Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

But with so many out of work and safety nets falling, how do people pay more 
for food? In other words how do you get from here to there? Will fossil fuels 
get too expensive for industrial farming and trucking 1500 miles? How can we 
cut our growing costs to make food affordable and still make a living? Isn't 
this the #1 challenge of our time? What is more basic than food? As a market 
grower myself I've worked on this issue and don't have all the answers.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Economics of Organic Farming
  Published on Sunday, May 9, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
by Olga Bonfiglio
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/09-3

Growing local organic food may be the best path toward economic recovery.  It 
may also be key to building stronger and healthier communities.

"Our [struggling] economy is making a compelling case that we shift toward 
more local food," said Ken Meter of the Crossroads Resource Center in 
Minneapolis.  "The current system fails on all counts and it's very efficient 
at taking wealth out of our communities."

Meter spoke at the annual conference of the Midwest Organic & Sustainable 
Education Service (MOSES) held recently in La Crosse, Wisc.

The bank bailouts have stabilized the crisis but they haven't addressed 
wealth in local communities, he said.  It's likely that change may come 
through food because it is the third largest household expense (12.4 percent 
or $6,133) and $1 trillion nationally.  The average consumer spends $49,638 
per year with housing the largest expense (34 percent or $16,900), 
transportation number three (17.6 percent or $8,753) and insurance number 
four (10.8 percent or $5,336) 
(http://www.visualeconomics.com/how-the-average-us-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/).

"Everyone needs to eat and a local food economy forces us to think 
differently," said Meter.

Meter shared figures from his study of southwestern Wisconsin where 106,000 
residents earn a total income of $2.7 billion.  However, 30 percent of the 
people live below the poverty line.  Out of 6,804 farms, 586 farmers sell 
less than $10,000 per year while 11 percent sell more than $100,000.  Only 
382 farms sell directly to consumers and 133 farms are organic.  Such 
disparities result in lop-sided and unfair policies that need to be changed 
to meet everyone's needs, Meter pointed out.

The past 40 years have seen rising sales and new markets for farm products, 
he said, but the expense of running these operations is mounting faster than 
the income.  In fact, there has been a steady decline in income every year 
since 1969 except during the OPEC crisis in 1973-74.  That's the year former 
Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz ramped up production and sold wheat to the 
Soviet Union.

However, overproduction eventually led to the farm credit crisis in the1980s, 
which resulted in much pain over family farm foreclosures including over 913 
farmer suicides in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and 
Montana 
(http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/14/us/farmer-suicide-rate-swells-in-1980-s-study-says.html).
  For example, since 1969, farmers in southwestern Wisconsin made $166 
million less despite the fact that they doubled their productivity.  
Meanwhile, they spent $429 million more equipment and chemical inputs.

"A community-based system of agriculture is all about relationships," said 
Meter who predicts that "over time, communities will choose organic 
food...because they know the farmer is taking care of the land."

Meter believes that in general, community-based organic farms make four major 
contributions:  good health and nutrition for the population; a fair 
distribution of wealth among farmers; connections between people since food 
is so central to American and ethnic cultures; and the capacity for farmers, 
not corporations, to decide what foods to produce.

Government subsidies keep the industrial food system afloat because farmers 
are paid to produce below cost, said Meter.  In southwestern Wisconsin, it 
took $434 million to raise $404 million in produce per year.  Subsidies 
amounted to $21 million, which left a $10 million loss.  Farmers made up this 
loss in off-farm income (89 percent of farm family income), renting out land, 
and other money-making ventures.  Since 2002, 53 percent of farmers reported 
losses after subsidies, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

"This is not a healthy farm economy especially since $135 million in food is 
purchased outside the region," said Meter.  "We need to cut down that $135 
million by sourcing food locally."

As it is, the national average of buying local is only .8 percent and the 
effect is insidious.  Wisconsin made $2 billion less on its farm products 
than it did in 1969.  In 2009, it made the same income-adjusted for 
inflation-as it did in 1932.

"This is a startling reality the general public is not thinking about because 
it is so far removed from farms," said Meter.  "These are losses in the 
breadbasket of America!  This is not a lucrative way to farm."

Meter believes that if buyers commit themselves to invest in organic and 
locally-grown agricultural products, farm income would change.  However, 
people would have to understand how such a strategy would benefit them and 
their community at the same time.  It would require a sense of community or 
ownership over a place where people were unified on the basis of trust, 
mutuality, and support and not just a shared geography.

For example, if people in southwestern Wisconsin bought just 25 percent of 
their food from local sources, all production costs would be offset and 
create $33 million in new farm income.

"It is not a trivial thing to source food through local people," said Meter.  
"That helps fund communities and their schools."

Meter cited several examples where farmers have been able to invest in local 
and organic production AND make a difference in their communities.

Organic Valley started out in 1988 with $0 in sales and last year it made 
$532 million.

"This is a stellar example of a farmers cooperative where the price is fair 
and farmers work to make it good for all" said Meter.  "It is strong, 
sensible thinking."

Black Hawk, Iowa, created 475 new jobs in fruits and vegetables totaling $6.3 
million in income for the community.

Will Allen started out with earthworm compost and has reduced Milwaukee's 
cost of garbage dumping significantly.

A factory shut down in Viroqua, Wisc. and moved its operations to another 
state.  City leaders confronted the company and asked what it would do for 
the community.  In response, the company ended up selling its 100,000 square 
foot building, which allowed the city to create a regional food processing 
center, a fitness center, a bakery and cafeteria.  The building is now 96 
percent occupied.

In Eau Claire, Wisc., farmers, the hospital food service, distributors, and 
truckers teamed up to create the Food Buyers Co-op.

In Burlington, Vermont, a bakery-to-school program was developed where 2,000 
extra artisan loaves were sold for $4 with $2 going to the bakery and $2 
going to the school.  It created a new profit margin for the bakery.

Such arrangements break down self-interest motives to help move everyone in 
the community forward, said Meter.

In Northfield, Minn., Home on the Range Poultry created a Latino/Anglo 
cooperative on quarter-acre sites where they raise chickens.  There are 30 to 
40 sites and the company owns its own processing center.

"The food systems of the future will also involve rethinking our habits of 
getting our food cheaply," concluded Meter.  "Such change can build wealth in 
our communities."