What especially excites me about covering food and nutrition issues are the many signs that major shifts, of a positive sort, are underway in food production and distribution. Even the government harassment of raw milk producers, notwithstanding their individual suffering, is a strong signal that demand for unprocessed foods is surging.
The lobbyists and congressmen may do their dances around the piles of money handed out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (as happened last month), but the real action is taking place out of view of those moneygrubbers.
I can say all this with much more confidence after spending time with Joel Salatin over the last couple months. I just put together an article and photo essay for BusinessWeek.com about how his approach to farming—both technically and marketing-wise—suggest a re-making of America’s agricultural model. (To get to the photo essay, suggest you go to www.businessweek.com/smallbiz, and click on link to "Slide Show: The Most Innovative Small Farm in America" in the box highlighting the article, since the link to the slide show from within the article doesn’t work right.)
That’s a pretty awe-inspiring suggestion, but I believe Joel is living proof that major shifts are under way.
He’s seeing growth on two key levels. First, there is his email-based Metroplitan Buying Club sales, which have exploded from 200 to 900 families over the last two years. This is phenomenal growth in any business, and way ahead of the growth in his sales to restaurants or direct-from-the-farm sales. It is what is driving him to desperately seek out new pasture, to the point he now leases 700 acres in addition to the 100 acres on Polyface Farm.
The second indicator is the impressive growth in demand for self-help information. Joel not only sells the weekend seminars for farmers and wannabe farmers I describe in the article, but he also sells several how-to books, which he says are selling better than ever. He even charges for group tours of the farm–$300 for a two-hour tour for a Virginia group and $500 for a two-hour for an out-of-state group. Joel may or may not give the tour; if someone wants to guarantee Joel leads the tour, the cost is $1,000.
Joel justifies his seemingly mercenary approach by pointing out that there are not only significant demands on his time, but that the knowledge he sells has been accumulated over forty years of sweat, and thus should be “harvested” just like corn or chickens.
The point here is that many people are flocking to learn about Joel’s innovative approaches because they want to do the same things. And growing numbers are doing so.
Shifts of the sort I am talking about don’t come painlessly. They threaten the status quo, so the entrenched interests fight back. But like water overflowing a river bank during a flood, such shifts can’t be headed off.
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I appreciate Steve Bemis’ suggestion following my most recent posting, about legal assistance for farmers. I always check with farmers in trouble with the law about whether they have good legal help. I get different answers. I don’t want to say anything specific about Mark Nolt, the Pennsylvania dairy farmer just raided by government agents, or any other farmer currently facing difficulty, because their individual legal plans are privileged information.
My experience is that when you’re in trouble with the law for anything you owe it to yourself and your cause to get the best legal help you can. Just like you get the best medical help you can if you have a serious health problem.
Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures has top legal assistance, and it’s benefited him immensely. Several farmers in Ohio contracted with an experienced agriculture lawyer there, and won an important court victory. When Richard Hebron finally got good legal advice, things turned around for him in Michigan.
Yet I find that the farmers vary widely in their attitudes about legal assistance. Some understand its importance. Some who are feel they are fighting an unjust system see lawyers as part of that system, and thus refuse to seek legal assistance. Some can’t afford to hire top help, and these farmers should definitely explore what the people at the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund can do. The Weston A. Price Foundation can also be of help.
I just finished reading a 63 page report from 2003 on S.T.O.P.S. website titled, Why Are People Still Dying from Contaminated Food? If anyone is interested in reading it, heres the website http://www.safetables.org . It is located at the bottom of the home page. This report unintentionally makes the argument for why we should eat as much locally grown and raised food as possible.
Our family was on vacation for a week. We returned last night. I had been gathering more information Ecoli 0157:H7 and HUS before we left on vacation. I posted it late last night under DGs last article, Civil Disobedience in Pennsylvania. The information I found helped me put together some missing pieces about Chris illness, as well as gaining some valuable knowledge about the long term health consequences of HUS. We only have diabetes and kidney failure to worry about, but for now hes quite healthy!
In contrast, Joel is rotating a variety of species over his acreage and layering different enterprises in a way that is not typical. This diversity of species is beneficial for the soil, helps keep animals healthier and keeps the farmer from having to rely on only one crop. His model can be started on a small scale on a shoestring and then expanded. His marketing is very local and face to face.
I am glad to hear that Chris is doing well. Thank you for keeping us updated on his progress and for all your very informative posts.
Jean
ps I’m glad I visited Polyface several years ago before it was so expensive!
Now, notably, $1,000.00 farm tours do not, in my mind anyway, fit well into that philosophy. A thousand dollars to help learn how to farm cheaply? The market may bear it, but for Pete’s sake! Much of our (appropriate!)complaining about agribusiness centers on the effects of profit motives when the power scales are tipped. Salatin has jumped from farmer to celebrity, and thus his scales are unbalanced. I think that what he does with that power should withstand careful scrutiny.
The charge is if they want a tour guide–because that takes our time.
And we don’t take money from taxpayers to run this farm. I’ve heard Allan Nation, editor of
Stockman Grass Farmer, say that the biggest
disservice the extension service has done is to make all farmers think farm advice should be free. We don’t expect that for business advice, legal advice, or medical advice, so
why should we for agricultural advice?
Disclosure: Though I don’t farm for profit (just to help fill the needs of my family and a few friends) I’ve benefited from your books, and even from some (free!) personal correspondence from you. I believe in your farming model, and have been a local supporter of your ideas. In short, I’m a fan.
But I am compelled to point out that there’s a whole lot of ground between free and a thousand a pop. And while there is unquestionable value in having a Joel Salatin at one’s side in the field, there is also value in the sense of community and purpose that comes from shared labor. (In a way, that’s the root of the direct farmer-consumer relationship–a rare and fragile thing in America these days.) A thousand dollar guided tour doesnt sound like a farmer’s fee, or even an educators. It sounds like a celebrity’s fee. When I heard of it, I couldn’t help thinking, Uh-oh There goes the relationship. (It also, by the way, generates a sense of unease, in that Polyface’s success may be contingent, at least in part, upon celebrity.)
Of course, I also see that you’re still dragging those slapped-together, tin-roofed chicken tractors around… 🙂