Organic Farming Is A Labor of Love
Small Organic farmers do not farm for the money, many of the live at or below the poverty line. These farmers are driven by passion for the Organic lifestyle, real food, and their love of the earth.
When you work extraordinarily long hours for little money, being sustained by a deep passion for your work is a Key requirement.
California has been a major hub for young sustainable farming pioneers who seek to reclaim American soil. These farmers face increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and drought, pests, and eternally shifting markets.
They work year-round in rain, hail, or sweltering heat, 6 to 7 days a week. Even with customers paying a premium for locally grown Organic produce, most of these farms just keep there “heads above water.”
According to an article in Salon recently, the USDA’s 2012 data indicated that intermediate sized farms, those grossing between $10,000 and 250,000 annually obtain only 10% of their income from the farm, and 90% from off-farm sources.
Something is wrong with a system in which 9 out of 10 farmers must rely on an outside job, or a spouse’s outside job, to pay their core living expenses, a system that places so little value on something as important as our food.
Yet, these farmers love what they do and would not choose to do anything else, as they carry out a tradition that has nourished us for generations, overall they go largely unappreciated.
Many of America’s and the world’s smaller farmers live month to month, “one tractor breakdown away” from not taking a paycheck.
Small farmers are an increasingly rare breed, as fewer and fewer young men and women are choosing to make farming their livelihood given today’s challenges.
In Y 1945, the average age of the American farmer was 39, today, it is 55. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the number of farmers under the age of 45 dropped 14% between Y’s 2002 and 2007.
The costs of Organic certification are substantial. Not only is there an annual fee, but farms sometimes need to hire additional employees to assist in daily record keeping or make modifications to their land and equipment in order to comply with regulations. Organic farming is a labor of love.
The Big Q: Do you know what goes into the growing of those beautiful and tasty Organic tomatoes that appear at the Farmer’s Market every Summer?
Unless you grew up on a farm or do a fair amount of backyard gardening, chances are you do not know what happens in the 200 odd days it takes to produce that wonderful heirloom tomato.
Support your local Farmers Market.
The Big Q: Do you have a Victory Garden?
The idea of planting Victory Gardens goes back to World War I and II, and was advertised as a way for Patriots to make a difference on the home front. Planting these gardens helped the citizens combat food shortages by supplying themselves and their neighbors with fresh produce. When I was a boy, most everyone in the community had one.
Planting your own garden can go a long way toward healthier eating, and may well provide incentive for industry-wide change, and a return Americans to a diet of real food, for everyone, everywhere.
Organic farming is a labor of love.
Eat healthy, Be healthy.
Paul Ebeling
HeffX-LTN
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