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Last year, 23-year-old Juan Pérez convinced his father to enroll with him in the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association’s (ALBA) Programa Educativa para Pequeños Agricultores (PEPA). PEPA is a practical program that trains aspiring small farmers in sustainable production methods, as well as marketing techniques.

Juan's father, Pablo, had farmed before, growing conventional raspberries and flowers on five acres of leased land in the Central Valley. But Juan wanted to try his hand at organics, and he wanted to do it as a family. “I like to be outside; he likes to be outside,” Juan explains. “I don’t like to be in an office with four walls every day.”

Upon completion of the PEPA program in April, Juan and his father leased a small plot of land from ALBA and named their nascent farm J & P Organics. “We started with one acre, me and him together, and now we’re jumping to two acres,” says Juan. Pablo and his wife, Juan’s mother Florencia, spend most of their time working in the field.

“They like it,” he says. “They like being their own boss.” Besides, Juan adds, he wants “them to feel that [we] are together as a family.”

Juan spends time cultivating and harvesting as well, and he’s responsible for the bulk of their marketing and direct sales. The family grows basil, cucumbers, chard, cilantro, radishes, corn, summer squash, winter squash, beets, and a mélange of other herbs and vegetables. “The biggest challenge for me,” Juan remarks, “was starting up and having so much produce and not being able to sell it. We know how to grow the stuff, but the problem is—who’s going to take it?”

Pérez sells some of his harvest directly to markets and distributors such as Farm Fresh Produce and ALBA in Salinas and Elkhorn Farm and Mercantile in Castroville. He also began the process of forming his own subscription box service, also known as “Community Supported Agriculture” (CSA). Every Friday, Juan delivers as many as 45 boxes to homes in Carmel, Pacific Grove, Watsonville, Seaside, and Salinas. Some members get a box every week, others biweekly, and some just once a month. “I’m flexible,” he explains.

Both Juan and his members value the personal interaction the CSA provides. “I get to meet them—they’re very happy about this produce coming to their door.” Members tell him what they liked best in previous boxes and share how they prepared their produce, and every week Juan tucks a newsletter containing simple recipes as well as a brief farm update into each box. It's different than going to the store, Pérez asserts, where fruits and vegetables “could be imported from who knows where...My customers like that it's grown locally.”

Juan relies primarily on word-of-mouth advertising to promote his CSA program, although he does post information on the California State University Monterey Bay campus. He’s a senior there this year, majoring in Earth Systems Science and Policy with a thematic focus on Science and Social Justice. Slated to graduate in May, Juan anticipates expanding his acreage and applying his educational experience to the practice of sustainable farming. “I've been talking to my parents and the thing is, we want to buy our own farm—I don't know how many acres—and raise chickens, cows, pigs, and have orchards—apple trees, peaches, and pears. I can see that happening in a couple years.”

Attending Terra Madre in October enhanced Juan’s understanding of sustainable agriculture and the greater food community. “It was my first time out of the country,” he says. “I met a lot of people from Spain, from Norway, from Cuba, from Peru, from Brazil, from Africa. It was great to get that experience, talking about other peoples’ culture, what they do, how they farm.” Juan participated in workshops on soil and water conservation, animal husbandry, and marketing. Overall, Juan says, Terra Madre taught him to “appreciate…life, conserve the land. Every year people are taking it away to put cement over it and it’s going to stay there for I don’t know how long.” Juan feels a strong responsibility to “try to protect this land, this environment we’re at.”

“I know I’m not going to do a lot,” he says, “but…it will make a little bit of difference.”

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