SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass. - At Chestnut Hill Farm in Southborough, one of the last working farms in the town, 29 year-old Erin Espinosa is an outlier - the average age of a farmer in the United States is 57.

“I think there's a trend of farmers starting this work and then realizing it's not very financially feasible, and it's also hard on the body,” Espinosa said. “You have to sacrifice a lot in your life to respond to the needs of the land.”

Ten years into her career, Espinosa has been able to stay afloat financially by living with her parents for a few years after college and doing grant writing for a nonprofit. Now a field crop manager for Chestnut Hill Farm, Espinosa said the trials she faced early in her farming career aren’t unique - many farmers of her generation can’t count on field work alone to make a living.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., met with Espinosa on Wednesday as part of his annual farm tour, and said the only way to bring more young farmers like her into the fold is by paying them a livable wage and providing the benefits they deserve.

“Farmers work awfully hard,” McGovern said. “And the financial reward for all their work is, quite frankly, minimal. They can't afford to lose a season of growing or be adversely impacted by climate change or natural disasters. What we learned this morning and what we've learned when we were touring farms in western Massachusetts is that farmers need our help.”

As McGovern put it, “Food is life, and we can’t take it for granted.”

A good example of the vital role small farms like Chestnut Hill play in the community came when Espinosa recently got a call from a farmer, who said 70 immigrant families who relocated to the area needed cooked meals and fresh vegetables.

“I got that call at 1 p.m. on Monday, and within an hour I was able to make sure that we had hundreds of pounds of food going out into the community, feeding those families that need it,” Espinosa said. “We were only able to do that because we already had these relationships built, and we're small enough that logistics can happen really fast.”

As lawmakers in Washington negotiate the 2023 Farm Bill, McGovern wants to focus on strategies to get more young farmers like Espinosa out in the field, ensuring farms like Chestnut Hill can continue to pick up the phone for their communities.

“I think for too long, we've taken our farms and our farmers for granted,” McGovern said. “We have to change that, and what's exciting about talking to some of the new farmers that I'm meeting is they get it. They understand the importance of being good stewards of the land.”

After his visit at Chestnut Hill Farm, McGovern also stopped by Long Life Farm in Upton, Outpost Farm in Ashton and Whittier Farms in Sutton.