Stephanie's Education Costs

Hello and Welcome!

My name is Stephanie Peace and my grandparents are organic farmers, at least they were.  They were in Paducah, Kentucky and met in the strawberry patch and were farming from very young ages.  So it has been a part of my family history for many, many generations.  Even though I was surrounded by it as a child, I didn't find it to be my passion till 2009, after I had been laid off from my job in market research.  I was living on 3 acres in Colorado.  I had to leave town for a funeral for my grandmother and when I came back, there were all these goats and chickens on the property.  I asked my boyfriend at the time if he got a rental agreement, and he didn't.  I thought, I am going to end up doing all of the work with these animals, and that is exactly what happened.  But in that process, I fell in love with it, and I felt closer to my grandmother.  This was extremely important to me during that time; it was a severe loss when she died.  So I was able to become renewed and somewhat happier during that time and found my passion. I created a composting bin, a garden, grew some vegetables that year, built fences, a chicken coop, and a barn.  I just wanted that to be my career, and since I had just been laid off, it was a good time to start something new.

Since that time, I took a Grow Your Farm course from the University of Missouri Extension agency.  Through that class I was able to learn exactly what about farming it was that I enjoy and what values are important to me. Those values are being a great mother to my autistic son and to find a career in sustainable agriculture that will make him happy as well as me.  This video is taken at EarthDance Farm.  This place is also a part of my transformation into agriculture and was an apprentice at EarthDance Organic Farm School in Ferguson, MO for 2012.  I learned all about how to grow organic vegetables, and actually realized I do have a green thumb.  I can grow the things that I need to help my family succeed and keep them healthy.

So I am turning to you, my community to request $4,000 to help me to take an Organic Inspector Certification Course through the International Organic Inspectors Association, so that I can become an Organic Inspector.  That job is a position that helps other farms, both all over the country and the world, to become certified that proves that they have adhered to stringent guidelines set by the National Organic Program in the United States.  I learned all about those guidelines during my time at EarthDance and realized that is a career that I can get behind and get excited about. This can also help me be in touch with other farms as well as help me create a better one for myself.

Organic farming is important not only to our communities but to the planet as a whole.  We have been destroying it left and right, for more than 50 years with too many chemicals.  Herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides, are not found just on the outside of the food, but within as well. Those chemicals cause changes in our bodies. They give use allergies and cause disease.  We don't need that in our lives.  We need to take a step back and look through our history and find a way to take care of our land and to be able to grow in ways that were perfectly normal to everyone on the planet at one time.  There was good reason for that. It worked. We can use cover cropping, rotational cropping, companion planting, natural pest deterrents, and we can use Organic Certification because then we KNOW without a doubt , those products, that food, has been grown without all of those terrible chemicals.

Becoming an Organic Inspector is a good idea for me because I have a special needs child at home that needs to stay in the city in the school district he is currently in, so it is harder for me to try and go to the country and actually have a farming career.  I am choosing a crowdfunding campaign because I had already tried to obtain a scholarship through the IOIA last fall. I was just not a recipient.  There were just too many applicants for too few scholarships available.  Since this is not a traditional college, I am unable to obtain a student loan.  Since the last year of my life has been spent as an AmeriCorps Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA), my pay was very low, and so have not been able to save up the funds needed for the course.  Additionally, my contract for service has ended, and therefore, I am unable to apply for a standard loan. Therefore, I am asking all of you to please help me to raise the $4,000 that I will need to be able to take this course and make it back home and secure a job for myself.

Thank you to Laura Caldie for creating this fantastic video.  Thank you to all of my family and friends who have supported me these last few years in my farming endeavors.  Finally thank you to University of Missouri Extension office,  EarthDance Organic Farm School, and Tipsy Sheep Farm for the wonderful education you have given me.