries or cultures. We want to offer the land as experimental ground to landless beginning farmers including migrants, veterans, folks of color, and people with limited land access or financial resources who wish to deploy sustainable farming practices.
True to the incubator concept, we will provide selected farmers a 2 to 3 year tenure for farming projects, with the expectation that they will emerge from FFI to apply what they’ve learned on their own land and return the allotment to other future farmers for ensuing growing cycles. The growing cycle (seeding to harvesting) in the Catskills region of upstate New York usually lasts from April to October, although farmers are encouraged to engage in soil improvement efforts such as cover cropping the prior autumn. We also offer use of basic tools and in some cases materials, as well as technical advice by our site manager who is familiar with the farm, its history and farming practices in the region. The allotments will be in close proximity to existing orchards, a mushroom laying yard and permaculture demonstration area, which will be enhanced by the addition of a communal herb garden in the next year.
For the 2020 Cycle, we seek locally (near the town of Andes, NY in the central Catskills) based future farmers to apply for the allotments. CycleX will offer technical support and eventually short term housing. However, housing will not be available for 2020 as we are currently seeking funds to build residences in a sustainable allotment village utilizing natural systems during the years 2020-2022.