My self and my partner are also relatively new in farming, and see
this burn out and stress in other farmers all the time, and fear it
for ourselves. I could be wrong, but i personally feel that the more
farmers embrace orthodox capitalist paradigms, the tougher it can be.
and those folks that are working 'alternative' approaches seem to
burnout a little slower! at least....
Our strategy to avoid excessive trauma is to emphasize the community
organizing aspect of our CSA as much as possible, and work all the
time to get member involvement in the work, organizing, etc.
We also conduct PC and sustainability workshops, and this helps a
little financially, (not much) but also keeps us engaged and not
struggling with feelings of isolation etc. far from it . and being
engaged in the local community in this way is a great source of
energy.
we are also very intentional about how we think about growth, scale,
etc, something that we are kind of stuck with, as we use all no-till
beds, so we can only be so big. it remains to be seen if we can
build 'customer' loyalty by emphasizing how our methods are not just
growing healthy food for them and their families, but also sequester
carbon so they can keep driving their prius a little longer
we also work to build 'economic' relationships that are not strictly
based in the dollar economy, and keep this conversation open all of
the time with our members about our desire not to fall simply into
consumer/producer relationships. we do benefit from this, and get a
lot of resources directed our way because of this.
and, we are working on a CLT model for land ownership because
servicing debt and financing land is another big piece of the
individual/ecological/community sutainability equation. we are
making the case that permanently affordable farmland benefits the
entire community, and should be supported by the entire community.
it is scary. we hope a holistic approach will sustain us in the long
run. time will tell.