The old saw goes that if you want to make a million bucks farming, you should start with two million. That's been the recent fate of Fairview Gardens, the 13-acre farm in Goleta that found itself on "the brink of a financial cliff" and took a "pause" to conserve resources in June. "We simply could not ask the community to continue to support ongoing operations without a long-term plan to reach financial sustainability," the letter at the farm's website reads.
The Board of Directors for the nonprofit, which runs under the name Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, recently announced the return of Michael Ableman, who managed the farm for more than 20 years as the nonprofit's first executive director. Ableman left to start his family's farm near Vancouver in the early 2000s, and Fairview farm had a series of other managers until the board paused the operation. Ableman was invited back recently to help plan Fairview's future.
The problems of drought and climate change are high on his list. "Santa Barbara County's climate issues are significantly higher than anyplace else in the United States," he exclaimed in a phone call on Thursday, clearly excited to tackle the challenges at the farm.