Over the course of the next year we’ll be following a Georgia farm as it seeks to optimize its farm business practices
Over the past eight months or so, this column has worked through all the different strands of a safety net that farmers can weave for themselves. In the next year, we’re going to dive into how one farm is weaving those strands together and balancing the tradeoffs that every company has to make as they grow. We’ll explain the whole process as they seek to optimize production, market their produce, and analyze their results in order to make even better decisions in 2025.
The farm we will focus on together is called Love Is Love Cooperative Farm (LIL), a worker-owned cooperative and certified organic operation about an hour southeast of Atlanta. It started in 2008 as the work of two landless, first-generation farmers, Joe Reynolds and Judith Winfrey. The farm quickly gained a following and a long-term lease on five acres in Atlanta, where they grew vegetables, strawberries, and muscadines for direct-to-consumer and restaurant sales. In 2018, Joe and Judith joined forces with Monica Ponce, Russell Honderd, and Demetrius Milling. The group started conversations with the Working Farms Fund, and in 2021 they converted to a worker-owned cooperative and moved to 70 acres in Mansfield, Georgia.
This is an incredibly talented group of farmers. Joe has been farming since 2005 and has built a reputation as an amazing mentor for dozens of young farmers
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
