Conservation Generation

“Young farmers” may seem like an oxymoron, but fortunately for all of us there’s a young generation committed to agriculture. On the frontlines of the battle for environmental sustainability in the face of climate change, the four farmers in Spencer MacDonald’s Conservation Generation are as devoted to a vocation that’s equal parts livelihood, lifestyle and sacred cause as they are clear-eyed about the challenges. While the National Young Farmers Coalition, which produced Conservation Generation, represents a broad movement, the focus here is on the specific problem of water scarcity in the arid Southwest. Two of the four are farming in northern New Mexico, and two are farming near Telluride, Colorado.