Our History

In 2010, Peter Gengler and Rick Pace, having been environmental professionals for years pioneering new ways to map and analyze environmental data, were approached to aid a team addressing agricultural pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Encompassing six states from New York to Delaware, the United State’s largest estuary had an agricultural pollution problem.

Draining from the region’s grain farmers and polluting the waterways were high levels of nitrogen and other chemical runoff. In an attempt to reduce nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, Gengler, Pace, and other colleagues formed a small working group and devised a series of on-farm nutrient reduction practices, as well as a nutrient credit system.

The proposed pollution control solutions seemed to be a big win for the health of the watershed, and were approved by both The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). However, the Farm Bureau, which represented the interest of the region’s grain farmers, was not happy with the new restrictions or nutrient credit systems that they feared would adversely affect the regions farm economy.

A seemingly sensible solution to reducing the negative impact of regional pollution failed - even though it addressed the wellbeing and livelihood of the region’s large scale grain farms.

For Gengler and Pace, however, this failure in environmental remediation emphasized inherent and systematic issues within the modern agricultural system and its intersections with the environment. There was a clear need for a total shift in how we manage our land and food production systems to secure the long-term sustainability of American agriculture and landscapes.

To the partners, a new model, focused on small scale agriculture and embracing agro-ecological farming practices, was necessary to ensure the long term health of our waterways, soil, and our food supply. The model would need to employ a strategy that could combine responsible agriculture with environmentally regenerative practices.

In 2013, It became ever clearer to the world that a shift in agricultural production was becoming necessary. That year’s United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Review was published with the self-evident title, “Wake up Before It's Too Late: Make Agriculture Truly Sustainable Now for Food Security In a Changing Climate.”

It soon was accepted among global experts that a new, agro-ecological approach to food production would function well and be a welcome solution to many of the problems with modern agriculture. However, there was still a lack of a viable economy to support this new approach.

A viable, small-scale and agriculturally sustainable production system has still not reached the point of financial or economic viability on a large scale. Though America itself was founded upon mosaics of small-scale farmers, the current state of the agricultural economy is based upon land aggregation and scale, a paradigm that has proven hard to dethrone.

Since 2010, three of the six states (plus DC) that make up the Chesapeake Bay Watershed have implemented or are in the process of implementing state specific nutrient trading programs. However, the EPA continues to see new and increased loadings of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment into the Bay. In terms of regional environmental regulations and farm practices within the Chesapeake Bay area, we are still in much of the same position we were thirteen years ago.

Pace and Gengler were not farmers, but they saw the need for fresh solutions to address the issues of modern agriculture. The idea of the Rhode Island Farm Incubator was created as an approach to a problem, with the goal of creating a replicable and financially viable farm model that is also environmentally regenerative, sustainable, and inventive.

The model for the Rhode Island Farm Incubator and Shewatuck Farm further evolved, informed by discussions with underserved farmers, value-added food producers, USDA, and some regional food advocacy groups. The direction of the model was driven by a series of dissatisfactions with the current conventional production and farming systems. Characterized by high external input, environmental disregard, and underpaid workers, the original partners recognized a need for new solutions that would address the exploitative issues within modern agriculture.

In 2017, The Rhode Island Farm Incubator was incorporated. In the coming years, it would support individuals and research forwarding new and innovative solutions to age old problems in agriculture: solutions that would help feed the world and heal the planet with respect and integrity to everyone involved.

A colleague of the founding partners, Jo Anne Demars at USDA Rural Development was enthusiastic about the project, and advocated for a low interest loan to purchase and develop the property in rural Slocum, Rhode Island.

In 2018, the partners began building the farm team, and approached two experienced farmers to help guide the development of the recently acquired 91 acre property.  David DeFrancesco and Christian Roberge – both of whom shared in the dissatisfactions with conventional farming, were brought on the first year to help develop the property into what would become Shewatuck Farm.

In the first year of operations, it became quickly evident that to run a farm, it does indeed take a village, and the team quickly grew. Charlotte Uwimpuhwe, an experienced grower and Rwandan refugee living in Providence, was brought on to cultivate both African and New England crop varietals. Jesse Coker, who had experience through an African Peace Corp experience, established a specialty mushroom operation on the property’s wooded acres. Jeff Partridge, another experienced farmer, was with Shewatuck Farm for a year evolving his growing ideas for sustenance gardens and micro-farms. Gengler, one of the founding partners, found his stride managing a bee colony deep in the wooded area of the farm.

The first year was not without its challenges. For one, the deer quickly became a nuisance, and Moe, Guy (Senior), and Guy (Junior) were hired and granted a license to hunt on the property at dusk. In late summer of that year, an even bigger setback ensued. Caused by faulty electrical equipment, a fire broke out in the main production building, totaling expensive farm equipment and requiring a total rebuild of the area.

Luckily, the effected buildings were fully insured, and by next season, things were back on track. That next year, production ramped up exponentially. In 2020, the team was introduced to Jo Anna Cassino, an herbalist practicing in Providence. She has become the Incubator and Farm’s Herbalist and is developing a large plot of herb growing and leading new processing operations.

The 2021 season was another year of growth on the production side of Shewatuck Farm. Staring with just friends of the partners, the CSA program nearly doubled its capacity over the course of the season, and the farm team grew accordingly.

Violet Anderson came to the farm after working for four years at another Rhode Island organic farm. Sarra Sundstrom had been working for a local food bank distribution network. Liam Dillon had growing experience from his time spent on a campus farm. Aidan had been operating an indoor cannabis grow.

2017 - 2021

2010 - 2017

2022 and Beyond

As farm operations have evolved – and as more folks have approached us about an educational role with the Farm – the Shewatuck Fellows Program was launched in 2022 to orient, integrate and educate new colleagues.

Today, the Incubator directly supports individuals who are generating regenerative farming systems or responsible food enterprises. By providing the tools and resources that new and underserved producers need to thrive independently, we enable the creation of diverse, equitable, and environmentally knowledgeable food systems and economies. The Incubator currently supports eight Fellows operating across a diverse range of food businesses.

So far, our Fellows have collectively put over 25 acres of land into organic production. Over the next few years, we will support an increasing number of new Fellows developing their own practices, businesses, and project ideas that will enliven the local food economy. 

On average today, farmers earn just 15 cents on every dollar spent on food. In order to revitalize our food economy and create more financially equitable relationships for underserved producers, the Incubator continues to develop new opportunities for individuals, families, and institutions to align a portion of their assets with culturally thoughtful farm and food enterprises/projects in 2023 and beyond.