Founded in 2021 and led by Dunedin-based operations manager Rebecca Perez, Village Agrarians is a community of passionate advocates for equitable land access, with a special focus on the agro-ecological use of land for food production.
The Village Agrarians concept was brought to New Zealand by Ms Perez, who grew up and went to university on the East Coast of the United States, before taking up a three-year internship with a small-scale local food producer and becoming a farmer.
Ms Perez said small-scale food producing farmers [similar to market gardeners in New Zealand] were common in the US, and it had been a surprise to arrive in New Zealand and find that farming here was dominated by sheep and beef.
"There are a lot of people trying to get into market gardening by learning from YouTube videos out of the US and Europe.
"But that information may not translate well to New Zealand conditions," she said.
In response, Ms Perez and her partner began to develop the Village Agrarians concept, talking with farmers in Southland, and working with young growers who were trying to make a living from food productions.
"Some of their attempts, such as trying to make a living growing microgreens, are difficult to succeed with here — because we don’t have the population to sustain it.
"So, at present, what we mostly have are community growers here, with local, commercial, sustainable food production as a goal for the future."
Since it was founded in Dunedin and Southland, Village Agrarians has run some training programmes, workshops on steps to becoming a market gardener, and last summer ran a pilot internships programme with Waewae Permaculture (Osborne), Vern Paddock Project (Mihiwaka), and Pleasant River Produce (East Otago).
"The concept of the internships was to pair people interested in becoming market gardeners with those experienced in the field, so they can gain a real understanding that there is a whole ecosystem around food production.
"The internships programme needs more development, but it was good to make a start with it."
Ms Peres said a vital component of establishing any commercial food growing programme was to lower barriers to accessing suitable land, which was costly and difficult.
In the hopes of assisting prospective growers with this, the Village Agrarians website contains a free land-matching service, where land-holders can invite food producers to join them on their land.
"We are also developing a ‘land access handbook’ to explore and explain the different ways that land can be used, shared and cared for collectively in public and private ownership.
"Our dream is to have a land trust, where land can owned and leased, with shared infrastructure — such as packing sheds and expensive equipment."
These idea and encouraging the sharing of skills were some of the ways Village Agrarians could help people to tackle the complex process of becoming local food producers and successfully sustaining it.
To help drive the Village Agrarians concept forward, Ms Peres and recently appointed programmes co-ordinator Ham Butler-Davidson, are putting out the call for people interested in learning more about small-scale market gardening and supporting the work to come together.
"We are very keen to have a cohort of people to help drive networks and workshops, as well as helping with developing infrastructure — which will be needed moving forward.
"If we can work together, there a lots of opportunities for developing local food production further."
For more information, visit the Village Agrarians website www.villageagrarians.org, or email villageagrarians@gmail.com
