She wants to see things done differently and wants to leave her mark on the farm and beyond.

This also includes the long-term conversion of the family business to more sustainable agricultural practices.

“I'm concerned about food, not fuel,” Larson said of the widespread planting of energy and commodity crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat across the state. “I know it's profitable and that if you're careful you can improve soil fertility, but I don't think that's the right thing for our world or our country long-term.”

Larson is one of a small but growing number of new and aspiring farmers who are coming of age as their baby boomer parents retire or plan to retire, and many would like to see a renewed focus on local and sustainable farming.

They see rural communities being hollowed out, food deserts spreading, and grocery stores closing in the midst of abundant agricultural production, and they wonder if it really has to be this way.

Husband and wife Julia and Kelly Seiller recently completed a Farm Beginnings course at the Foundation for Agricultural and Rural Resources Management and Sustainability in Minot and are young farmers hoping to provide their local community with a variety of produce in this sustainable way.

The Seillers live west of Williston and plan to tap into the local farmers market and start a community-supported agriculture (CSA) subscription service this summer. They also hope to eventually have greenhouses for year-round production.

“We're going to provide something that's lacking up here, which is access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Kelly said. “At the beginning and end of the year, anything you get at Walmart or something like that goes bad within a week.”

Larson also recently completed the Farm Beginnings course, but her farming experience began at a young age on her family's property, in 4-H, and by helping to establish the Sheyenne Farmers Market over a decade ago.

After graduating from North Dakota State University with a degree in agricultural and biological systems, she and her partner worked in the Seattle area for several years and most recently settled near Stockholm, Sweden, where she studied agroecology.

The study area “focuses not only on the farm, but also beyond it and how our farming systems are linked to rural development and sustainable communities,” she said.

Larson is starting a crop of wholesale cut flowers that she will sell to florists, as well as cattle after purchasing her first bull this spring. Soon she will increase vegetable production to sell at the local farmers market.

A big priority is to open a farm shop in town, where locals and anyone passing through town would have better access to fresh produce. Sheyenne currently has no grocery store.

“This is a key element for me,” she said. “When I lived in Sweden, I saw what small grocery stores can do.”

Although a five-year census released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in February shows an 11 percent increase in the number of young farmers, only 300,000 of them nationwide are under 35 years old.

A much larger group of 1.3 million farmers are aged 65 or over. This means that sooner or later these farms will have to be taken over by younger people, otherwise they will be bought up and integrated into larger industrial-scale farms.

In North Dakota, the latest census data show that the number of farms has declined by 5%, while the average farm size has increased by 3%, to 1,537 acres (6,214 ha), since 2017. Overall, 11% of farmers in the state are under 35 years old, and a large and growing share of farmers are women, making up 30% of producers.

Desiree Carlson is one of them. She moved from Minnesota and founded Ester's Acres outside of Minot. She originally studied to be a teacher and then moved to North Dakota with her husband to his family farm in 2019.

It focuses primarily on chickens, eggs and lamb and sells its products at farmers markets, through CSA subscription programs and through direct sales to consumers.

Carlson also helps other farmers as an educator at the Strong Farms Incubator, a program launched five years ago by local nonprofit Strengthen ND to train a new generation of farmers and build a sustainable, local food system.

Outside of Carlson's busy farmers market season, it's difficult to have a market for her produce the rest of the year, and that shows some of the obstacles to building a local food system. She often has to feed excess eggs to the pigs on the farm because there's no easy way to get them to the consumer.

A larger network and possibly an umbrella organization for marketing local farm products would be “really great,” Carlson said, and more federal funding is becoming available to build local food systems.

Obstacles such as local home-made food laws that require a trade license for certain products such as eggs and fruits and vegetables limit farmers' ability to sell their products through such a network, making direct sales to consumers the only viable option.

While there are some websites that showcase local farmers' products – such as a state Department of Agriculture's local food directory and map, a site called ShopND and the Pride of Dakota website – they are often cumbersome and outdated, sending consumers directly to the producer without reducing sales and marketing efforts.

In addition, most farmers would only gain a few customers through these websites, it was said.

Julia Seiller is considering starting a local food co-op. She said it would be “fantastic” if something was created to help local producers get their products to consumers, eliminating the need for them to manage their websites and market their products themselves.

Marketing as a solo farmer takes a lot of time, say newer farmers Adam and Apryl Mawby of Souris, who operate Gardendwellers Farm & Ranch, which grows culinary herbs, garlic, lamb and chicken.

Developing local markets is not too difficult, says Adam. However, gaining greater recognition and generating orders from more distant regions is a challenge.

The Mawbys have toyed with the idea of ​​increasing their social media presence by becoming more influential, but with work on the farm and children to care for, that idea often falls by the wayside.

Home-made food laws also affect them, at least as far as the herbal and herbal tea section of their business is concerned. Consumers can view what they offer on their website, but the Mawbys are not allowed to sell these products online.

“We actually have to give you the product,” Apryl said.

Ann Olson, who works as a small-farm navigator for Strengthen ND, said the local food producer movement can be attractive to those interested in life on a farm or in the country, but in the current climate, people need to be active entrepreneurs if they want to move beyond hobby living.

“If you or your farmers market don't have a social media presence, it can be very difficult for people to learn about your existence beyond word of mouth,” Olson said.

In addition to these systemic hurdles, other community-level challenges can also affect the success or failure of young farmers. These may include a lack of affordable housing and childcare, as well as the decline of other nearby services as people retire and there are no young people to fill the vacuum.

There are many opportunities in these challenges, said Larson, if they are recognized.

“I look around this town and see that the owner of the appliance dealership is about to retire. Who is going to take on that role?” Larson wondered. “Do the young kids in high school know that this is a great career opportunity?”

Larson reiterated the list of potential “great” opportunities, mentioning engineering, bars, restaurants and other businesses where she knows the owner wants to retire, but few of which are willing to take over.

“Who's going to fill those roles and what's it going to look like for my generation to farm here if we don't have those people?” Larson asked. “This may be a 10-year problem, but it's a problem now because you have to get those people in the right places.”