About this episode

Dana DiPrima interviews first-generation goat farmer Emma Smalley about the challenges and realities of building a farm from scratch in modern America.

Show Notes What does it actually take to become a farmer today if you didn’t grow up on a farm, inherit land, or have a roadmap? In this episode of One Bite is Everything , Dana sits down with first-generation goat farmer Emma Smalley to talk about the reality of building a farm from scratch in modern America. Emma’s path into farming started with a Craigslist ad and an aging goat farmer named Roger who needed help caring for his herd. What followed was mentorship, loss, land searches, commuting hours to support the farm with an off-farm job, and eventually building a goat operation of her own in rural New York. But this conversation goes far beyond goats. It explores the growing crisis around farmland access, succession planning, first-generation farming, and the emotional complexity behind keeping land in agriculture. Emma shares what it feels like to compete with developers for farmland, why so many farms depend on off-farm income to survive, and how isolation has quietly become one of the defining realities of farming today. Dana and Emma also discuss: why land can be “available” but still inaccessible how mentorship shapes new farmers the hidden emotional side of farmland…

People in this episode

Host: Dana DiPrima

Guest: Emma Smalley

Topics covered

• farming
• land access
• mentorship
• first-generation farmers
• emotional complexity
• regenerative practices

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: American Farmland Trust

Places: rural New York

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• The Surprise of What Small Farmers Really Need · May 21, 2026 · 12 min

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