Your concerns are my concerns. Not just for the farms but also for the
rural communities that the farms support. My rural PA county is heavily
agricultural, by land use. Still, farmers account for less than 20% of the
population (although ag-related business accounts for 75% of the economic
activity). As farmers, aged and broke, go out of business on a regular
basis, what will happen to the land and the economic activity?
Answer: The land will be bought up by weekenders and soon-to-be retirees.
Ag land is right cheap where I live, because it really isn't suitable for
mega-farming (too slopey for those 200HP tractors). The weekenders and
soon-to-be retirees will look in vain for some "farmer" to lease the land
to, so it can look appropriately agrarian to their city visitors.
Or they will look (also in vain, because everybody local is driving two
hours daily to a construction job in the 'burbs) for a local caretaker to
mow the grass and keep the fences up so that they can enjoy the view of the
ridge on their weekend visits.
A few (but a precious few) of them will buy the land with the intent to
farm it. If they're anywhere close to me and give me the slightest clue
they're interested, I will give them all the help I can.
Direct marketing is the salvation of this farm. Straight to the consumer,
no middlemen. The DC/Baltimore area (my marketing area) is so hungry for
that connection that communities are trying to start up their own weekly
markets. The biggest problem? Not enough farmers.
I know farmers who skip from one market to the next, looking for the most
lucrative. They must, and I don't blame them one whit.
I have, right now, in the walk-in cooler, the most beautiful (and
completely organic) cucumbers and eggplant this farm has ever grown, and no
GOOD market to sell it to. The restaurant orders are down, because Congress
is going out of session and the biz entertainment in DC crawls at that
time. I used to have a great farmers' market on Thursday, where people
would gladly have bought my superior produce, but that market closed
because a new supermarket moved into the neighborhood and has an
"exclusionary contract", which means no produce can be sold within roughly
20 light years of it.
I'm not whining. I'd rather have too much wonderful food to sell than too
little, but I will not, and cannot, sell it wholesale for less than it
costs to produce. I do not have a side business (such as, maybe,
Prudential) that could use the tax breaks.
I'd sure like to keep this farm going, and I'll figure out a way to do it.
The countryside is beautiful. The insect population (good, bad, and
indifferent) astounds the entomologists from PennState. Our soil keeps
getting better.
Equally important, we now employ three local women (one full-time, two
part-time) who used to work for London Fog until it moved the jobs to
Mexico. We gave jobs to six local high school and college kids this summer.
We hired three apprentices from urban areas who desperately need an
understanding of the land.
>(Hey, talk about losing it, this guy's a wacko for sure!)
Well, welcome to the club, Karl.
Cass Peterson
cpete@nb.net
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