Episode 70: Anu Rangarajan, Cornell Small Farms Program director, talks about supporting farmers, a reduced-tillage technique and more!

Episode 70: Anu Rangarajan, Cornell Small Farms Program director, talks about supporting farmers, a reduced-tillage technique and more!

Author: Hobby Farms January 31, 2024 Duration: 40:54

Cornell Small Farms Program director Anu Rangarajan talks about supporting farmers as whole people, making farming communities more welcoming spaces, life as a strawberry farmer and a game-changing reduced-tillage technique.

Hear about how the Cornell University Small Farms Program free classes and resources can support your farming—whether your farm in New York or elsewhere—and how they differ from and work in conjunction with Cooperative Extension resources. Anu emphasizes the importance of building networks and utilizing local knowledge in building farms that are socially sustainable as well as sustainable in every other sense of the word. Learn about the Reconnecting with Purpose, Be Well Farming Project and other programs meant to support farmers as whole people and farms as whole systems. (If the concept of "listening like a cow" intrigues you, this is an episode for you.) 

This episode is recorded just a week after the first Northeast Latino/a/x Agricultural Community Conference, and Anu asks the question, How is it that we welcome and create a sense of safety for people who are not from traditional white farmer audiences? As a woman of color working in production agriculture for a couple of decades, this is a question that's been on her mind. Anu explains how the Cornell Small Farms Program is working on answers to the question from supporting farmworkers to cultivating pathways to farming. 

Get to know how Anu went from being a kid in Detroit to a premed student to a greenhouse employee to a vegetable specialist at a land-grant university. She talks about her organic U-pick strawberry farm—her experience "on the other side" of the research-production relationship. Learn about Anu's research in small-scale vegetable production, minimum- and no-till system, and soil health. Keep listening for great info about using tarps in the garden to increase nutrient levels, reduce weed populations and more.

Cornell Small Farms Program website

Reduced tillage resources

Futuro en Ag Latinx farmers program

Reconnecting with Purpose

Be Well Farming

Online courses

 


At the heart of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good are the conversations that happen over a fence line or at a farmers market, translated into audio. This podcast lives in the space where a personal passion meets practical purpose, featuring the voices of those who cultivate small plots, raise a few animals, or run a sustainable micro-farm. Host Lisa Munniksma doesn’t just interview her guests; she gets into the dirt with them, uncovering the personal journeys that led to a life rooted in the land. You’ll hear how a simple hobby evolved into a thriving side business, how families connect through daily chores, and how these growers are building resilience within their local communities far beyond the harvest. The discussions are grounded in real experience, tackling the challenges of soil health, animal husbandry, and market creativity alongside the profound satisfactions of self-reliance and stewardship. It’s a series for anyone who has ever felt the pull to grow something, whether that’s a backyard tomato plant or a fledgling farmstead business, offering relatable stories and tangible insights from people who are actually doing the work. Tune in for honest talk about the failures, the triumphs, and the quiet motivations that keep this community planting seeds season after season.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 88

Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good
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