Why are so many farmers on PEI going out of business? Why are new farmers not looking to carry on the family torch? Why? Because they are petrified to take on the massive amount of debt that is associated with current modern agricultural practices, and who can blame them? Who wants to be in the pocket of John Deere, Cavindish, and McCains for the rest of their working lives. Under the illusion that these companies have the farmers best interest at heart. In reality, the farmers are being squeezed on all sides. First they must buy petrochemicals, or lifeblood of the farm, at exorbitant rates , then they buy/lease equipment unless it was inherited, and finally they go on to sell to the end product at a mere pittance to a conglomerate who dictates the price of their product. God forbid the price of oil goes up, or many of these farmers are going to be unable to afford their petrochemicals to fertilize and control pests, yet alone run their machines that make large scale monocultures possible. How is anyone supposed to keep up with this impossible situation? That is exactly why so many people are uprooting and unable to carry on the family tradition. It is not because they want to get away from the land, nothing would make most of them prouder than to carry on the family tradition, but the tradition is dying quickly and there are many people who feel trapped or enslaved. They cant just detach from the current system because they are deeply involved in it. The smart ones are trying to slowly gain independence and other revenue streams if it is not too late, but for the most part the only way to make any money is to be the biggest and best, or to carry on another part time job on top of your farming duties. Being the biggest and best is not only an illusion because they will never be as big as global corporations that control the market, but it also creates an environment of mistrust and unhealthy competition that thrives on putting the small guy out of the game. What ever happened to farmers helping farmers?
Alternative Farming
“Organic/ecological/KM 0 food” has been on the rise - isn’t this positive for farmers? Or are the margins still too low? Is it a viable way to compete against the megafarms? What are the pros and cons?
All of those are certainly positive and that is why we strive to follow those methods on our family farm. I think we need to continue to cultivate this attitude and develop new farming traditions. Farmers are having to expand into “megafarms” because the economies of scale make the process profitable. However, the entire system is not as strong as it looks as volatility in the price of oil leads to higher input costs and can have a major impact on the margins that are often razor thin for those who are caught in the middle.
We are currently testing a 10 acre lot using a Sepp Holzer/Dave Jacke inspired design and have been able to keep the doors of the business open for now. The diversity in our system is a pro because it means we have multiple crops to fall back on if one fails - the con is that we are learning as we go and there are not a lot of organic/ecological/km 0 models out there to go on. Many of the organic models are an industrial Ag model, sans oil inputs. Often they use organic inputs that are equally harmful and costly. I believe that in order to compete with megafarms we need a more ecological approach and aside from Sepp Holzer and Mark Sheppard there are not a lot of solid examples to go on. Therefore it is somewhat like a living experiment. We have 200 acres that we are starting to expand into and would like to one day be a “mega” natural farm, but currently I think we need more people to start forging their own path.
And just to clarify, I am not completely anti-industrial Ag. I appreciate all of their efforts and understand their important role in feeding our world. Many Eco warriors demonize them as the root of all evil. They are not villains, they are just doing the best they can under their unique set of circumstances. Mostly I just feel bad seeing many middle class farmers disappearing because they have to go big or go home so to speak. The big players are monopolizing the market and putting the small and medium guys out of the game. This type of consolidation of power is anti-meritocratic. If you are not born into a legacy farm it is quite difficult to break into the industry - not impossible, but certainly difficult.
hello i noticed this post and i was very interested i am very interested in the whole farming things as it is something i think people will need to do in the future to secure the future of the food supply and save us from devolving into a brutal world. what we require is a ruralisation rather than industrialization, we need to people to go back out and work the land to secure the future of the food supply, a system which i have done some research into is permaculture or rather a permanent culture a type of environmental system which tries to use the natural relations of plants to create eco systems which are self sustaining and provide benefits for humans as growers and as a method of re establishing ecosystems, which can enhance bio diversity and create a supply of food for human than can require very little maintenance if designed correctly. as well as this permaculture is an all organic system which can be used to re establish enviroments for animals as well as provide helpful results for humans it works to work with nature rather than against the nature processes of nature. here is an example mentioned in this documentary.
i found this quite an interesting idea, and as food and fuel shortages may become a problem in the future a system that naturally maintenance’s itself would be good in a world where there is a lot of insecurity.
I wholeheartedly agree. We are permaculture practitioners and have learned directly from a world master (Sepp Holzer) who independently invented “permaculture” around the same time as Mollison, Holmgrem, and Fukuoka - like they say nothing is new, everything is a remix! We also took a course with another ecological genius, Dave Jacke, who has written two very succint and informative textbooks that are well worth a read - called Edible Forest Gardens. We use Sepps model because it makes the most sense for our temperate climate and seems to be financially sound. Permaculture is a word we are slightly hesitant to use as it has some negative connotations and zealous associations that can make the hair on traditional farmers necks stand up. We have chosen to use alternative terms (i.e agro-forestry, ecological farming, diversified orchards, etc) in order to subvert mainstream agriculture and to be involved with the PEI Agriculture community as much as possible. Some people, including myself, are turned off by the notion of a utopian commune run by a divine leader and often permaculture has been associated with this type of “hippy-dippy” commune lifestyle. Most communes, probably not all, have proven to be unsuccessful over time, and I think it is important that we start moving towards a more meritocratic business model. For systems to be successful people need to work, have currencies, and exchange goods and services. Unfortunately we cannot get something for nothing even in the permaculture system, which is a concept that is sometimes misunderstood by people who are simply looking to be “lazy farmers.” Thanks for the video and links, I will have a look at those when I get a moment.
i agree with what you said as well i understand what you mean for then need got business otherwise it would make millions redundant, it would be a very good idea to implement permaculture idea where there are food deserts areas where there is a very limited or no access to fresh good food to allow communities to survive and live well by people pulling their resources into a community project which will help everyone. as a system it is much more sustainable and survivable given climate change and changing weather patterns. i do recognize it requires work and in fact i believe that is a good thing it can be low maintenance in some respects depending on how you design it like but we do need more people working on the land. for example in the documentary i put up on the link it says that the average age of farmers in the uk is 60 years, in this case we certainly need more people working the land in a sustainable fashion.
Farming in urban food desserts is starting to pop up all over and I think it is tremendous and I hope it continues to grow. There is a lot of this happening in Detroit where some of the worst effects of a declining economy are being felt in the USA. There are schools emerging that are teaching essential farming skills and permaculture-esque communities with a lot of spirit in some areas. There is a long way to go and I do not know as much about it as I should. I did however meet some very interesting people at the Sepp Holzer course in Montana who were working on building community resiliency. It is really too bad that this type of poverty exists in the USA. Whats worse is that US aristocrats are sending a billion to Ukraine to pay off an overdue Gazprom Invoice while in Detroit they are not willing to pay $260 million to prevent water shut offs to their own citizens. Thats fucked up!
It is scary that farmers are getting older and older while young new farmers are not getting into the game, but who can blame them there is a huge risk associated with it and they are taking on massive loans to operate huge cumbersome business’ that often have razor thin margins. That was the inspiration and intended to be the main thrust of my first post. I think people will start getting back into the game once alternative methods prove to be successful - and I do believe they will be successful since it is simple math that they require less inputs and energy to maintain. It is analogous to trying to row a boat upstream against the current vs. turning the boat around and going with the current downstream. If you design an ecological system well you certainly should be able to look after it with less maintenance. However, working is good for the spirit/soul and gives us a sense of purpose. I think everyone should be working, but only if it something they enjoy doing and if their is no master/slave relationship within the company/director. People seem to perform much better than you think when you you act as the guide on the side vs the sage on the stage. And believe it or not, this requires a lot less energy if you are the director which frees up more time for you to do the things you like! Which is very much like the permaculture farming system - set it up and direct it, then watch it grow and maintain it only when you need to. The farm needs to be a survival of the fittest type of environment where only the strong genetics survive. All trees that require constant propping up and TLC to stay alive do not deserve to be alive on our farm. To borrow a phrase from Mark Sheppard, we prefer the STUN technique (Sheer, Total, Utter, Neglect.) There is also some interesting stuff being done with annual vegetables. I found an interesting article by Joseph Lofthouse on mother earth news about Landrace Gardening, which is essentially letting those horny plants be promiscuous pollinators and taking the best of the best from the next generation. Its evolution baby!
oh there are a load of fucked up things like that in the world. one thing i have heard and found through research is that alot of farmer and farms are simply having to become huge and massive and do the bidding of the companies which sell there produces so as a result in some cases they become simply the middle man for the companies profits rather than the producer who sells their own products.
Exactly right. Fucking middlemen. You have to choose a side, either work for the mysterious “them” and the be their middle man, or become your own master and boss and choose your own destiny.