Education and Training

Programs and courses for education and training in agriculture or horticulture

• Agriculture Education Programs
• Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association
• Sustainable Farming Internships and Apprenticeships

Agriculture Education Programs

• CASFS (UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems)
• Santa Rosa Jr. College – Sustainable Agriculture Program
• College of the Redwoods – Sustainable Agriculture Program
• Cal Poly – Agricultural Program
• UC Davis – Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

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Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association

The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association generates opportunities for farm workers and limited-resource, aspiring farmers to grow and sell crops from two organic farms in Monterey County, CA.

ALBA can provide both comprehensive small farm training and our farm incubator environment with 150 acres on two farms. Currently its under cultivation by 24 farmer-tenants. We work with both beginning and established small farmers in our region.

ALBA will include the veteran’s training opportunity in promotions for our 6-month Small Farmer Education Program, which starts in late October. We also welcome Farm Not Arms, Veteran’s Village and Not This Time Vets to promote our program and of course the whole collaboration to potential participants. You are correct in your FNA, ALBA, FarmLink suggestion – it can work.

Our classes take place near Salinas on Thursday evenings (with light dinner featuring seasonal vegetables) and Saturay mornings, total 7 hours/week. Historically our instruction has been conducted in Spanish, and we are very close to making it bi-lingual. More than half was bi-lingual last year.

We interview prospective participants in a needs-based and competitive selection process. The course fee schedule is being renewed – likely with a sliding scale from $1500-$150 based on income/dependents (payable by installment). We are accredited by Hartnell College so it seems we can leverage veteran’s educational benefits toward tuition and fees at the community college.

Upon successful completion of the course, students can acccess 1/2 acre for the first year at 20% of the acreage’s market lease rate. Acreage growth is as feasible, and lease rates step-up annually for 5 years to 80% of market. We will likely have more acres available over the next few years. Irrigation and equipment are available on a fee basis.

Throughout the process, we provide more training and technical assistance and work with Californa FarmLink and other local/regional orgs to establish FarmLink IDAs and help farmers gain access to land.

Contact ALBA at the following locations:
Rural Development Center, Salinas (ALBA Headquarters)
(831) 758-1469
(831) 758-3665 fax

Farm Training Research Center at the Triple M Ranch, Watsonville
(831) 786-8760
(831) 786-8766 fax

ALBA Organics
Fresh Produce Sales & CSA Delivery
(831) 758-5958
(831) 758-5315 fax

Staff E-Mails:
Meet our Staff – you may contact ALBA staff members by e-mail by using addresses as such:
<firstname>@albafarmers.org

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 6264
Salinas, California 93912

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Sustainable Farming Internships and Apprenticeships

The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service provides this guide to opportunities on a state-by-state basis, using a map to helpwith the search. “This directory of on-the-job learning opportunities in sustainable and organic agriculture in the U.S. (and some in Canada) has been published since 1989 as a tool to help farmers and apprentices connect with each other. The listed farms are primarily seeking interns/apprentices from North America.”

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