Small-scale agriculture, including small farms, backyard gardens and family ranches have been making a comeback in recent years. Regulatory issues at the state and local levels and changing demographics are pushing back at the increased interest in local food and the back-to-the-land green movement.Craig and Kellie McHugh sold A Joyful Noise Farm they owned in Black Forest in 2014. On the 10-acre farm, they raised livestock and vegetables on 8,000 square feet. The McHughs are now working on creating what they call ìtiny farmsî in vacant infill land within the city of Colorado Springs and unincorporated El Paso County. The farms would include a solar greenhouse, mobile chicken coops and barns made out of discarded shipping containers.Many of the regulatory decision-makers in the county and city are having a problem fitting the novel Tiny Farms into the existing zoning and land use framework, despite saying they support the concept.More public support is needed.ìIt’s a great idea in the wrong place,î McHugh said. ìThe trucks keep coming, and food is still reasonably priced. It’s not a high priority for folks right now. Some days I feel like Don Quixote.îMany Southern Colorado residents are starting to grow their own food, expanding beyond backyard herb and tomato gardens to chickens for eggs, goats for milk and bees for honey. Beekeeping has dramatically increased in the last several years, according to Pikes Peak Beekeepers.Eastern El Paso County small-scale ranchers and hobby farmers are dependent on pollinators, including honeybees, especially if they are growing alfalfa and clover for grazing animals. ìWe have plenty of people out here in the eastern part of the county who both keep bees and also have bees on other peoples’ properties,î said Mike Halby, secretary of Pikes Peak Beekeepers.The urban farming and homesteading movement combined with people learning about the importance of pollinators to the food system have led to many people placing hives on their properties. ìWhen I started keeping bees in 1999, the association at that time had 30 or 40 members,î Halby said. ìThis year, we broke 300. All the publicity about colony collapse disorder ñ- while it was very hard on the bee population ó really generated a very strong interest in getting into beekeeping.îAccording to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average age of a farmer in America is 57. The number of farmers under the age of 25 decreased by 20 percent in the last five years. New beekeepers attending the Pikes Peak Beekeepers’ yearly two-day beekeeping school tend to match that demographic. ìMiddle aged to older tends to be the majority, and maybe 60 (percent) to 40 female,î Halby said. ìYoung folks are leaving the farm, so to speak.î Programs like 4-H and Future Farmers of America are helping by giving younger families with school age children the chance to learn from older, more experienced farmers and ranchers.Pikes Peak Beekeepers members speak to 4-H and FFA groups about keeping bees and incorporating beekeeping into small farms and ranches that many young people could someday manage.Keeping young people interested in beekeeping secures the future of the honey pot, along with the success of tiny farms. ìSeventy-percent of people who go through bee schools are no longer keeping bees two years later,î said Steve Hench, a beekeeper and member of Pikes Peak Beekeepers. ìThe younger people who are ‘green’ are the ones that are going to save beekeeping and bees. And they just don’t have a clue what’s involved, and even after they go through our class, they still don’t have a clue.ìIt’s a recognized problem that the beekeeping and farming community is aging and that’s one of the challenges.î
