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  • From: "David Inglis" <mhcsa AT bcn.net>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Scratching My Head/praying
  • Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:51:28 -0500


Rick Williams wrote:

Some here apparently have not
> figured it out yet or have not been doing it long enough to
> be good enough managers to make the higher incomes with
> market farming.
I have found the ones that do, and a have met a number of them, do not
let on to avoid the reverse snobbery and accusations that they were only
able to do so because......
As I have said on this list before it is a big assumption to say that
money is the measure of success on a farm. What is that money for? For
myself I look for a net yield in Quality of Life of which money is only
a part. I am a good enough manager to know that.


I personally do not know any family market
> farms that actually make a good living from family supplied
> labor, although I have heard of them:)
So what.
Do you know any family based, production sector, enterprise that makes
the kind of money you seem to think they should based on family labor?

DAI
> > Or self
> > imposed slavery on the part of the producers resulting in
> hopelessness
> > followed by living off depreciation, divorce and finally bankruptcy
> > and or suicide [ change order to suit ]. In other words the
> > appropriation of personal wealth by the market.
RW
> A bit too depressing for me. People like that should NOT be
> farming. They need to find something else.

It is because they find themselves unable to continue farming, for
whatever reason, that people get that way; they do not start out like
that. I have seen strong men weep on the steps of the county courthouse.
I have described the situation I see all around me but not everywhere.
If you find it "too depressing" perhaps you should not talk to your full
time farming neighbors, because that's who its happening to. I would
suggest you do not share your opinion with them that "people like you
[that] should not be farming"

DAI
> > The net effect is non viable Ag
> > enterprises [ taken on their own ] that set prices for the
> rest of us
> > that are trying to make a living exclusively from food growing. One
> > strategy to respond to this is differentiation of product and/or
> > customer base which is what most on this list spend their
> time doing.
> > I believe this will only work in the short term though. E.
> Pfeiffer[?]
> > was once asked if a BioDynamic Farm could stand on its own
> two feet.
> > He replied that it could anywhere a conventional one would.[
> > paraphrased] Which is to say, sadly, almost nowhere in the American
> > landscape today.[my words ]
RW
> A bit too depressing for me. People like that should NOT be farming.

People like WHAT should not be farming? People who try to make a full
time living at it?

> Why is it that there ARE farmers who make an excellent income
> farming, even in commodity agriculture?
>
> How do you explain that?
Scale: the purchasing power that comes with it and the ability to
externalize expenses.
Six figures does not a healthy Agriculture make.

David A. Inglis
Mahaiwe Harvest C.S.A.






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