New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New Entry), a program of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, works regionally, and across the country to strengthen local food systems by supporting new farmers. We serve and collaborate with the people, communities, and organizations across these areas.
We offer three core programs:
- Farmer Training - for aspiring to established farmers
- Food Hub - for buying fresh, local produce
- National Community of Practice - for farmer training organizations
Mission
New Entry’s mission is to train and support new farmers, encourage resilient farming practices, facilitate access to local food and farm products, and build strong support networks for diverse agricultural communities.
Vision
New Entry envisions diverse and thriving farming communities where people are connected, farms are profitable and resilient, nutritious food is available to all, and land is stewarded for future generations.
Values
- Collaboration – We believe achieving an equitable and resilient food system requires diverse community partnerships. We strive to foster a collaborative environment among all our community stakeholders, including staff, students, farmers, volunteers, and organizational partners. We prioritize listening and learning and aim to share these lessons broadly.
- Sovereignty – We believe communities have the right to control the production and distribution of their food, and to define their own food systems. We respect the uniqueness of people, cultures, perspectives, and talents. We embrace the richness inherent in our differences and honor individual lived experience.
- Quality – We aim to leverage our collective expertise to deliver high-quality, practical, innovative, and evidence-based solutions to support the success of next generation farmers. We strive to continuously improve our services and programming and are not afraid to take risks to learn and grow.
- Interdisciplinary – We recognize that everything is connected and interdependent. We identify and seek to understand complex interactions to allow for more holistic problem-solving and decision making.
- Respect - We uphold honesty, ethics, and respect for all life in all our decisions. Committed to fair compensation, environmental sustainability, and responsible stewardship, we honor agricultural workers, animals, and the land.
Strategic Goals
New Entry engaged in a staff-wide strategic planning process in the fall of 2024 through winter 2025 and conducted a broad stakeholder survey to farmers, partners, funders, students, customers, and Tufts faculty, staff and advisors to learn how our broad community views and understands all of our programs and services. With this insight, we brainstormed about where we want New Entry to be in five years and what we want to achieve. We then created strategic goals, sub-goals, and metrics to help us measure our progress and hold us accountable.
These are our strategic goals for 2025-2030
- Empower diverse and resilient farming communities
- Enhance training and education to “future proof” farm viability
- Address secure land access for sustainable farming
- Promote agricultural innovation and climate resilience
- Strengthen market access and local food distribution
- Optimize New Entry’s organizational efficiencies
Impact Reports
History
In 1998, New Entry was launched by the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy to develop a cost-effective strategy to integrate recent immigrants and refugees with farming backgrounds into Massachusetts agriculture.
In 2007, New Entry conducted a broad environmental analysis of the burgeoning food movement and expanded its target audience to beginning farmers of all backgrounds with a desire to grow food to create a resilient local food economy.
In collaborative partnership with farm organizations, community groups and academic institutions, New Entry has continued to expand capacity to address a broad range of issues related to beginning farming. Today we serve local, statewide, and national audiences through comprehensive farmer training and technical assistance, land access, and direct market support programs; facilitation of collaborative partnerships and national technical assistance and resource sharing with other land-based and experiential beginning farmer training organizations.
New Entry has continually expanded farmer training and technical assistance programs to meet participants’ needs through classroom, hands-on, virtual and self-paced online learning opportunities. We established and expanded marketing options for new farmers via our multi-producer Food Hub which serves consumers across all economic levels, including those who could otherwise not afford fresh produce. We engage communities across Massachusetts in assessing and making farmland available to new producers. We coordinate a statewide network of farm service providers and created an active referral network. We are connecting emerging incubator farm projects and apprenticeship training programs across the country to share resources, best practices, and provide technical assistance through a vibrant community of practice.
Over nearly three decades of work, lives have changed from people connecting to the land and producing culturally preferred food important to their communities and their health; regional farmland has been maintained in sustainable, active agricultural production; the agricultural community has welcomed diverse members of society into the farming sector; partnerships between service providers have strengthened; and economically diverse communities have greater access to locally grown food.
Problem Statement
A new era has emerged with strong interest by small-scale beginning farmers in Massachusetts. The 2022 Census of Agriculture showed 2,585 farms run by new and beginning producers (less than 10 years of experience) in Massachusetts stewarding over 147,906 acres of land. Mostly small-scale, highly diversified specialty crop and livestock producers, these farmers are responding to the rapidly expanding demand for local foods by selling through CSAs, farmers markets and farmstands, local restaurants and grocery stores. Demand for farm-grown, local produce also comes from farm-to-school and farm-to-institution programs.
Most of these beginning farmers have no formal agriculture schooling and some have limited informal training or prior farming experience. Many have limited resources. For this reason, New Entry has been at the forefront of training beginning producers – providing a combination of education, outreach, and experiential field experiences.
New Entry is continually looking for the best way to continue providing high-quality programs and services, increase capacity to address regional food systems issues, and share our work with national and international audiences while we navigate through an ever-evolving agricultural climate.
Structure
The Agriculture, Food, and Environment (AFE) Program within the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University initiated New Entry in 1998, and New Entry continues to be an integral part of the school's academic program. New Entry provides opportunities for student involvement via internships, directed study, and research, while faculty foster curriculum connections in class discussions, coursework, and hands-on laboratories and research in the fields and beyond.
Project partners include federal and state government agencies, universities, local farmers, and multiple community-based organizations.
John Ogonowski Tribute
John Ogonowski was the pilot on American Airlines flight 11 to Los Angeles that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. John is most remembered for his contributions to the farming community in Massachusetts, and particularly for his dedication to immigrant farmers from Cambodia whom he assisted as part of New Entry. John served as New Entry's first mentor farmer and dedicated acreage of his property to help Cambodians begin farming. He gave production advice, helped put up a shed and greenhouse, and often did not collect the rents.
Questions?
Email us at nesfp@tufts.edu.