Why Cultivating the Work Behind Tomorrow’s Farms Is So Important

Recently, I stood in a Charleston, SC, research field with a group of smart and enthusiastic researchers — everyone from graduate students to post-docs to tenured professors — walking through their latest trials. The Clemson team and I moved from beneficial insect habitats to disease-resistance plant breeding plots, to salinity-tolerance tests exploring how production might shift as coastal pressures grow. I left those fields humbled.

So many hours are poured into uncovering a single nugget of knowledge that can be passed on to growers. Months or years of work may end up as a brief bullet in an IPM handout, yet growers can rely on that single line precisely because of the depth behind it.

What I saw in South Carolina mirrors what happens across the private sector each year. Every August, when I visit seed trials on either coast, I’m reminded that breeding progress moves at a pace measured in seasons, not weeks.

It takes years before a single variety meets every box on a breeder’s checklist and is introduced commercially. We all know the phrase “right crop, right place, right time.” These breeders are trying to give growers more options that meet that bar, even as weather swings, new pest pressures, and shifting markets complicate the equation.

But as I’ve watched the research and plant breeding pipeline evolve, I’ve noticed another shift happening in parallel: the rise of new, small farms. Many long-time growers are thinking about retirement. At the same time, hundreds of first-generation growers are stepping in — ambitious, creative, and deeply motivated, but often with limited business experience. Most small businesses fail not because of lack of passion, but because the management decisions required in year two, three, and five look very different from those in year one.

If we want a strong vegetable industry 10 or 20 years from now, supporting these young growers is just as important as the research we celebrate.

What does that support look like? A few ideas rise to the top:
• Business guidance that treats farm management with the same seriousness as crop management.
• Mentorship from experienced growers, including structured peer-learning groups.
• Access to reliable, scale-appropriate technology — tools built for 5-acre farms as much as 500-acre ones.
• More on-ramps to Extension, including programs designed specifically for first-generation farmers.

Breeding breakthroughs move the industry forward. But so will the next generation of growers — if we help them succeed.