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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] A Farm, by any Other Name...
  • Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:11:53 -0600


A Farm, by any Other Name...
Editorial from the Sep/Oct 2005 issue of Small Farm Today® magazine.

I recently attended the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company Garden Show in
Mansfield, Missouri. One of the vendors was selling bedding plants for
fall gardens and serving herb tea; he also sold tea bags, which make his
herbs a year-round business, He does this on one acre, with half an acre
open and a small greenhouse. So is he a vegetable grower, a greenhouse
manager, a small farmer, an agri-preneur, or all of the above? He is
halfway to his goal, as his small acreage provides half his net income.

Another couple at the show raises garlic and herbs, and buys organic
produce—tomatoes, peppers, etc.—from other growers for resale.
Are they farmers or brokers? A banker who spoke at the National Small
Farm Trade Show & Conference raised 20 acres of pumpkins in a
subdivision on rented ground. Was he a banker, a farmer, or an
agripreneur?

Elliot Coleman of national fame grossed $100,000 on 1.5 acres of
greenhouses and netted $25,000. This disappointed him, so he furnished
some seed money for two guys to build prototypes of tools to improve the
efficiency of his work force—him, his wife, a farm manger, and two
hired part-time hands at $9/hour. With more efficiency, he thinks he can
gross $150,000 and have a bigger net income with the same labor. Is
Elliot a market gardener, an author (he has written several books), a
machinist and tool inventor, or all of the above?

The best farmers have always been known for being creative and
inventive, but some of the ideas here use farming as a base or "leg
up" into other businesses and markets.

In Missouri, the rural population has grown by 13%, while the city
population grew by 8%. Missouri is second only to Texas in the number of
farms.

"The significance is that Missouri farms are as much or more places
to live as they are places to make a living," explains Daryl Hobbs,
an Extension senior associate with the University of Missouri's
Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis. "Computers and online
jobs make the economy more diverse than ever, which means people are
less restricted in where they live and work."

Women are greatly changing agriculture. In the 1999 Census of Ag
Economics and Land Ownership, women owned and rented 5% more land than
men on all the farms in the U.S. In Vermont Farm Women, by Janet Majure,
it is stated that women are the largest and fastest growing group buying
small farms: "In ten years, 75% of the American farmland will be
owned by women."

Retired farmers number 290,000; these are people who are continuing
farming after retirement or people in their 50s and 60s entering
agriculture as beginning farmers.

Community Supported Agriculture, local production, direct marketing to
the consumer via farm sales or farmersÕ markets, and farmers becoming
food processors are just a part of the many changes taking place today.
Our readers may consider themselves small farmers, family farmers,
gardeners, market gardeners, hobby farmers, truck farmers, part-time
farmers, homesteaders, ranchers, retired farmers, agripreneurs,
entrepreneurs, businesspeople, marketers, sellers, or landholders. A
rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but may not be recognized by
another name—we want our title to reflect the changing face of
American agriculture and to be recognizable by those doing the changing.

All of the changes in agriculture have prompted us to add to our
name—Small Farm Today—to more clearly represent our changing
agriculture. The addition—Town & Country Landholder—recognizes
the many small places right on the edge of or just outside town, like
the people I mentioned earlier. Many of these landholders farm, but do
not consider themselves farmers. For example, food processing jams and
jellies is an add-on value opportunity, but it is totally foreign to
conventional farmers. We want to acknowledge everyone that does all the
"farming stuff" and yet may not consider themselves farmers.

Times are changing and we want to keep up with the changes so we can
continue to present the best of both the old and the new.

Happy & Profitable Farming (or Gardening or Landholding or...),

Ron Macher
Publisher/Farmer






  • [Livingontheland] A Farm, by any Other Name..., TradingPostPaul, 07/07/2007

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