2024 Land Stewardship Award Winner Julia Asherman — The Dirt

With all the ambition in the world and the proven ability to work hard and think on her feet, Julia soon learned that owning a farm would require a few more essential skills: using money, keeping books, and knowing how to runn a business. “I think I believed that by farming, I would be living outside the system. I wanted to grow my own food, feel free and independent, and not be tied down. When you’re out in the country, you hardly see anyone, and if you’re on your own land, in the woods, or surrounded by nature, there’s a fleeting sense of liberation. I saw city life as overwhelming and thought that having a farm would remove me from that system. But of course, that wasn’t the reality. If anything, I’ve never been more a part of the system than I am right now.” When asked how she reconciled the reality of farming not meeting her expectations, Julia shared that it was a matter of growing into the reality of choosing to affect the things she can influence, “Rather than doing nothing at all because of beliefs. While there are some things I can change and some decisions I can make, there are also other decisions that I cannot make—either for myself or for society as a whole.”

That system is where farmers meet markets, restaurants and organizations like Georgia Organics, and together create Georgia’s local food network. As a middle Georgia farmer, Julia’s initial exposure to Georgia Organics was through conferences, “Which were amazing and which very much opened my eyes and influence my production and Network.” But her geography proved to be an additional obstacle to farming, as being away from the hubs of food-focused organizations in metro Atlanta left. “But also, I’ve always felt that the good, you know, good food movement and the nonprofits in Georgia have been hyper focused in Atlanta and have often left out rural people and this sort of ties into something I’ve observed since I’ve moved to the South. And since I’ve moved to rural Georgia is just there is a divide between the resources of city folk and the resources of rural folk and how that definitely contributes to some like resentment I’ve felt that as well. Like, I felt that it sometimes seems really unfair that so many things are available to people in just like a five county region, and that if you’re outside of that, you’re just out of luck.”