Fall 2025
Agritourism

The Natural Farmer

Domes at Northstar Farm, NY.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

By Liza Gabriel

Most people don’t farm, and most have little or no connection to a farm, to how food is grown, or to how land is cared for. The absence of these connections has consequences both practical and spiritual. Practically, when people are alienated from the means of their survival, they can become blithe or even callous about this most necessary occupation. Spiritually, that lack of connection takes its toll – in anxiety, in inchoate longing, in feeling unsettled.

There are numerous ways a farm can host visitors to foster both practical and spiritual connection, and make some money in the process. In this issue, we explore what agritourism can offer farmers, as well as customers, and ask whether and when it is the right choice.

Agritourism was a $4.5 billion industry in the US in 2022, and is expected to nearly double that by 2030. Today, agritourism includes everything from festivals, lodging, kids' camps, and workshops to cider tastings, petting animals, and weddings. Since less than 5% of farms in the Northeast are currently involved in it, and most of us are within a few hours of urban centers and easily accessible, the agritourism potential for Northeast farmers is limited only by one's creativity (and wallet).

Agritourism also offers farmers more than income potential. While farming is the perfect job to feed our need for autonomy - for those who prefer cows to people, who can handle long stretches of solitary labor, and being their own boss - it is often less ideal for feeling connected to people.

As you’ll read within, the common theme of every article is “connection”. For farmers like Andrea Parent-Tippet (p20), agritourism has enabled her to “grow something more than crops — connection”. Liberation Farm uses agritourism as a means to uplift Black culture and healing (p24). For Jenn Colby (p26), who is “way better with people than [she is] with animals”, it gave her the chance to do what she does best.

Of equal importance, agritourism provides an opportunity for visitors to connect with nature (the most commonly stated ‘reason for travel’ among our lodging guests), to slow down long enough to feel and listen (to themselves and their surroundings), to do something out of the ordinary, and to learn something new about their relationship with the earth.

But do tourists on a farm actually connect? Agritourism raises many questions, such as whether it dilutes and distracts from farming, makes communities less safe, and raises costs for everybody (many more dilemmas are outlined in this issue). A recent article about the decline of Massachusetts u-pick farms states that millennial wanna-be farmers-for-a-day bring strollers and trash, demand bathrooms and entertainment, and have made hosting unsustainable for small farms to manage. Is agritourism more than getting that Instagrammable selfie?

As with most things, agritourism is a maelstrom of truths, and much of it is about how we approach it. Simply speaking, if you don’t want to be bothered answering questions, cleaning up after other people on your farm, or sacrificing some of your pasture for parking, don’t start an agritourism venture. However, few things are so simple. What Justin Kramm says feels particularly poignant to me: “Farming is not just the cultivation of crops, but of connection. Of meaning. Of memory. Agritourism… is not a distraction from the land — it’s a defense of it” (p6).

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