All in The Family

Jack Payne, Contributor

Steve Singleton spent Father’s Day last year mending what Mother Nature had done the day before. Rain had washed out an acre of sweet potatoes he and his sons had planted. So, father and sons got to work replanting, special day or not. They put baby plants back in the ground by hand. One by one. Thirteen thousand of them.

It’s here, on the Singleton and Sons Farm, an hour southwest of Jacksonville, Florida, where a chapter in the bigger story of farming’s future is unfolding.

The average age of a farmer in the U.S. is 58, and Singleton is 50. He shares his peers’ anxiety about the future--specifically, what happens to the land once he can no longer work it?

“It’s taken me a lifetime to build up what I have here,” Singleton explains. “When I pass, this is my legacy--my land and my sons’. I hope the economics will allow my sons to make this their land.”

A farmer’s sons and daughters grow up witnessing firsthand how the weather can undo their work and how changes in consumer tastes and preferences can discount the value of their product.

Singleton’s youngest children, Lane, 15, and Brett, 12, are actively working on the farm to ensure that it passes from “Singleton” to “Sons.” But, he hasn’t yet figured out how to diversify his crops as a buffer to those market forces. At the same time, it’s becoming much more tempting to cash out and sell the farm to developers as new roads, such as the First Coast Expressway, shrink the commuting distance to Jacksonville.

But, change means risk. Singleton doesn’t know how to grow sweet potatoes. The Irish chipping potato has long been king in the community of Palatka, in Putnam County. He grows 700 acres, and the entire crop is contracted, 85% of it with Frito-Lay.

A new crop means new management practices, planting schedules, manpower needs and equipment.

HELPFUL HAND

David Dinkins and Wendy Mussoline think a lot about the farm’s future, too. They are Extension agents for the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). Part of their job is to introduce farmers to alternative crops to diversify their farms and make them more resilient to change.

Mussoline arrived in Putnam County last year as a blank slate with no scientific agenda. But, Putnam County Farm to School coordinator Todd Crowley contacted her early and said he wanted to put Putnam County produce on the plates of school kids.

Dinkins and Mussoline were already interested in the sweet potato as a possible alternative to the potatoes grown in the area for generations. When Mussoline came to him looking for a farmer to feed students, Dinkins gave her Singleton’s name with the idea that a sustainable farm-to-school program should incorporate farm kids growing food for their peers.

Then Mussoline got to work. She knew a sweet potato breeder in South Carolina, Janice Bohac, who had a new purple-flesh sweet potato. Mussoline arranged to meet her halfway, just over the Florida-Georgia border, and transported enough slips to sow 2 acres on the Singleton farm.

Mussoline and Dinkins recruited UF/IFAS farm staff from the nearby regional Extension center, and together with the Singletons, they tilled and fumigated 2 acres for Singleton’s sons, who have already incorporated as L and B Farm. Then, they helped Brett, Lane and Steve put the plants in the ground the first time.

What Extension agents and other public scientists do is sell innovation, in this case, a new crop. But, innovation is a tricky thing. Consumers see only the successes--new foods, tastier versions of old favorites. Farmers see all the risk and pay the price of all the failures.

MANAGING RISK

“We’re in the risk-management business,” Mussoline says. “As the public R&D [research and development] arm of Florida’s second-largest industry (behind tourism), it’s our job to absorb the failures that are bound to come with trying something new. In the end, though, a single big success outweighs all the small setbacks, and the payoff goes to our farmers and consumers.”

IFAS scientists see great potential producing sweet potatoes in the Hastings area, if they can be grown on a commercial scale. It’s too soon to know. But, it takes scientists and growers, working side by side, to figure out what’s possible. In special cases like Singleton’s, that can mean Extension employees tilling, planting, fertilizing and lending a hand in other ways.

They even helped Lane and Brett sell their crop before it was planted. Mussoline and Dinkins called Crowley in the school’s office, who came out to the farm with a proposition: He’d buy all the sweet potatoes the boys could produce and put them on the plates of children in the 17 Putnam County public schools.

“I see Lane and Brett as ambassadors. I hope that when the harvest comes in, they will visit our schools. They will be the first farmers some of our kids have ever met,” Crowley explains. “And, we’ll be adding nutritious food to thousands of school lunches.”

Crowley and the boys are already planning school visits to conduct taste tests of their product and to give students the chance to meet a farmer. The schools will feature Lane and Brett in a display as the Putnam County Schools’ farmers of the month.

The sons’ experience has given their father hope that what he has built in the last three decades will stay in the family.

The sons’ foray into sweet potatoes represents one of the first instances where Singleton has totally turned over control of a piece of the family land to the boys. If it’s successful, he’ll give the boys more acres and grow more sweet potatoes.

That could be the beginning of a path toward passing along the entire operation to the “Sons” so “Singleton” can retire.

Lane and Brett will continue experimenting to see if they can grow sweet potatoes commercially. It’s part of their plan to someday take over the farm from Dad.

NEXT GENERATION

Singleton has been farming hundreds of acres of potatoes for more than 30 years. It’s in his blood. His grandfather was a sharecropper, and his parents founded Singleton and Sons Farms.

In 20 years, Lane and Brett will probably have to run things differently than Dad did. Demand has decreased for chipping potatoes grown in the South in recent years as Americans eat fewer potato chips, and the Midwest chip supply is more abundant because of its longer shelf life.

“Dad’s been a great teacher, but he’s the first to admit he doesn’t know that much about sweet potatoes,” Lane says. “Some of this Brett and I are going to have to figure out on our own. Dad and Dr. Mussoline and Mr. Crowley are giving us that chance.”

Innovations such as alternative crops offer possibilities for future prosperity. It’s a way that father and sons can preserve a family tradition by adapting to the times.

The family farm is Singleton’s legacy. Although it was a day driven by adversity, he spent Father’s Day doing exactly what he wanted to be doing--working alongside his sons to make the most of their land.

Editor’s Note: Jack Payne is the University of Florida’s senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, and leader of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

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