FARMpreneurs is a week-long, in person, residential  intensive program that brings entrepreneurial education to farmers of (and transitioning to) regenerative, sustainable, organic, climate smart practice.
We have condensed a Berkeley-level graduate school of entrepreneurial education and mentorship for farmers practicing and transitioning to Climate Smart Agriculture into one week.  This course is an intensive retreat in how to make climate smart farming better business. This is not a course teaching you how or what to farm. This is a course that works with the issues and ideas you bring to the table to help solve for better financial strategy, connect you to resources and  do better business for and with the planet. 

We are bringing you off farm to work with peers and a network of industry experts that help navigate to better, more sustainable  business models  grounded in social, community and environmental wellbeing. Through this  course alumni report feeling “validated”, “instilled with confidence” to take necessary risk, “connect to peers and the larger farming community” and infused with a “spirit of boldness'  in a dedicated space where they can really focus and accomplish more than they can imagine in the dedicated time. 

We aim to cocreate pathways where  business and community and ecology can thrive. We are investing in farmers because they are our best investment in the planet.

The FARMpreneurs Strategic Sprint Guides Farmers to:

• Develop a strategic plan to create and capture value from your farm

• Articulate a clear long-term vision with concrete steps to successfully achieve it

• Practice and integrate key principles of mission-driven, values-centered entrepreneurship

• Engage in peer learning and collaboration with inspiring FARMpreneurs alumni 

• Learn proven collaboration methods that build and foster robust partnerships that mitigate risks and support sustainability 

• Explore meaningful models of farmer-led food hub collaborations

• Identify unmet needs in a region's farming ecosystem, and identify how to create long-term value from those business opportunities

• Review and analyze product/market fit and distribution- know what to stop doing

• Develop and implement an organizational plan to grow your team and its capacity

• Design a charismatic, financially-viable business plan to attract and engage stakeholders: employees, partners, landowners, community leaders, lenders, investors

• Present your plan to our panel of accomplished farmers, investors and food system experts who will give valuable, constructive feedback and networking opportunities 

• Continue beyond the January sprint, with monthly peer-learning cohort conversations and mentorship and continuation course opportunities

Northern California
January 5–10, 2025

Washington
January 19–25, 2025

Coming Mid-2025
Central California
New York
Tennessee

Applicants must:

• be 21 years of age

• 3-10 years Farm Leadership Experience

• 50K + in annual revenue 

• Owner or co-owner of a farm or farm related project

• Deal primarily with growing food, wine or spirits for humans in soil

• Engage in or be transitioning to Climate Positive Farming Practices that build and protect soil and aim to enhance the wellbeing of people, community and planet through soil care, acreage transition, wildland management  

Applicants must also:

• Embody a growth mindset

• Be competent in basic financial literacy skills

• Have constraints of capital, land, connections and confidence

• Are prepared to engage in an intensive entrepreneurial program providing training and leadership development

• Are committed to mandatory attendance to days of in person sessions and two of the three preparatory zoom meetings

• Are committed to filling out mandatory follow up surveys immediately upon completion of the program and an annual survey 5 years post-program

Will Rosenzweig and his team facilitate the curriculum alongside national and regional experts in the field. Topics include mission vision and values alignment, entrepreneurial mindset, communication strategy, ecosystem cultivation, team growth and management, market assessment, value creation and human centered design. Each of these topics is applied with mentorship to the individual issues and goals of our participants. There is nothing general about this work. You work on your project in real time, applying the entrepreneurial skill set to the growth you want to achieve. 

Peer integration is key to this formative experience. As alumni of this course you will stay connected on our virtual platform to continue to share experiences and cross pollinate ideas.

You will be given a playbook to capture your progress and bring your plans back to implement on your farm. Over the course of the week you will create a business plan. In the final days of the course you will make a brief presentation of this plan to a panel of experts that are positioned to help you move forward on your goals. In an effort to maximize impact and the number of farms that we reach through this program, we ask that no more than one participant from a particular farm apply. Throughout the program, we make a conscious effort to support participants in sharing their learning with their business partners and teams during and after the program. On completion of the program you will have created a strategic  business plan to share with your farming team.

Curriculum focus varies in each region. Examples of focus topics may include:

• Institutional Relationships with: Education K-12 , University, Hospitals and Prisons 

• Regional Food Hub Cooperatives

• Show me the money

• Financial Literacy

• Diversified farm enterprise

• Different forms of capital and risk

• Grant Funding cycles

• What do you have to have in place to succeed

This fellowship is generously funded by both individual and foundational support and comes at no cost to farmers. Farmers must cover the cost and logistics of their travel to and from the host farm or retreat center. The true cost of this program is 5K per farmer. We are raising scholarships and working towards honorariums for all farmer participants. We know investment in your local farmers has a direct, exponential community, planetary and personal health impact. An investment that our diversified network of funders benefit from directly. Investing in the growth and success of your farmers ensures regional food security, access to nutrient dense, diverse and delicious fresh foods available in your favorite restaurants, farmers and other local markets. Many of our alumni have gone onto create nationally distributed CPG brands that are as sustainable for the planet as they are for their lives.  FARMprenurs focuses on how Climate Smart Agriculture is better business and builds capacity for farmers to increase their ability to contribute to the social wellbeing of their regions and the world.