Ebby’s Farm: Profile of a Local Food Producer

Mike Iñiguez of Ebby’s Organic Farm prepares to plant seedlings at his leased farm in Goleta. SBCFAN is helping Mike apply for funding and capital, access legal services, and find long-term sustainable farmland – and amplifying his story across multiple media channels to increase awareness of common challenges small farmers face.
Mike and Niloofar have very different backgrounds, coming from Mexico and Iran respectively, and they share a love of farming. Here they laugh about the history of one of Mike's retired tractors.
Mike Iñiguez shares planting techniques with protege Niloofar Borojerdian as they move down the row.
While one farmer lays out seedlings down the rows, another is busy planting them by hand.
The seedlings are brought on site and laid out down each of the rows, before being planted individually by hand.
Farmer Mike Iñiguez efficiently works his way down a row, planing individual parsley seedlings.
Niloofar has been learning the details of managing crops from Mike over the past few years.
Mike Iñiguez inspects different varieties of cherry tomatoes on his Santa Barbara farm. He is careful to avoid pesticides and looks for other, non-toxic, sustainable methods to discourage disease and pests.
Mike Iñiguez shares the story behind an heirloom cherry tomato. Ebby's Farm, Santa Barbara, CA.

SBCFAN partnered with documentary maker Isaac Hernandez of Mercury Press and photographer Andrew Hill of PHAROS Creative to visit Ebby’s Farm and learn more about their challenges. Owner Mike Iñiguez and his protege, Niloofar Borojerdian met with Isaac and Andrew, talked about their work together, sharing a window into their roles as local food producers. The photographs above and the storytelling video here are the results, which helped SBCFAN to raise Mike’s story into the public eye. The resulting exposure and networking helped Mike and wife Lorena find additional resources, capital, and volunteers when they needed them most.

Highlighting local food producers like Mike, Lorena, and Niloofar reveals the challenges small farms face, and helps us all understand why we need to build a more robust food network that can better support them in the future.

THE ENDANGERED FARMER: WHY LAND, WATER, AND LABOR ARE CRITICAL TO PRESERVING REGIONAL FOOD SYSTEMS

AT-A-GLANCE: HOW SBCFAN IS HELPING FARMS LIKE EBBY’S

  • SBCFAN’s extended Network is facilitating access to funding, other forms of capital, legal services, and long-term, sustainable farmland.
  • At a critical time of need, we launched a social media campaign to quickly recruit volunteer harvesters to prevent crop loss.
  • We co-produced a documentary video that shares why land, water, and labor are critical to preserving small farms like Ebby’s — and our entire regional food system.
  • By distributing and amplifying Ebby’s story on multiple media channels, we are increasing awareness about the common challenges facing farmers.
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