Why Your Support Matters to Next-Generation Farmers Like Rudy Jimenez of Green Thumb Farms
December 13, 2024
At a time when family farms are rapidly declining and the average age of a farmer is 58, it’s more important than ever to support the next generation. That’s why Foodwise is dedicated to ensuring that small California farmers can earn a livelihood at our markets, while they steward the land and nourish our Bay Area community. When you support Foodwise, you are cultivating a world where family farms can beat the odds and thrive.
Next-generation farmer Rudy Jimenez of Green Thumb Farms joined Foodwise in 2018. With its diversity of sustainably grown produce, Green Thumb has become a fixture at our Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and Mission Community Market. This year, Rudy and his partner, Maria Gonzalez, expanded the farm’s operations from five to 21 acres, and opened a farm-to-table restaurant in San Juan Bautista. This growth would not have been possible without the steady support of our farmers market community.
Rudy shares his farming journey, and why your support of Foodwise farmers markets and education programs is critical to the success and future of small sustainable farms like his.
From Conventional to Sustainable Farming
I started farming in 2015, after taking a class through ALBA (Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association). Growing up in Salinas, I had lived on a conventional farm with my father until I was 12 years old, where I had experienced the bad practices of industrial agriculture.
My goal was to take the course with my father and bring a journey of awareness, health, and sustainability to our farming, as he had been sick from conventional agriculture. He had all these experiences and values working with the land, and I wanted to create a space where I could spend quality time with him and learn from his farming knowledge.
Where I live, we find a lot of pesticide residues in the playgrounds of the elementary schools around us. That’s why I choose to farm. For me, farming is about making sure that you’re taking care of the land, so that the land will take care of you. It is about changing landscapes away from mass agriculture, and building sustainable values in the land for the health of our communities.
Right now we have five acres in San Juan Bautista, and we just leased another 21 in Watsonville. We are in the process of getting recertified organic.
Farming Through Generations, from Father to Son to Grandson
When my father passed away in 2021, I wanted to let everything go on the farm because I had an attachment with him and the work, and I didn’t feel like I could go forward.
But then my son Rodolfo was born, and it changed my whole momentum and how I look at the work of farming for sustainability. I see many farmers get to a certain age and they don’t have the same inspiration they had when they started. That’s why my goal is to build a good team around me and to focus on education, so that the farm can live on beyond me.
Farming was not something that I wanted to do growing up, but I’m very optimistic to be doing it now. I feel like if I share this space with my son, so he can develop his own skills, he might experience farming as a vehicle for what he wants to do in the future, too.
My partner, Maria, and I met a couple of years ago at a farmers market. She was starting her own vegan business, and I had been vegan since I started my farm. We see a lot of obesity, diabetes, and health issues that impact people of color in our community. I didn’t have access to vegan food in Salinas. I would have to drive 30 minutes to Monterey to get something organic. That’s also why I decided to farm. There’s so much food grown here, but it’s not accessible to the people who are actually growing it.
This year, we opened a farm-to-table restaurant together, called Cultiva. We decided to open a restaurant here at San Juan Bautista because the farm is just five minutes away, and we want to give people the experience of something healthier, using ingredients from the farm.
Building Trust at the Farmers Market
At Green Thumb Farms, we only sell at farmers markets, so that is our direct connection with customers. Participating in Foodwise farmers markets, we are able to connect with people and help them build their health and wellbeing. Going to the Mission Community Market, we’re able to bring certain foods that some of our customers know only from their home country, like chilacayotes. Foodwise creates a space where food is a core value for everybody to connect with.
Foodwise also runs programs like Foodwise Kids and Foodwise Teens to empower young people. It is important for youth to connect with farmers and learn skills to make a healthy meal, so they can see themselves as agents of change in our food system and have options in taking care of their own health.
Your support of Foodwise matters because it makes a difference for every kid that shows up to the market and has the experience of preparing their own food, and then going home to their mom and sharing that experience they had at the farmers market.
Foodwise gives farmers like us a vehicle and space to create value for the health of their community. It is important to us because it helps us build trust with the people at the farmers market who support us, and who know that we’re going to show up for them, rain or shine.
Keep Next-Generation Farms Thriving
Foodwise needs your support to operate our farmers markets for small family farmers like Rudy and Maria, and empower the young people to be the next generation of farmers market supporters. Donate today to keep our Bay Area food and farm community thriving in 2025 and beyond.
Topics: Farmers, New farmers