Shopping at the Davis Farmers Market is a classic Saturday morning activity for Davis locals and visitors alike. Showcasing freshly picked, vibrant fruits and vegetables, local farmers line up stalls to market their produce to the community and connect with consumers. These farmers come from small farms, the topic of the recent Savor lecture, hosted by the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine, titled “Sustaining Small Farms.”

“Sustaining Small Farms” featured three experts on the topic of small farms: Paul Muller, co-owner of Full Belly Farm in Capay Valley, Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, the Small Farms and Specialty Crops Advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Fresno and Tulare Counties, and David Mancera, the Director of Ecosystem Building at Kitchen Table Advisors.

Muller, Dahlquist-Willard, and Mancera all participated in an engaging and candid conversation regarding the benefits of small farms to their communities, the risks they face today, and the efforts needed to preserve small farms.

Muller recounted how the United States “started as a country of small farmers,” emphasizing that small farms are “a part of our social fabric.” Small farms provide a cornucopia of benefits to their communities, including ecological diversity, economic diversity, innovation (for example, organic agriculture started with small farms), transparency and education (by enabling people to visit and see where and how their food is produced), deeper connections to communities, and strong relationships between farmers and farm workers. Mancera, who transitioned from working in large to small agriculture, witnessed these benefits firsthand, adding that better farmer relationships with farm workers breed flexibility for workers, allowing them to work more accommodating hours to tend to their families and their lives outside of work.

Despite these benefits, obstacles like climate change, water laws, and farming regulations disproportionally impact small farms. They often face issues navigating the time-consuming red tape of compliance with regulatory programs, marketing themselves and competing with the prices of large-scale farms, affording insurance to minimize their risks, and figuring out how to tend to their crops given decreasing water allocations. These obstacles impact large farms less because of more employees and access to financial resources to navigate these situations.

In contrast to large farms, to maintain their livelihood, farmers at small farms often need to prioritize their plants over paperwork. They may want to follow all rules and regulations, but the speakers noted it is hard for small farms to always do the right thing at their scale. These obstacles also include achieving certifications, such as for organic farming and food safety. While the speakers noted that these are great programs, they are hardest for small farmers to access, whether it be because of limited time and resources, a lack of social capital to help them navigate everything, a language barrier, education, confidence, or a combination of all of the above.

As a Davis Farmers Market shopper, I was disappointed to hear of the challenges that small farms face, and I want to help. So, what can we as consumers do to help sustain small farms? We can shop at our local farmers markets to buy directly from small farms. The speakers recommend asking what the small farm needs and how we can best support them. And when shopping at the grocery store, the panelists recommend striking up a conversation with the store’s produce manager to ask which small farms the store supports. With these small acts—especially if done collectively throughout communities—we can help small farms sustain themselves and truly thrive.

To watch the video recording and find a list of nonprofits to support that help small farms, visit the Savor website.

Kendal Koorenny is a current master’s student in the viticulture and enology program at UC Davis. She adores food, wine, and science and writing about it all! When she is not in class or working, you can find Kendal reading a book, crafting a new cocktail recipe, or spending time with her kitten.