Market Economics

Aside from the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, I can think of no great boom in American history built more on enthusiasm, and less on profit. ~Tom Phillpott


While listening to a song over at Log Cabin Homestead I couldn't help but think of this article which looks at the economics of local farmers markets and the current state of small scale farming:


"The overall income picture for small commercial farms is dismal. Key USDA stat: Farms with annual revenues between $10,000 and $99,000 -- which describes the vast majority of farmers' market vendors -- have an average operating profit margin of negative 24.5 percent.

Simply put, small farms lose money, and their losses are financed by the off-farm incomes of the families that run them. From this angle, so-called sustainable farming looks like a precarious enterprise.

Why, then, do farmers' markets and CSAs continue to grow and multiply? Why do people still farm? The local-food revival, it seems to me, runs on passion: people's desire for connection to the seasons, to the soil that feeds them, to powerful flavors that can't be manufactured with chemicals or preserved over 1,300-mile delivery hauls. Aside from the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, I can think of no great boom in American history built more on enthusiasm, and less on profit.

Yet passion has practical limits (as investors in, say, Pets.com learned in 2000). For local farms to supply significantly more than 2 percent of the nation's produce (or meat, dairy, and eggs, for that matter), small-scale farming will have to become an economically viable activity.

Some optimists argue that market forces are already quietly working to achieve that goal. The argument goes like this: surging consumer demand for local food -- coupled with rising energy costs -- has convinced the large supermarket companies to rethink their far-flung supply chains and seek out small-scale producers near individual retail outlets. These corporate buyers will pump cash into local farm economies across the nation, reviving the fortunes of small-scale farmers.

Certainly, evidence for this scenario abounds. The phrase "local is the new organic" has become commonplace. Having turned organic food into another consumer fetish drained of much of its original meaning, the big corporate retailers are setting their sights on "local" cache. Shoppers entering Whole Foods outlets can hardly grab a basket without reading "buy local" propaganda."


I think much of what the writer states and then glosses over is summed up well in these words:

People's desire for connection to the seasons, to the soil that feeds them, to powerful flavors that can't be manufactured with chemicals or preserved over 1,300-mile delivery hauls.

Now apart from economics of mammon there is the dynamics of home economics which can be found in Wendell Berry's works, a collection of fourteen essays, which can be found here: Home Economics at Cumberland Books, a great source for literature and writing. Where the root of economics is stewardship through proper household management. This being the greater good, if you will or the driving "Why" behind what has become an agrarian push to the shove of modern societies "madness of the masses". To know what benefit it is to live with ones own, spend time in common tasks and instill value to the soul of sons and daughters so that they to may live to do likewise from generation to generation. Until next time..............

To live is not to pass time, but to spend time.

Promise Land

“While waiting for a Moses to lead us into the promised land, we have forgotten how to walk”

~Wendell Johnson

Though this may not be the promise land of biblical times it is certainly a sight for sore eyes and tired, weary hearts to rest. This neglected bit of property resides a half hours drive from our new abode, and although it is a bit overgrown, untended and seated with a collapsing barn devoid of salvage, apart from some weather worn boards and a metal bed frame & posts (as well other treasures that amass in old abandon barns) is a welcome sight to our agrarian hearts.

It will take prayer and a bit of mammon to acquire, but even if this is not the parcel we purchase in the end, it is seated in the heart of a community that holds values dear to our hearts and that's farming, fields & family. Time will tell.......................until next time..............Regards.

This Old House, Part II

One would think that after such a long absence I might have a nice agrarian dream photo to post here........(well I do, but that's is for another day) After several months of dislocation and a protracted attempt at brokering a deal to sell our residence in Catskill, NY we are about settled here in upstate NY (a bit farther north) in Gloversville, NY.

Brooke, I and "Digger" moved north and a tad bit westward to be closer to the area in which we hope to acquire land and make our "Final Stand" if you will for a time. Till such time as the land deal is brokered we reside in this modest abode here in Gloversville, NY having sold just before this nationwide 'pandemic' of sorts struck the housing market. One might say it felt like walking our of a burning building and tossing the keys to the fire marshal on the way out!

Without deviling into particulars we were of good fortune enough to purchase this home for less than the cost of a what many Americans would pay in today's market for a new automobile. Thus we have the ability to increase our savings to purchase some well sought after 'Genuine Cow Pastured Farmland'. Lord Willing.

Now with a new cable modem connections (sans the cable channels I.E. Boob Tube) hopefully I can get back at this journal of sorts. Though I have to admit the old melon is a tad bit rusty as of late. Most of what I've been writing has be financially related to the markets and company assets. Which after "nailing" this housing crisis catastrophe to the barn side back in 2006. I would summarize my financial investment recommendations for 2008 in two words: Buy Gold!

I look forward to "catching up" with allot of the familiar folks and the myriad of posts I have missed as well I am interested to see what new faces have joined the agrarian bandwagon in my absence.

I already got my first chuckle & grin as I read the writings of "The Maggot Guru" and his unique perspective on FREE Chicken Feed. Regards.