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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Joel Salatin advocates a better way to raise food

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Joel Salatin advocates a better way to raise food
  • Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:18:22 -0700


I should have guessed you'd know him ;-) this business of gotta get bigger is
a pet peeve of mine. I work alone and supply two busy farmers markets all
season, at 66 and not in the best shape. But by growing intelligently with
good markets nearby, millions of younger folks could make a modest living or
supplement another's income - all without "getting bigger and bigger". For
those with the determination and small growing space to do it, that would
make a real dent in unemployment.

For decades they've bragged about how much labor modern equipment replaces,
how much one farmer can produce. Well, the chickens have come home to roost.
They can't start farming today without at least a half million dollars up
front - land & equipment - and nobody's lending. If I can supplement my
income on a shoestring and 1/4 acre with a dry climate and short season,
surely a lot of others can do better.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 12/28/2009 at 12:35 PM Harvey Ussery wrote:

>Thanks for posting this, Paul. Joel is a longtime friend and mentor of
>mine, and I'm more in awe all the time of the enormous contribution he
>is making to changing "how the world is used" through agriculture.
>
>I have a lot of respect for Jo Robinson and her work as well, but she
>has it all wrong in her comment:
>
>> “His model is not scalable in terms of getting bigger and bigger.
>> That defeats what he’s doing,” Ms. Robinson says. “It can be
>> multiplied – there can be many people that do what he does. There are
>> people who are scaling up so that they can sell to restaurant chains
>> and Whole Foods, and he’s not a part of that.”
>
>Supplying Whole Foods should *not* be our criterion of agricultural
>success. Especially in a time when everybody knows that there is a
>*jobs* crisis in this country--one which threatens the foundations of
>the economy--it is precisely the multiplication of farmers like Joel,
>serving local markets and operating at too small a scale to supply mass
>vendors, that could provide massive new employment and revitalize the
>economy (and the rural community, and the environment, and social
>justice. . . .)
>
>~Harvey
>
>--
>Harvey in northern Virginia
>www.themodernhomestead.us
>
>How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.
>~Wendell Berry
>
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