• This program seeks to support “livelihood farmers and rancher” or those seeking long term careers that financially support them through agriculture.  At this time we are not able to offer funding to farmers who are not currently, or are not working, toward making an income farming through long-term careers in agriculture . ¹
  • Applicant must be the operation owner or plan to start their own operation in 2022.
  • For non-profit farms without “owners” applicant must be the lead farmer/farm manager.
  • Farmer part-owners of cooperative or collective farms are qualified to apply. Please choose just one owner to represent the operation in the application.
• Young farmers and ranchers who are at least 18 and not over 40 years of age as of May 1, 2022.
• Applicant must use farm practices that protect natural resources for future generations.
• Applicant must be farming or ranching in one of the 50 U.S. states, D.C., in Puerto Rico, or in the Virgin Islands.
• There are no preferences for what applicants produce on their operations or for current scale of farm.
• We strongly encourage farmers of color, Indigenous farmers, and farmers who are facing significant structural barriers to accessing other funding opportunities and success in agriculture to apply.
• Staff and Board members of the National dota2(江苏)决赛下载v1.6版 Coalition are not eligible to apply.
• Recipients of the 2020 and 2021 Young Farmer Grants are not eligible to apply.

¹ What does it mean to be a “livelihood farmer/rancher”? This program is designed to support farmers and ranchers who are currently, or are working toward, financially supporting themselves through their agricultural careers. Farmers who own and operate farm operations who  also have off farm jobs to support themselves are still eligible to apply as long as they receive some income from their farms and are seeking to either move to full-time farming or for whom farming is their primary career and off-farm work is supplementary.

At this time we are not able to offer funding through this grant program to farmers/ranchers/gardeners who volunteer their time in the agriculture work they do, or to private self-sufficiency growers that are not otherwise operating as farm operations or serving their local food economies.

• Grant recipients will be required to submit two reports:
  • A progress report between in the summer of 2022 detailing progress toward goals and any potential changes to original plan
  • A final brief written report in October 2022 detailing how the funds were used.
• Grant recipients are required to spend the entirety of their $5,000 grant before their report is due in October 2022.
  • Savings accounts for later use are not an eligible application of these funds.
• Applicants must submit a photo with their application. If the applicant is selected, their name and photo will be included in a public announcement of grant recipients on youngfarmers.org and on the Chipotle and the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation websites.
• The National dota2(江苏)决赛下载v1.6版 Coalition, Chipotle, and the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation will work with some grant recipients to share their stories nationally through their communications channels. Grant recipients have the option to opt out of this coverage.
• Please note that this grant is taxable income.

This application is designed to guide you through a narrative arc, telling us first about your operation as it is now, then about your longer-term goals. Then, the questions ask you to tell us about the barriers and challenges you face in reaching those goals and how you will use this funding to help you move past or begin to address some of those barriers. Our evaluation criteria are based on how clear a picture you give us of your operation, where this funding will be used, and what kind of difference it will make for you in your long term goals. Successful applications will leave reviewers with a clear understanding of where the grant funds will be used and how that use supports you in your farming career.

Reviewers will be considering four main criteria in evaluating applications:

• Contribution to Farmer Goals:
  These funds are designed to help you get closer to achieving your goals in your career as a farmer. A strong application will illustrate how the use of these funds will contribute to the long-term vision you outline in your application. A strong illustration directly links the steps you make with this funding to your options and potential choices down the road in your farm business.
• Addressing Challenges and Barriers to Success:
  Priority of selection will be given to applicants who can illustrate how these funds will be used to address a particular challenge they are facing in moving their business forward and the results or changes they expect to see with this funding. Strong applications will illustrate a cause and effect of what this grant funding would allow them to do for their operations and careers.
• Sustainability:
  One requirement of this grant is that you are making, or intend to make, steps on your operation to preserve and potentially even improve the natural resources of the land you steward for future generations. Your ability to illustrate how you currently implement, or plan to implement, sustainable farming practices and/or ethics will contribute to the strength of your application.
• Financial Need:
  Because a $5,000 grant with few restrictions on its use is such a unique opportunity to meet costs unmet by other funding options, we will prioritize applicants for whom this money will make a significant difference in their financial ability to meet their goals and for those requests for which other funding opportunities are difficult, or impossible to access.

Other Considerations
While there are no regional quotas for this program, we will be looking for a geographically well-distributed cohort of 50 grant recipients.

Note on Language
Though we encourage you to take time and care in writing your application, we will not be evaluating applications by the quality of the prose, but by the content of the proposal. Take advantage of the narrative questions to paint a picture of your operation, your personal and professional goals, and the challenges you face in reaching them. Feel free to write in whatever style or language feels truest and most comfortable to you and to representing your voice in this application.

For applications submitted in Spanish, they will be reviewed first by our Spanish-speaking reviewers in the original language and then will be translated for a final round of review.