Posted on 11/26/2017 6:08:34 AM PST by Cecily
Liz Whitehurst dabbled in several careers before she ended up here, crating fistfuls of fresh-cut arugula in the early-November chill.
The hours were better at her nonprofit jobs. So were the benefits. But two years ago, the 32-year-old Whitehurst — who graduated from a liberal arts college and grew up in the Chicago suburbs — abandoned Washington for this three-acre farm in Upper Marlboro, Md.
She joined a growing movement of highly educated, ex-urban, first-time farmers who are capitalizing on booming consumer demand for local and sustainable foods and who, experts say, could have a broad impact on the food system.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
When do you pick the eggs...just before the frost?
Yeh I think you need to read up on this stuff. Information is powerful. :-)
I think it's a good thing. I can't imagine what one can earn on three acres without another income. But young people working, that's a good thing. If their business becomes more successful, they can lease more land.
She got a B.A. from Colgate in Peace and Conflict Studies.
She was also Asst. Case Manager for the National Abortion Federation.
Her resume...she bounces from place to place...
It can and is being done.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q=jean-martin+forier&iax=images&ia=images
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Martin_Fortier
Most aren’t anywhere near that successful of course but as a whole, they’re coming up with new techniques. Most of them are modern day hippies but some are real entrepreneurs.
If they can take a bite out of big ag, Cargill, Monsanto, Tyson etc., I’m all for it. And the food is a LOT healthier. They don’t choose varieties for their shipping and long storage qualities.
One thing they’re doing is relearning a lot of the old techniques that were all but forgotten.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Salatin
There’s another guy in Vermont that produces 100k eggs per year with no feed costs. He runs a compost operation. He collects scraps from restaurants, yard waste etc. The birds turn the compost and get fed at the same time. He has input finishing the compost but the birds cut his labor input in half.
This is really great stuff, but not fully sustainable.
>>Fortier and Desroches employ paid staff and host interns.
Just as lotteries are a tax on people who don’t know math, internships are a tax on people who have education, but forgot to learn skills.
>>He collects scraps from restaurants, yard waste etc.
I used to work at a power plant that ran on Petcoke, a by-product of petroleum cracking. It was free. All we paid was shipping, and sometimes, the refinery would pick up part of the tab on that. Then, other power plants wanted the free Petcoke. Then power plants got built that require Petcoke. Now, Petcoke costs more than coal and we have to ship it from South America.
When your business model includes “and that will be supplied for the cost of shipping”, you are not sustainable.
These small, but productive, farms can supply some needs but they can’t feed the world. But what they do accomplish is making the snowflake generation believe that the world can be fed by small boutique “local” growers. If that was possible, we would not have the corporate monopoly on food production.
They will create their own lobby groups, aided by Hollywood, and will get their own corporate welfare to make them economically viable—as long as the taxpayer money keeps funding them.
Small ‘truck’ farms feed dozens, not hundreds, nor thousands, certainly not millions. They are just hobby farms nothing more. Hobby farms with hobby farmers ... as we used to say paraphrased: scratch a hobby farmer, find a trust fund.
I fed 22 kids off of 15 acres. We had about 3 acres gardens, 2 acres in berries, about forty fruit trees, a few acres pasture and the rest woods. We only bought some staples, and we bought raw milk from a dairy down the road; but, we raised all our own meat and eggs, canned both meat and veggies.
We didn’t make a dime, but we fed ourselves and all the kids learned the meaning of hard work. They never realized how well they ate growing up until they went out in the world and finally got to eat store-bought “food.”
Good!
It’s a great idea. Let ‘em learn about capitalism and individual effort. It’s a remedy for leftist hooey.
Who paid for the land?
I agree. And have an acquaintance that has taken up of all things...pig farming. Her pigs produce some of the finest pork I have every had!!!
We need more local farmers!
Which if one considers history...when a culture returns to farming...independence follows.
All other forms of progressive/communism/fascism/mao...forced the culture into government farms. Small farmers were eliminated and the people forced into the ghettos and city. Or sent to gulags...
I say cheer them on that the leave the desk job and return the land. For the land will teach them that which they have refused to learn.
So land is free now? How much is three acres?
We paid for the land. My wife and I worked full time as well. That’s the definition of “hobby” farm; though there wasn’t anything “hobby” about it. That’s what it took to feed everyone—16+ hour days just about year round.
It ain’t the money that makes small-scale farming nigh impossible; it’s just most folks these days aren’t willing to work that hard or be tied to the land and animals. You don’t get to take off whenever you want — it’s rather hard to find someone to farm-sit. There’s no delaying planting, harvesting or butchering. You start when it’s ready, and you work until it’s done.
No worries. The Chinese will buy the farmland. I heard they have to import most of their food.
Nice...farming is a traditional career. Here, three major restaurant groups, are using Urban farming to get fresh food for their restaurants.
That's OK. On occasion I go to the farm market in Madistan, I don't care if the sellers are liberals. As long as it's not an issue they raise. Anecdotally only, there have been liberals that as an old guy I might describe as hippies going back to the land for years. Not a bad thing.
A little hesitant to evaluate someone I don't know, but amongst the bouncing, farming might well be a better choice than abortion advocacy.
Why I have no animals that can't go to kennels.
“Next week’s article: the horror of modern day sharecropping under Donald Trump.”
LOL! Most likely! ;)
I’ve fed us and fed us well, on ONE acre.
Of course, we both still worked and had incomes and had health insurance, but between hunting, fishing, keeping laying hens, cooking all meals from scratch and gardening, my monthly food bill for three adults (myself, then-husband and his brother) and three teen boys (Step-Son and two Nephews) came to about $150.00/month...and most of that was for MILK, LOL!
Granted, it was only for 5 years, but it still helped our bottom line. A lot.
But, this article is full of holes...
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