Small Farm Biodiversity Microgrants

The 2022 Grant Application is now closed.

*Applications deadline was Jan. 30, 2022.*

Recognizing the importance of small farms in our community, Slow Food St. Louis has made the Small Farm Biodiversity Microgrant Program a priority. Since 2009 we have awarded more than $87,000 to over 81 farmers, supporting the cultivation of numerous heirloom varieties and heritage breeds.

We are excited to announce that this year, in order to show our solidarity with our richly diverse farming community, we will focus our grants on BIPOC (Black Indigenous People Of Color) farmers. In the past our fundraising events throughout the year funded these grants, allowing us to offer a grant pool from $5,000 – $8,000.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Past Recipients

Past Grant Recipient Testimonials:

FLOURISH

The Slow Food Biodiversity grant allowed us to grow specialty perennial crops and introduce them to the community. It allowed us to purchase supplies, seeds, and plants to increase production of permaculture inspired plants and distribute them throughout the St. Louis region.~Eric & Crystal Stevens | Flourish (Grow Create Inspire)

SUNFLOWER SAVANNAH FARM

Thanks to Slow Food Grants, we have improved our pastures and built up an Endangered Cayuga Duck as well as a St. Croix Sheep flock. The grants have provided eggs, roasting ducks and clean, delicious lamb for the Farmers Market. Last year’s grant helped to improve our pastures to make all of this happen more quickly without the use of Consolidated Feed Lots. It may seem a strange concept that eating an animal and/or using its byproducts contributes to its survival. This, however, is exactly the case. Making people aware of the amazing flavor and sustainability of these disappearing food sources will encourage others to ask for, raise and encourage others to raise them. This is what a Slow Food grant does to perpetuate the continuation of these and other species while helping the Small farmer to be sustainable. ~Sam Wiseman | Sunflower Savannah Farm

GREEN FINNED HIPPY FARM

We currently have our 5 registered sows with a newly registered boar so that this coming spring we will be registering a whole new set of females to grow our breeding stock. Once January rolls around we will be moving our breeding herd into the farrowing stalls that we built last year so that the ladies have a climate controlled area with plenty of access to pasture. We have been building and designing new paddocks to improve our pasture rotation and efficiency. We are looking forward to growing the herd with solid sows so that we can continue to improve the breed’s genetics. We cull pretty hard when deciding whether to keep a pig back for breeding stock to make sure we do not pass on poor genetics to the next generation. Some of the ideas we have for future projects is to establish a nicer weening setup. We have temporary weening pens that serve us well enough, but they are complicated to clean out and they do not have a sufficient way of utilizing solar energy like our hoop house does. I hope to eventually build a weaning pen using this hoop house idea to make a more efficient and practical setup so that the piglets can still have plenty of access to sunlight and warmth, especially during colder months like we have now. We could not have progressed without the help of Slow Food St. Louis! ~Josh and Alicia Davis | Green Finned Hippy Farm

STUART FARM

When we began our search for cattle to raise, we wanted a heritage breed that did well in our climate, provided excellent quality milk and beef on grass only, and could be trained as an oxen. The American Milking Devons were exactly what we were looking for. As the cattle that was brought over with the Pilgrims and later used to travel and settle out west, American Milking Devons were the cattle of choice because of these same qualities. As selective breeding began to make other breeds more productive, the Devons began to fall out of favor and numbers decreased to about 100. Through the Slow Food Microgrants, we have been able to start and grow our herd to 4 breeder cows and 1 bull, that have produced 7 calves since 2013. Three of our heifer calves from 2017 were sold to farms in Missouri to help two farmers start their herds. The summer of 2017, we performed artificial insemination on 5 of our cows to get some new genetics into our herd. While the number of American Milking Devons is now close to 1500, they are still the most endangered domestic livestock breed. With the help of Slow Food St. Louis, we have been able to continue our commitment to preserving and promoting this breed. Know for its excellent flavor and marbling, our first batch of American Milking Devon beef will be ready the summer of 2018. ~Serena and Fred Stuart | Stuart Farm