North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Tom Olenio <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hello,

The family farm is alive and well in southwest Ontario.  Most farms dabble in a number of markets, being diversified (field crops, market farming, dairy, beef, pork, chicken).  In this way, when the bottom falls out of any particular market, it is only a portion of the operation and not the whole thing losing money.  Specialize in pigs, and when pork bellies bottom out, you are out of business.

Canada does tend to have agricultural production quotas in some markets (farmers must buy quota - milk, chicken) to protect pricing, and maybe that is why the family farm still thrives there.

The problem is passing the farm on to the next generation, but careful planning can take care of that.

Not all family farming is dying.  Cheer up, the picture is not as black as you think.

Later,
Tom.

Jim F wrote:

     The talk of small farms dying out is not necessarily true unless we speak of 'what type' of small farms are dying.  There are alot of thriving farms but they are different from what many think of as a "farm."     The small family farms that are going extinct are those that produce milk or raise grain.  Those folks who are creative enough to enter alternative agriculture often do quite well and we do not need vast tracts of land to do it - by "vast", I mean anything over ten acres.  One of the most successful small farms that I am familiar with grosses up to $200,000 per year.......................on just ONE acre.  I'm speaking of the well known(?) Kona Kai farm near Oakland, California and all they raise is mesclun (specialty lettuces) and edible flowers.     The Kona Kai has an advantage that we, in Minnesota, do not have.  They can produce crops the whole year around.  My wife and I do not have that advantage, however, we do manage to earn a decent living on 1.4 acres - we are a fruit and berry farm and we direct market our produce raising peaches, apples, plums, a good variety of berries and specialty mushrooms.  Besides fresh fruit, we also sell jams, jellies and syrups, including maple syrup.  For the maple operation, we own the processing plant and tap other people's trees and others tap their trees bringing us the sap to process.     That's us.  I know of others who farm just a few acres raising vegetables to sell at farmers' markets plus a host of others who raise herbs, some do cullinary, others raising medicinal.  I could write a full paragraph about other small family farms that I know of and none of them, zero, raise grain or produce milk.  The family farm is alive and well here in America. Jim FruthPequot Lakes, MN
 

---

Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos - Get your photo on the big screen in Times Square

_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list 
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

To unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

File attachments are NOT stripped by this list
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!

Message archives are here:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex

NAFEX web site:   http://www.nafex.org/

--
Thomas Olenio
Ontario, Canada
Hardiness Zone 5b