ARC Farm Initiative – ARC Farm (acronym for Agrarian Resource Collaboration) is a collaborative mid-sized four-season farm model with shared land & resources to be located near Portland, Maine as an innovative solution for scaling up year-round local sustainable agriculture to access larger markets and underserved communities, while still preserving the integrity of the small-scale four-season farm model pioneered by my father Eliot Coleman. ARC will offer a new and replicable for-profit farm model for the next generation of farmers who typically struggle to access land and capital when beginning their farming careers. The current model consists of 5 farmers, each managing a 12-acre wedge with a 1/2 acre of year-round high tunnels, 3.5 acres in field crops, & 8-acres in pasture for crop rotation, and all supported by an onsite keystone farm hub with a centralized pack-house, storage facilities, marketing & distribution services. This keystone farm hub will also act as a centralized drop point and storage site for distribution partners to help facilitate easier transport and distribution of product to larger wholesale markets. For the farmers, the benefit of this model is that they would not need a lot of personal capital investment upfront – initially they would be employees of the ARC Farm, growing with the business, and after the business has stabilized, ownership would be transferred to the farmers and management staff. My role is the founder of ARC and I will act as the CCO or Chief Collaborative Officer to direct the startup, implementation, and early operational activities of ARC. The longterm vision is to make ARC a replicable model in order to create a stable farm system that offers more support and financial security for the next generation of farmers. The sum of an ARC Farm is stronger than its individual parts. View Clara’s TEDx talk on the ARC Farm.

For more information on consulting services and speaking engagements, please contact Clara through her Contact page.