Published: August 3, 2026 Last Updated: August 3, 2026
Micro-farming is one of the most important concepts needed for anyone between the ages of 16 to 30 to understand. Why? It is one of the keys to hedge against rising food inflation. In this article, I’ll discuss why I believe micro-farming is the way to food security, my concern about the lack of educational materials, and give you a 3 step plan that you can use to advocate with your school, community leaders, church, or local government administrator.
What is Micro-farming
Micro-farming is the practice of intensive, high-yield food production on small plots of land. This plot of land is normally less than 1 acre. Micro-farming is currently experiencing a resurgence because of food security concerns and the desire for self-sufficiency, and people are a little be desperate facing pressure from every side. Growing something for some people is a final act of standing up against the oppression converging on them from all sides. Food insecurityFood Insecurity Food insecurity is a sanitized way to describe the risk of hunger or starvation. It refers to household-level economic and social condition represented by limited or uncertain access to adequate food. It is not necessarily synonymous with hunger, although hunger can be an outcome of food insecurity. is a threat against Canadians, Americans, and many other people around the world.
Lack of Resources
There is a shockingly large gap in learning resources for youth in the micro-farming area. Often the few sparse resources that are available are fragmented, too technical, localized, or just fail to provide a framework that teaches the youth to think of food systems as essential for the next generation. Teaching micro-farming requires expertise in biology, economics, and logistics. Integrating these into a digestible format requires a model that few people possess. There’s also no standardized “Ag-literacy” curriculum that moves a student from soil health to a Profit & Loss (P&L) statement. Consequently many organizations view micro-farming as a leisure activity, not a legitimate economic engine. This educational resource shortage is a national-wide epidemic that no one is talking about because we have the big-box retailers supplying food across the country. As long as groceries have food, no one thinks of the precarious food and hunger situation, they and their neighbours are in.
My Own Children
When my own children were small, my wife and I wanted to get to familiar with nature and plants, and especially gardening. We started a tiny backyard gardenhome garden A designated area around a residential property where individuals cultivate plants, fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants for personal use. It comprises a farming system that combines physical, social, and economic functions on the area of land around a family home, providing a sustainable source of food and other benefits for the household, extended family, and friends. when Caleb was only 3 years old. He would often walk out to see if the tomatoes or cucumbers grew yet. Later on Elisha would get into gardening the year he grew his first cherry tomato plant from seed in a garden bed we made for him. There aren’t may books geared toward teaching a 6 to 9 year old how to grow tomatoes or peppers or squashes. As the parent, I had to source the learning materials for myself, read and learn it, then make it age appropriate for them when they were small kids. That’s how the knowledge got transferred but busy parents can barely find the time to do what I did.
FreshFood4Life Resource
My wife and I had the idea for Freshfood4life.com as a resource to help others know about growing fresh foods. When we talked about the issue, we encouraged people to start where they are and learn to grow something. Now that the boys are older, they are in charge of the freshfood4life website and YouTube learning resource channel. They produce dozens of videos on there that are short, to the point, and very instructive for youths and adults. When Elisha was growing his first tomato plant, it would have been nice if I could have watched that YouTube video with him. Today, parents can watch the videos Elisha and Caleb made and teach their children about gardening and they can learn something too. Freshfood4life is easily an essential resource for micro-farming.
Advocacy and Awareness
Now is the time to raise the alarm not in 10 or 20 years. Actually, it should have been raised about 10 years ago but people can be slow when they don’t see a problem. My wife and I saw this problem back in 2014 when we looked at the Just-In-Time food system that has taken over our communities. Here’s how you have to raise awareness of the growing food insecurity issue.
- Start An Email Campaign: Every community has key stakeholders who need to hear about these concerns. You have the mayor’s office, the city council, the school board, the school principal, the church leaders, the librarians, and greenhouse and nursery owners. These people are key stakeholders who can become champions for the cause of helping the youth of today become micro-farmers of tomorrow. However, they can be very busy so it is important to be direct in your emails and offer solutions to the problems.
- Put Flyers Around Your Neighbourhood: Sometimes communities of normal people working together is the biggest motivator for others to get involved. Put up flyers around your community encouraging folks to take in interest in micro-farming. In today’s language that might mean posting a notice on your social media, tik-tok, or Meta friend group. Get the word spread around in your community and get people to start something.
- Educate the Youth Around You: It is essential that the youth have enough educational resources to help them understand various aspects of gardening and micro-farming. Ask the librarians to keep digital or print copies of the books on hand for reference. Ask the school to get a copy. Point those folks to the Freshfood4life YouTube channel where there a dozens and dozens of videos on gardening. This can be an introduction to you as all the videos are simple and easy to understand.
Closing: There is a saying that goes, ‘the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time to plant a tree is now.’ This is exactly the centiment when speaking of teaching our youth about the important of growing food and micro-farming. Otherwise us old folks risk running into world where our children and grandchildren don’t know how to grow food to feed the nation or feed us individually. Start doing your part today. Check out the free materials linked below.
