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  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] a research project is born
  • Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 03:00:32 -0400 (EDT)

By some magical arrangement of the stars, a research project may have been born today.  I had just the right pieces of info come across my desk, in just the right order, to raise some set of flags in my brain, that said "we need to talk about this in more depth, and if no one is talking about it, someone should."  Dunno how and when and where it'll make its appearance, but it was just too compelling an idea to leave me alone (as such worthy notions often start).  Given that you all undoubtedly have experience with at least some, if not all, of these aspects, I wanted to share and to ask for more information.  Here's the list of juxtaposed scenarios:
 
Item A: piece in Tilth Producers Association newsletter (regional sustainable ag group) about a young guy in a nearby ag school who likes what he's learning, is excited about the future, and looking for stuff to make his educational experience even better, not only for him but as an ongoing project for the institution he's attending, and he can't wait to get started
 
Item B: email I received toady, about a young guy in a nearby ag school who is bored out of his skull, his teachers are either still wet behind the ears and don't know any more than he does, or part of the old boys club and as such are more interested in swapping stories about the good ol' days than teaching, and where the only job that students can get (before and while spending all that tuition) is fixing farm equipment, and the only job that graduates can get (after spending all that tuition) is fixing farm equipment
 
Item C: another email which pointed out (again) that the average age of farmers is 57 and by gosh we need to get more young people into this dicey art called ag and what are we going to do to accomplish that
 
Item D: another email which pointed out (again) that our nation's food security is abysmal, most farmers don't know how bad it is, most consumers don't know how bad it is, most regulators and government officials don't know how bad it is, and it won't fix itself.  So we'd best get busy and right now, to salvage what little security we have and harness the great potential we have and try to build something worth having in the future.
 
Item E: frequent concerns (OK, let's be honest and call them complaints) about the quality of person coming out of these places of higher education: what they know vs what they think they know vs what they need to know, to be worthwhile farm employees or, gasp, competent farm owners and managers in their own right. 
 
I found those five pieces of information not merely related but dependent upon each other, in ways that I've only heard peripherally talked about.  Now I know someone has GOT to be talking about how all these fit together.  But I haven't seen it yet.  So my first task is to find out if anyone has written anything discussing all these aspects together and how they relate to each other.  If there really truly is no conversation yet about these topics, then by gosh and by golly there oughta be.  So, the hunt begins for more information. 
 
I know that some of you are already working within a university system (and so far you're safe; none of the schools I've ever seen mentioned on this list were the two schools named above).  But these same questions must be coming up everywhere.  If any of you already know of research, articles or statistics along these lines (ie, 98% of kids graduating from University of Old Dullards get jobs fixing combines for $23K/yr), let me know.  No sense reinventing the wheel.  And any info along these lines would be good to share.  But I think it's time to start sharing them and talking about them in relation to each other.
 
Gloves are off now; maybe I'm being melodramatic but this strikes me as one of the most crucial questions we can be asking right now.  If our universities are only doing a spotty job, or a uniformly dismal job, of teaching the next generation what's really at stake, why tolerate a status quo that ain't working?  Or perhaps those efforts are already underway, and I personally just haven't seen or heard about it yet.  In which case, we should spread the word.  So, whatever your opinions of the above, please share.  I think everyone should be talking about this.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA



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