Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers

[xchrom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/opinion/sunday/dont-let-your-children-grow-up-to-be-farmers.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0


From left, Josiah Venter, Noah Patrone-Werdiger and Toby Fischer remove rocks at Ro-Jo Farms in Bethany, Conn.

NEW HAVEN — AT a farm-to-table dinner recently, I sat huddled in a corner with some other farmers, out of earshot of the foodies happily eating kale and freshly shucked oysters. We were comparing business models and profit margins, and it quickly became clear that all of us were working in the red.

The dirty secret of the food movement is that the much-celebrated small-scale farmer isn’t making a living. After the tools are put away, we head out to second and third jobs to keep our farms afloat. Ninety-one percent of all farm households rely on multiple sources of income. Health care, paying for our kids’ college, preparing for retirement? Not happening. With the overwhelming majority of American farmers operating at a loss — the median farm income was negative $1,453 in 2012 — farmers can barely keep the chickens fed and the lights on.

Others of us rely almost entirely on Department of Agriculture or foundation grants, not retail sales, to generate farm income. And young farmers, unable to afford land, are increasingly forced into neo-feudal relationships, working the fields of wealthy landowners. Little wonder the median age for farmers and ranchers is now 56.

My experience proves the trend. To make ends meet as a farmer over the last decade, I’ve hustled wooden crafts to tourists on the streets of New York, driven lumber trucks, and worked part time for any nonprofit that could stomach the stink of mud on my boots. Laden with college debt and only intermittently able to afford health care, my partner and I have acquired a favorite pastime in our house: dreaming about having kids. It’s cheaper than the real thing.


***MAKES YOU WONDER HOW WELL YOUR FARMERS MARKET VENDOR IS DOING.

[geardaddy]

1. Family farms are incredibly endangered. n/t

[bhikkhu]

4. As has been the case since 1930 or so

Large scale mechanized farming out-competes small farms easily, as has been the case since the thirties at least. It wouldn't be nice if that weren't so, but then again we do all benefit from less expensive food, and farming has always been some seriously hard work.

[aikoaiko]

2. Farmers are really small businesspersons operating under highly volatile conditions.

I married into a family with roots in south Georgia farming. They do quite well with their couple of thousand acres, but its an amazing lifestyle of predicting markets and weather conditions and constantly reinvesting in technology.

Of course they all work insanely hard, too.

[enough]

3. High end boutique farming, something we're seeing in my area.

snip from the article>

Especially in urban areas, supporting your local farmer may actually mean buying produce from former hedge fund managers or tax lawyers who have quit the rat race to get some dirt under their fingernails. We call it hobby farming, where recreational “farms” are allowed to sell their products at the same farmers’ markets as commercial farms. It’s all about property taxes, not food production. As Forbes magazine suggested to its readers in its 2012 Investment Guide, now is the time to “farm like a billionaire,” because even a small amount of retail sales — as low as $500 a year in New Jersey — allows landowners to harvest more tax breaks than tomatoes.

On top of that, we’re now competing with nonprofit farms. Released from the yoke of profit, farms like Growing Power in Milwaukee and Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., are doing some of the most innovative work in the farming sector, but neither is subject to the iron heel of the free market. Growing Power alone received over $6.8 million in grants over the last five years, and its produce is now available in Walgreens stores. Stone Barns was started with a $30 million grant from David Rockefeller. How’s a young farmer to compete with that?

As one grower told me, “When these nonprofit farms want a new tractor, they ask the board of directors, but we have to go begging to the bank.”

end snip>


Near me there's an absolutely beautiful big gorgeous farm where everything is being done with the best possible management practices, all organic, etc. The guy actually was a hedgefund guy in his former life, and he does not need to make a living. People go there to buy very expensive organic produce and meats, but it's obvious the sales in no way are supporting the farming operation. It's essentially a very beautiful hobby. We're happy he's there, because he's a good neighbor and good steward of the land, but it's not a remotely viable business model for a regular farmer.

[snooper2]

5. This reminds me of a song!

[KurtNYC]

6. Farming has been scaling up for decades

They told farmers in the 1960s to "get big or get out." In the 1970s Earl Butz told farmers to plant "fence row to fence row."

The author of the NYT article dropped out of school at age 14 and fished illegally at night in protected waters. Why is he complaining about "student debt" ? He complains about everything related to small farming but he has been farming for decades.

Small farming is, mostly, either a hobby for those with the money to play, or a 2nd job for those who have the skills to make it work. The foodie movement has romanticized small farming but few of the people who buy "Modern Farmer" magazine would last 2 days on a small farming operation. Farming was the primary use of slave labor and is still a large employer of people who can, through whatever means, be paid less than minimum wage.

So is the author's point that hobby farmers have ruined small farming (for him)? Small farming has not been encouraged by the USDA or the industry in general (gear suppliers, insurance agents, etc) since probably the late 1920s. It is seldom a good way to make money but it is a great hobby and a great way to get excellent produce.

I have been hobby farming for the past 3 years and am now looking to make the jump to commercial farming but I would never quit my day job. A couple of reasons: crop farming is seasonal here, May through September. I don't like to be in the fields in the middle of the day so I harvest at sun up and plant do other care in the evenings. I grow one crop, really well. I am looking to buy the machine that picks the crop because you can't get or keep labor during the season.

While I agree with many of the problems he cites, I don't agree that young people should avoid farming. Bren's business model doesn't work so he tells others not to try it. There are business models that DO work for small farming which include the very entities Bren complains about: hobby farming, billionaires and non-profits, restaurants connected to farm(s). We are entering another phase of the farmers' market and foodie driven craze -- in this next phase we will see fewer small farms that try to grow everything (for their CSA) and more small farms that specialize.

My own version of Bren's article would have a different headline:

Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Small Farmers Without a Workable Business Model (and a day job).