Speaking. Classes. Inspiration
KNOWLEDGE
FOR
FARMERS
Letter to a new farmer
Over 50 years ago, I decided to become a farmer. The back-to-the-land movement captivated hundreds of thousands of us, looking for some refuge from a chaotic world. We read Mother Earth News and studied Robert Rodale. We planted cover crops and made compost. We struggled to grow food without chemicals. A decade later, few of us were still farming. America has never launched as many first-generations of farmers–farmers have mostly been raised into it.
But some of us hung in there. I struggled for almost twenty years and then opportunity knocked – interest in organics blew up overnight and my experience became valuable. I got to grow organic vegetables at a scale that had not been done before. More importantly, I got to influence what other farmers grew – and how they grew it. My career became fun, exhilarating, and lucrative.
When Covid-19 upended the marketplace, I was wracked with guilt. What possessed me to spend this last decade encouraging so many to try something so hard, so easy to fail at?
Then I watched all of you – America’s new farmers. I saw you were outside when others couldn’t leave their home. You had work when others had time to pass. If you had kids, you shared with them the wonder of animals giving birth and crops sprouting out of the ground. Your world was technicolor when others were black and white.
Yes, your marketplace may be in shambles; not all of you will survive. But many are finding new markets and neighbors and townspeople hungry and grateful for your food. This may be your moment. As larger farms lose labor, packing plants shut down, and distribution systems stop distributing, opportunity is knocking for smaller, local food producers.
America’s large producers will be back. We need them to feed us all – and you need them to learn from. But this market, your market, will not retreat. My partner and sales manager at the large organic farms I managed always told me, “Michael, whoever you can supply at Thanksgiving will be back with you in the spring.” A buyer – your customers – will remember who fed them at their time of need.
It likely will never be easy – you probably will never stop worrying. That is the price of admission. But remember it’s not your market or your business plan, or even your land that makes you a farmer. It is your knowledge of how to grow food. I never owned land and only once owned my business.
If you are lucky enough to stay afloat through hard times, you will be welcomed into the farming community. Other farmers will not judge you for how you farm, only if you farm well.
At the end of the day, when you are tired and go to pull your boots off, I hope you feel the power and freedom that farmers get to feel. And I hope it will make you want to get up early in the morning and do it again.
-Michael
My Classes
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