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  • From: dan conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Trading city life for an East Texas, farm
  • Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:56:53 -0500

I agree with both Mitch and Mark and Paul on this for different reasons. The discussion of the Greer farm is very important. We have a System of systems that has sucked a lot of resources out of the ground and out of humanity for the sake of competitive profit-based thinking. Profit is an important part of farming, but how we measure profit is not just with money. In the case of the Greers, as in my case, the profit is being paid to the soil and the land for the time being. Resources are being extracted from globalization and inserted locally while the global system is failing. Think of it as a salvage operation. There are ways to make a monetary profit, such as Paul has shown, but they don't always work in specific locations.
As much as people need good vegetables, and as much as I have good land to grow them, it is difficult to justify my not raising dairy cattle in a dairy saturated area simply because that is what the infrastructure is set up for here. "When in Rome...." etc.
If profit was the deciding factor, I would have 2000 Holsteins and a boatload of BGH in the fridge.

The Greers probably didn't get much of a 'feel' for the farming they wanted to do from the seminars they attended. They followed the philosophy of 'networking' that has served them well in business. I suspect that they don't know their neighbors as well as they thought they would when they started, and it is slowing them down from making profits. In my area, if you aren't a cousin or brother or sister of someone who lives here, you won't find out what is going on in the local area. No matter how much time you spend down at the feed store or the local store, you still don't get told the things you need to know for your family to be part of the whole community. I've been on this farm for 12 years and would chuck it in a heartbeat for a fraction of the value if it meant a place with some real sense of community purpose. The only thing that this area believes in is Da Green Bay Packers.
The part about re-localization which everyone seems to forget is that your local area might not be a decent place to live when you look beneath the facade of a small town. The local hardware store might be run by a jerk that you never want to do business with. The local church might have snake pits and poisoned kool-aid. The town council might be run by the only guy with a liquor license and who owns the only grocery store.
Don't be hoodwinked by your own idealism. Small towns are as cutthroat as cities, if not worse.

As for what is wrong with their picture, I do have a pet peeve against Agri-tourism. What's next..Manure-tourism? In a world where people have a hard enough time figuring out what is important to the future of the human race, do we really need farming exploited as a novelty item like plastic dog poop from China? If people want to find out what farming is like, they need to be out killing stuff and cleaning up shit, not "gathering eggs and offering treats to the animals".

Dan C.
Belgium, WI
Message: 15
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 07:13:43 -0500
From: Emery Mitchamore <emitch@att.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Trading city life for an East Texas


That's kind of what I expected. Since my own situation is somewhat similar to theirs (though less so), my reaction was that "profit" is not their objective. After a lifetime in conventional business, such a lifestyle has many attractions beyond profit. They are learning, growing, contributing to their community, and building equity in a diversified enterprise. All good things. They may or may not seek to simplify and become more efficient (and profitable), at some point, but I really don't see much "wrong with this picture".

On Apr 19, 2009, at 12:08 AM, mdnagel@verizon.net wrote:

Ten years and they haven't turned a profit? Hit head against wall and repeat...

Tilling, going with "modern" agricultural practices at a small scale!

I'd also state that they are way over diversified. Seems that this clouds them from proper accounting of individual activities.

And attending a lot of seminars and reading books... money would be better spent hiring some knowledgeable people to help them get proper traction. Also, it doesn't sound like they've got a clue about their market: who, what are they serving?


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA





  • Re: [Livingontheland] Trading city life for an East Texas, farm, dan conine, 04/20/2009

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