“…The perspectives and politics within beginning farmer program development and training are many, and include issues ranging from fair and equitable access to labor, access to scaleappropriate markets, start-up capital for resilient economic performance, land tenure and farm succession, and support structures and knowledge systems for ecological farming practices (Ahearn & Newton, 2009;Henderson & North, 2011;Parsons, et al, 2010;Thilmany & Sureshwaran, 2011). Despite these mounting challenges, beginning farmers and ranchers are diverse in age, racial, gender, class, and ethnic distinctions, and vary widely in farm scale, scope, and geography (Meyer, et al, 2011).…”