Mission
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 Plan
New Entry's current Strategic Plan (2021-2024) is our roadmap for the goals and objectives we aim to achieve as an organization. We are currently in the process of defining our strategic goals for the next five years (2025-2030). Visit our Strategic Planning page to review our current organizational goals and aspirations for how we are moving toward the future. We welcome input, feedback, constructive criticism, and support from our farmers, partners, and collaborators to hold us accountable to our goals and to continually look to the future to achieve the world we want to create.
History
In 1998, New Entry was launched by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in order 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. The initiative was developed as a broad partnership and since its inception, New Entry has fostered collaborative partnerships with farm organizations, community groups and academic institutions to expand our capacity to address a broad range of issues related to beginning farming. New Entry has expanded its programs over the years to a point where 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.
As a result of over two decades of work, lives have changed as people connect to the land and produce culturally preferred food important to their communities and their health; more 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.
Over the past two+ decades, New Entry has continually expanded our training and technical assistance programs to include classroom, hands-on, and distance learning educational opportunities in both vegetable and livestock production. We have 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 have engaged communities across Massachusetts in assessing and making farmland available to new producers. We have coordinated 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.
To learn more, view our video.
Annual Reports
Problem Statement
A new era is clearly emerging with strong interest by small-scale beginning farmers in Massachusetts. The 2022 Census of Agriculture shows 2,585 farms run by new and beginning producers (less than 10 years 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, local restaurants and grocery stores, and at farmstands. Demand for farm-grown, local produce continues as farm-to-school and farm-to-institution programs are also sourcing food locally.
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 continue to provide high-quality programs and services, increase capacity to address regional food systems issues, and share our work with national and international audiences while we navigates our way through an ever evolving agricultural climate.
Structure
The Agriculture, Food, and Environment (AFE) Program of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University initiated New Entry, and the project 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 AFE 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
