Pamela Ronson is a CCOF Future Organic Farmers Grantee.
Pamela Ronson is currently a student in the Practicum of Sustainable Agriculture at Viva Farms in Woodinville, Washington. Upon graduation, she will lease organically-certified farmland over the next few years from the Viva Farms King County Incubator Program, with the eventual goal of owning and operating a small-scale, diversified, organic, cut-flower farm. Pamela envisions stewarding three to five acres of farmland for many uses, including commercial production, permaculture, native perennials, seed saving, and use as a plant nursery and a habitat for wildlife and pollinators.
“My future career goals don’t just relate to organic agriculture, they are organic agriculture! I want dirt under my fingernails twelve months of the year!” – Pamela Ronson
Pamela took a big step toward realizing this dream by purchasing farmland in the Midwest in 2022, as the owner of Seedfolx Farm in Detroit, Michigan. However, in 2025, the land was taken by the City of Detroit via eminent domain, a legal procedure that allows governments to claim private land for public use. “While crushing, this sharpened my farming goals into laser focus. I moved to Washington to join the Viva Farms Incubator Program so I can remain in business, lease land from a trust, and scale up for the next few years, benefiting from subsidized infrastructure costs while saving money for farmland purchase.”
Although she has 15 years of farming experience, enrolling in a formal farmer training program is a new endeavor, and she intends to use the academic knowledge to boost the future farm’s economic productivity. “I want to make a living from farming full-time. I’ve worked so hard, for so long, on someone else’s land; it’s time I work this hard for myself.”
Her plans for the farm are meticulously detailed. “I envision stewarding certified organic farmland that honors environmentally-safe practices and nurtures wildlife habitat. For commercial production, I’m creating a closed-loop fertilizer system that utilizes veganic (organic + vegan) inputs from the local environment by introducing wild, indigenous microorganisms (IMOs) into the farm’s soil food web.”
In addition to growing a thriving organic farm, Ronson plans to enrich the wider community by sharing practices with other farmers and trading techniques to refine methods. “I’ll test experiments with soil inputs and fertilization methods on my organic farm,” Ronson says, “and share what I learn by contributing my results to ag publications, extension agents, soil research groups, and farm mentees. Learning is a collaborative process, and I want to give back to all the people who helped me become a farmer by teaching those interested in farming.”
The CCOF Foundation is proud to support producers like Pamela Ronson with the Future Organic Farmers grant, which provides $5,000 scholarships to college and vocational students training for careers in organic agriculture.
If you would like to contribute to the success of Future Organic Farmers grantees like Pamela Ronson, please contact the CCOF Foundation’s Donor Relations Manager Shawna Rodgers at srodgers@ccof.org to learn more.
