For the second time in six months, a thoughtful farmer has taken to writing in a high-profile public forum that small-scale sustainable farming is not economically viable. First, Bren Smith published an op-ed in the New York Times in August entitled “Don’t let your children grow up to be farmers.” And then just last week Jaclyn Moyer wrote a piece for salon.com entitled “What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living.“
Both of these pieces are thoughtful and earnest, written by practitioners of the craft being discussed. Both pieces raise serious and important issues which need more attention in the public sphere. But both pieces, ultimately, are wrong in their assessment of the economic sustainability of small farms, and I fear they might do more harm than good.
Bren Smith rightly points out most farms depend on off-farm income. He highlights a disturbing trend that some metropolitan areas have hit a saturation point with local, sustainable foods and that farmers are beginning to have to lower prices to compete for a limited market. He laments that some high-profile, heavily subsidized sustainable farms have been artificially insulated from true market forces. He wishes he had children but thinks he can’t. And he exhorts farmers to once again take the lead in reform, as has been done in the past, by demanding and shaping a new food economy which might make farming more viable.
Jaclyn Moyer also laments that her own farm is kept afloat by non-farm income and that her farm is not profitable, despite 12 hour days, 6 days a week. She tells the story of her neighbor who had just made a meager profit of $4000 for the first time in 10 years. She details that no farmer of her acquaintance met her standard for economic sustainability: earn at least minimum wage, abide by labor laws, and don’t depend on off-farm work. She tells of the pressure to put a smiling face on her struggles so that her customers won’t know she’s not making ends meet. She relates giving a talk to a local high school, after which not a single student indicated interest in pursuing farming.
Both of these pieces are heartbreaking, and most farmers I know can relate. We’ve been there and had these thoughts and experiences. For most farmers, the conclusions are accurate.
But reading Jaclyn’s piece last week was especially jarring for me, because I had just returned home the day before from the annual conference of PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture), where I presented on the economic viability of very small farms (under two acres) and had had the pleasure of meeting and hearing Jean-Martin Fortier, who makes a comfortable living farming an acre an a half in chilly Quebec with his wife Maude-Helene and two employees. They even have two children.
My own farming situation is unusual because in addition to raising vegetables we operate a small, on-farm, sixteen-seat restaurant two days per week, which might seems at first to prove their point. Certainly, the restaurant helps pay the bills, but as I emphasized in my presentation at PASA, while our vegetable income is low, the number of hours worked is low as well, and we pay ourselves about $15 per hour to raise vegetables. This is not a princely salary, but it is much higher than the sub-minimum wage described by Jaclyn and Bren. If my wife and I both increased our hours raising vegetables to full time, we would make about $50,000 to $60,000 per year, a modest middle-class income with winters off.
My experience was vindicated last week at PASA when I heard Fortier speak about his farm, which grosses $150,000 per year on 1.5 acres, and which provides him a comfortable, if modest, income of around $60,000. Just as impressive, Fortier emphasized that they take the winter off, don’t work off the farm, and limit their work hours in season from 8 am to 5 pm.
How can these diametrically opposed views co-exist? How can Moyer earn less than $3,000 on her 10 acres while Fortier earns $60,000 on his 1.5? The answer is complex and too technical for this platform, but the truth is that farming in an economically viable way is very difficult but possible. I have taught Latin, run a restaurant, and farmed, and farming is by far the most challenging of these three jobs. It requires a combination of skills that few people (including myself) naturally have, but they can be developed. But like all highly demanding jobs, becoming a successful farmer requires training. Learning on the fly is a recipe for frustration, and the best decision any aspiring farmer can make is to find the most economically successful farm they can and apprentice there until they have learned the craft.
Ironically, while most people accept the old adage that scaling up is the way to increase profits, Fortier has identified his scale (no tractor, mostly hand tools) as key to his success. Efficiency, fertility management, organization, charisma, passion, discipline… all these traits contribute to success in farming. Most important of all is a model, like Fortier’s, which has proven itself to be viable.
As a farmer and lover of farming, Bren’s and Jaclyn’s pieces make my heart bleed. I have nothing but empathy for them because I know how they feel. Their pieces raise essential questions too often left unasked and unanswered by foodies in the budding local foods movement. Perhaps an editor and not the authors themselves chose the titles of their pieces, and I don’t blame them for wanting a juicy headline.
But the truth is that sustainable farming needs all the help it can get, and these pieces do more harm than good. The last thing we need is to discourage a young person with a budding interest in farming. With so many cultural forces directing them in other directions, we need more role models like Fortier who show how farming is viable, rather than those who have not been successful and assume that success is not possible. I can think of no greater joy that I could receive in life than one or all three of my boys ignoring the advice of Jaclyn and Bren, and choosing to follow in my footsteps to become a farmer.
J Fowler @ ST (@sustainabletrad) said:
Brilliant thoughts! I have been grieved too by these recent articles on how you can’t make a living farming on a small scale. I would love to feature your blog post on our website: http://www.sustainabletraditions.com – let me know if you are interested in allowing us to feature your thoughts: http://sustainabletraditions.com/contact/ – shalom! Jason F, Sustainable Traditions
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La Cascina said:
Thanks Jason! Yes, please feel free to share the piece on your website!
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Kierk Ashmore-Sorensen said:
I am very interested in hearing more details / descriptions of these small operations. What makes them work and what are they growing and for whom? I’m working on a research piece focused on the redefining of the agrarian life and would welcome descriptions of positive outcomes.
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La Cascina said:
Sure thing. Send me an e-mail (justin@oldtiogafarm.com)
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Steven Spickerman said:
Very thoughtful discussion. I tend to see and live both sides. My wife and I farm on 140 acres (vegetables, maple syrup, pastured hogs, forage crops, dry beans), employ 4-5 folks 5-7 months of the year, run an 11 month CSA in the far north (near Lake Superior), earn a very nice 6 figure income, and still have a very small profit after taxes, paying employees, buying needed inputs and supplies, and making the necessary annual infrastructural improvements to our farm. That is, it takes nearly everything we earn from the farm to run the farm, and we are not extravagant by any means. And it is very likely that our daughter, who is in graduate school and who would make a very good farmer, will not be returning to the farm, at least not as a farmer.
I was just at the MOSES conference this past weekend and every CSA type farmer that I talked with sadly had a similar story. We all live well, eat well, raise healthy successful children on our farms, love what we do, and do not make a very good living at it. There’s a reason for the old saying “Farming is a great way to make a little money by spending a lot of money!”
I think there are farms that are making it, but they are in special niches such as those places (like Montreal or Portland, OR) with populations that are local, fresh food oriented and willing to pay for it. And there is a limit as to how long a place is viable; Madison, WI was one such place 10-15 years ago. But we have friends with long established CSA’s of 500+ members who are suddenly struggling to find members, who have resorted to lowering prices, cutting special deals, etc. And it has become extremely difficult for new farmers to break into that market.
I’m not sure what the answer is except I believe it rests in the North American diet and general food culture. An old vegetable farmer friend of mine, now retired, told me once that he believes only about 1% of the population really understands or cares about the concept of local food and its health implications to the point of spending money for it. And here in our area, CSA memberships, sales and/or memberships in local food cooperatives, sales numbers at farmers markets, etc. seem to reflect or support that 1% number. And that is simply not enough money to fuel all of the small farms trying to eek out a living. So that’s where, as a food movement, we have to start; we need more eaters. And by creating more eaters, we will make the existing farms economically viable and create avenues for new farmers as well.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
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La Cascina said:
Thanks Steve for the thoughtful comments. Have you had a chance to check out Jean Martin Fortier’s work? I think he’s the best role model right now for profitable farming. He and his wife gross $150,000 a year and pay themselves $60,000. While not princely, it is an acceptable salary in my mind, especially with winters off. JM Fortier is a special guy, but I think the model is one which can be copied. I’d be curious to know what you think of him.
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Steven Spickerman said:
Yep, read his book and have heard him speak. A worthy model for sure. He’s in one of those sweet spots; Montreal, lots of foodies, disposable income, relatively mild growing season, nearby high end restaurants willing to pay top $$ for fresh local produce. That’s not the situation for most farmers though. There’s a good paper/booklet put out by the U of Wisconsin Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems that looks at produce farm size and profitability. They used real numbers generated by selected WI and MN farms. The most profitable farm size in their study is 1.5 acres (acres of crops). The least profitable are farms 4-12 acres (almost impossible to make a profit in fact and this is the majority of new produce farms these days). Farms with >16 acres in production again become profitable. I know the authors and they feel that those farms in the <1.5 acre size only work in areas near high population centers where you can specialize in certain crops, etc.
One thing that interests me is net to gross on farms. Typical net to gross on farms across the board is 10-20%. 20%, sometimes a bit more, is where very well run, mature operations trend. Jean's is way above what is typical for most farms at 40% net to gross. I'm guessing that is because he uses very simple tools (Ie. walking tractor, hand tools, etc) and not a lot of inputs or hired labor costs. He would statistically be an outlier (but where we would all like to be for sure!). Our farm hovers in the 12% range, largely because we are still adding infrastructure, even after 25 years of farming.
Another point of interest for me is first generational farms versus 2nd or more generation farms. I grew up on a farm in the 70's when so many went under. I left the farm for college and a non-farm career, then came back but not to my parents farm, which was not an option so my farm is a first generation farm. Most of today's re-birth in farms are folks new to farming and are on first generation farms. The first generation on a farm is rarely successful from an economic stand point. Their job is to get things going, invest in equipment, buildings, fences, infrastructure. The next generation reaps the rewards of the previous generations sweat equity and cash outlay and if they are good managers, benefits economically. The third gen does even better. You don't see this spoken of many places but it's what I was taught in the 60's/70's by my mentor, an old Scottish farmer I worked for.
Lastly, I'm a bit puzzled by the Fortier's numbers (not doubting them, just puzzled) as to gross/acre. I've been taught and we teach (I'm an instructor in farm beginnings classes and sustainable ag classes at a liberal arts college) that typical gross/acre per crop should be in the 15 to 25,000/acre ballpark (this is somewhat arbitrary but gives a farmer something to shoot for when making decisions about what crops to grow, ways to grow it, what to invest in, etc.) but seems to be an industry standard. The Fortier's, at 1.5 acres and 150,000 are again an outlier way at the high end. So, I look at the Fortier's as a lofty example, someone to emulate and something to work towards, but at the same time they are a cautionary example, an extreme outlier. The problem with outliers is we can not all statistically achieve that, most of us are in the end going to be average, and some will be outliers in the other direction.
Again, great food for thought and discussion. Good luck in your coming season. Here in northern WI, we finish our last CSA delivery of the 2014 growing season this week, get the greenhouse fired up in a few days starting transplants for the new season, and have maple syrup season soon to follow. The wheel just keeps going around!
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