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  • From: Bill Shoemaker <wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] a research project is born
  • Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 07:19:01 -0500 (CDT)

Kathryn

I think you raise legitimate points and it is frustrating to watch as the
farm industry seems to be changing in disturbing ways. As someone who works
for a land-grant institution, I can tell you that in our institution, we have
an undergraduate student population of well over 20K students, yet it is
almost a surprise if we have 1 student enroll whose goal is to be a farmer.
Illinois is a major ag producing state, the UI is a leading ag University and
we struggle to find students who want to farm. We have many students who come
from farms, but few, if any, want to be farmers. I believe the average age of
farmers in Illinois is higher than the national average, approaching 60. The
percent of acreage actually owned by farmers is only about 38% (out of 28M
acres of farmland, mol). The cost to capitalize the farm is higher than ever,
the standard of living is about the same. The size of operating farms with
full-time farmers is going up. Too many farmers need jobs off the farms t!
o !
subsidize their farms. I heard from a farmer the other day of a "competitor"
for leased land that wants to farm 50K acres, the size of some counties in
this state. The risk/reward ratio just gets more and more skewed. I know
corn/soybean farmers are making good money right now with corn at about
$5.00/bushel and soybeans at about $12.50/bushel. But they are going to need
those prices to stay afloat, as suppliers raise their prices for fuel,
fertilizer, pesticides, equipment, etc. If prices, which are historically
high, drop very much, many of them could be in desperate straits, a familiar
refrain.

Bottom line, most young people who grow up on farms don't see how they can
survive the risk and farm like their parents. And they may not know how to
farm any other way. Its become a very narrow discipline the way it is
practiced now. The Universities are not training folks to farm new ways,
because no students will register for such classes. And student registration
drives policy at Universities.

I'm not saying I'm supportive of our current situation. I don't like it. I
just don't know how we're going to change it except by grass-roots movement,
such as what this list represents. The folks back on campus don't understand
this change, and probably don't respect it much. But I think it represents a
potential new aspect of agriculture, especially as consumers discover quality
in locally grown product. As the locally-grown movement gains momentum, I'm
finding people are coming from diverse backgrounds to participate, some
young, some not-so-young. Once in a while, one comes from a traditional farm
background.

Bill

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 03:00:32 -0400 (EDT)
>From: KAKerby AT aol.com
>Subject: [Market-farming] a research project is born
>To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
>
> By some magical arrangement of the stars, a research
> project may have been born today. I had just the
> right pieces of info come across my desk, in just
> the right order, to raise some set of flags in my
> brain, that said "we need to talk about this in more
> depth, and if no one is talking about it, someone
> should." Dunno how and when and where it'll make
> its appearance, but it was just too compelling an
> idea to leave me alone (as such worthy notions often
> start). Given that you all undoubtedly have
> experience with at least some, if not all, of these
> aspects, I wanted to share and to ask for more
> information. Here's the list of juxtaposed
> scenarios:
>
> Item A: piece in Tilth Producers Association
> newsletter (regional sustainable ag group) about a
> young guy in a nearby ag school who likes what he's
> learning, is excited about the future, and looking
> for stuff to make his educational experience even
> better, not only for him but as an ongoing project
> for the institution he's attending, and he can't
> wait to get started
>
> Item B: email I received toady, about a young guy
> in a nearby ag school who is bored out of his skull,
> his teachers are either still wet behind the ears
> and don't know any more than he does, or part of the
> old boys club and as such are more interested in
> swapping stories about the good ol' days than
> teaching, and where the only job that students can
> get (before and while spending all that tuition) is
> fixing farm equipment, and the only job that
> graduates can get (after spending all that
> tuition) is fixing farm equipment
>
> Item C: another email which pointed out (again) that
> the average age of farmers is 57 and by gosh we need
> to get more young people into this dicey art called
> ag and what are we going to do to accomplish that
>
> Item D: another email which pointed out (again) that
> our nation's food security is abysmal, most farmers
> don't know how bad it is, most consumers don't know
> how bad it is, most regulators and government
> officials don't know how bad it is, and it won't fix
> itself. So we'd best get busy and right now, to
> salvage what little security we have and harness the
> great potential we have and try to build something
> worth having in the future.
>
> Item E: frequent concerns (OK, let's be honest and
> call them complaints) about the quality of
> person coming out of these places of higher
> education: what they know vs what they think they
> know vs what they need to know, to be worthwhile
> farm employees or, gasp, competent farm owners and
> managers in their own right.
>
> I found those five pieces of information not merely
> related but dependent upon each other, in ways that
> I've only heard peripherally talked about. Now I
> know someone has GOT to be talking about how all
> these fit together. But I haven't seen it yet. So
> my first task is to find out if anyone has written
> anything discussing all these aspects together and
> how they relate to each other. If there really
> truly is no conversation yet about these topics,
> then by gosh and by golly there oughta be. So, the
> hunt begins for more information.
>
> I know that some of you are already working within a
> university system (and so far you're safe; none of
> the schools I've ever seen mentioned on this list
> were the two schools named above). But these same
> questions must be coming up everywhere. If any of
> you already know of research, articles or statistics
> along these lines (ie, 98% of kids graduating from
> University of Old Dullards get jobs fixing combines
> for $23K/yr), let me know. No sense reinventing the
> wheel. And any info along these lines would be good
> to share. But I think it's time to start sharing
> them and talking about them in relation to each
> other.
>
> Gloves are off now; maybe I'm being melodramatic but
> this strikes me as one of the most crucial questions
> we can be asking right now. If our universities are
> only doing a spotty job, or a uniformly dismal job,
> of teaching the next generation what's really at
> stake, why tolerate a status quo that ain't
> working? Or perhaps those efforts are already
> underway, and I personally just haven't seen or
> heard about it yet. In which case, we should spread
> the word. So, whatever your opinions of the above,
> please share. I think everyone should be talking
> about this.
> Kathryn Kerby
> frogchorusfarm.com
> Snohomish, WA
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William H Shoemaker, UI-Crop Sciences
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
St Charles Horticulture Research Center
535 Randall Road St Charles, IL 60174
630-584-7254; FAX-584-4610




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