My name is Brita Barton. My family owns and runs A Better Way Produce and Nursery in Santa Rosa, California. Our family has been in agriculture for 3 generations. My kids are the 4th generation, and they were born and raised on this farm. They are farm kids with a strong sense of responsibility to the community and the environment. Fierce lovers of nature.

We have a long-term lease on an 8-acre property. We have been here for 11 years. We have invested all our savings and current income into this place.

We produce sustainably grown vegetables and landscape plants and have an open-to-the-public nursery. The dream has always been to build a themed botanical garden using native plants that will be a habitat for pollinators.

We sub-lease a portion of the land to a certified organic farmer who sells produce to local stores.

The nursery and farm has survived through fires, droughts, debts, floods, illnesses and injuries. It has been physically and financially hard but rewarding in so many other ways.

We're at a difficult point of change here now. My parents are needing to retire due to serious health issues, stress over mounting debt in their advancing age and are looking to me to take over. 

I have struggled with my own health after having children but I am getting better and stronger now. This is a lot for me to take on but I am determined.

The farm and nursery need substantial infrastructure repairs, developments and equipment upgrades. 

We have several investments we have been working on through the years that have stalled due to covid and the drought such as the water holding pond, rainwater harvest and irrigation improvements, shade structures and a permanent roof for our largest greenhouse, solar power, website development and more. 

We have started moving on them again as those projects are vitally important to the sustainability of the farm. 

We suffered a moderate amount of damage from the recent storms. 

We are behind on rent and struggling with payroll. Even though we have cut our usage dramatically our power bill is unbelievable. My husband has left the farm for outside income. It's hard to ask for help but we don't have any other options. We need help. 

We love our community here in Sonoma County and hope to be able to continue to provide sustainably grown nursery plants, affordable locally grown food and beautiful ecologically important destination gardens in our county. We hope you feel the same way about us.