Making an income from organic farming?

May 13, 2006 6:45 AM

In a few years I’d like to drop out of an unfulfilling IT career, buy some good land, and do something related to small-scale sustainable organic agriculture. Does anyone have any advice or ideas for making a modest income in this area, or is this just a naïve dream?
posted by Meridian to work & money (14 comments total)

Depends on where you are located. If you are lucky enough to find good land close to an area with, for instance, restaurants that are interested in regularly buying your organic produce them, yeah, I'd say you might have a chance.
I'd suggest specializing in a particular crop or area or crops. Greens, heirloom tomatoes or potatoes. Heck, get some goats and go into cheese.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:57 AM on May 13, 2006

Some organic farmers minimize financial risk by using the CSA model (Community Sustained Agriculture). Essentially, they sell shares of what they're going to produce ahead of the season, and their buyers accept that some seasons will be better than others. A lot of smaller farms form CSA collectives with other smaller farms so they can offer shareholders a wide variety of produce (and not just fruits and veggies... you'll see meat, eggs, flowers, and other farm goods in some CSA shares).

You can find some specific CSAs here, and some more info about the CSA model here. But Google around, and you'll find tons of info.
posted by j-dawg at 7:24 AM on May 13, 2006

By "in this area" do you mean Japan? I don't know anything about land value in Japan except that it's extremely high. Japan isn't experiencing any type of organic/local produce "boom" largely because there's always been a strong emphasis on using high-quality, local, seasonal produce and seafood unlike the US which is going through a revival movement in that right now.

I'd say it's very possible in the US given the current climate and demand for organic/local produce. Judging from what I see at the San Francisco and Oakland farmers markets, I'd say there's a glut of the most common produce people associate with organic produce: tomatoes, greens (lettuces), apples, and oranges. However, there's definitely room in rare varieties of niche areas: fungi/mushrooms, potatoes, legumes/beans, shellfish, dairy/cheese, less common fruit.

Here's a list of the farmers that show up at Bay Area farmers markets for ideas. Among all those vendors, you'll see that there's only one for mushrooms (Far West Fungi) and Rancho Gordo specializes in heirloom beans. With the niche produce, you'll definitely need to educate the customers.
posted by junesix at 7:45 AM on May 13, 2006

Start a specialty farm cooperative. Maybe herbs and spices, something you can become a master of, plus something that I suspect is a bit easier to store and ship and that has a higher markup. Buy land, tractor, plow, storage buildings, and related equipment. Work out a system that allows people [perhaps local groceries and restaurants] to share in the produce, profits, and losses.

Or... what about renting small greenhouses to suburbanites who want to try gardening? Tell them that for nothing you'll bring it and set it up and you'll dismantle it and take it away when they're done, but they've got to rent it for at least a year (with option to buy). Their part is to pay you a monthly rent and to grow whatever the hell they like. I bet there are lots of potential backyard gardeners who just don't have a clue how to start. You might end up starting hundreds of greenhouse gardeners who otherwise wouldn't touch the thing because they don't know how.

But while you're saving money and planning, see about getting yourself educated. Maybe you can take night courses in agriculture or business? Ag is a very big, competitive business, and you'll have to know what you're doing if you don't want some bastard to take your good idea and hit you over the head with it.
posted by pracowity at 7:53 AM on May 13, 2006

I have friends who are doing this with some degree of success. They are well-educated smart people who did a fair amount of reasearch before getting in to it, but they seem to be thriving and happy. I don't think it's a naive dream at all as long as you keep certain things in mind
- working the land means you are at the beck and call of nature and the weather an awful lot. This means very little travel or extracurricular activity during peak farming activity times and long days working when the weather is at its nicest.
- farmland around here [rural northern new england] is not very expensive so buying land and a house is a manageable investment.
- agreed with what other people have said, niche produce/products or CSAs are often the way to go.
- start reading books about agriculture and farming NOW, the day to day farming life is much different in structure and in rhythm than the 9-5 IT job world. This may be a blessing to you or it may require some serious adjustments
- not all farming is rural, though prices for land/space climb steeply in more populated areas. Think about whether you want a back-to-the-land lifestyle, or if you'd just like to have farming be your profession but not necessarily live up on a mountaintop.
- look into public gardening now, wherever you live, if there is a community garden project where you are. practice with a small plot of land and some small crops to see if it's really something you enjoy doing with your time.
posted by jessamyn at 8:10 AM on May 13, 2006

I often dream of this too, just sometimes starting my own family farm. People do it, so if you're dedicated that's half the battle. I doubt I'll actually ever get around to it since I'm a settled New Yorker (sigh), but here's some of the source books I own to read up on it... I'm in the United States, so this might be a North American/European-centric list.


Country Life: A Handbook for Realists and Dreamers - a great overall view of small, medium and large farms, their crop and livestock options, etc. probably my favorite book to flip through.


Country Wisdom & Know-How : A Practical Guide to Living off the Land - Storey publishing house is probably the top American source material for farmers, and the volume would probably have saved the Colony of Roanoke - if it were a -er a farming issue that got 'em. It's a massive newsprint volume full of everything from animal husbandry, food preserving & selling, recipes, herbs, etc. Even in my urban environment, I use this book and suggest every house owns it - if not for reference then for fun.


Apocalypse Chow : How to Eat Well When the Power Goes Out - just to throw in. This isn't really that topical, but it's a pretty terrific (and funny) way to eat well and cheaply if you find you're without power. You never know, might come in handy cut off from the power grid.


The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It - another great resource for living off the land.


Storey's Basic Country Skills : A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance - another great Storey resource.


Barnyard in Your Backyard : A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, and Cows - pretty good overall guide to animals - helps in figuring out which (if any) interest you most.


The Contrary Farmer - "cottage farming" part-time for enjoyment as well as profit. This book gives readers the tools and information they need to grow their own food in a sustainable and Earth-friendly fashion, but it also tells some great, hilarious stories and includes some truly beautiful and evocative writing.


A Country Year : Living the Questions - this isn't actually a guide book, but the musings of someone who lives alone on a 100-acre farm in the Ozarks, where she tends 200 beehives and produces honey on a commercial scale. It's a delicious read for anyone interested in abandoning the urban world.


A middle-ground to the solitary farmer is to join a colony farming establishmen, there's plenty in the United States ranging from everything to Eco-friendly "Off-the-grid" (completely self sufficient) farming to more modern community farming. I'm willing to bet these are not unique to the USA.
posted by eatdonuts at 8:27 AM on May 13, 2006 [5 favorites]

Some tangential advice - Have you ever worked on a farm? I grew up on a farm, and I happily left that life for an IT career. Unless you love the work (the *work*, rather than the ideal of a farm) it can be rather unpleasant. If you haven't done much farm work I'd suggest trying to get a fulltime job on a farm and try it for a year. Especially if you plan on having livestock of any kind. I swear to God geese will wean you off any naivete you have. They are the most disgusting nasty creatures anywhere. Farms taught me that the only good goose is a dead goose.

Farms = mud, poop, weeds, fences, ditches, stupid animals, and pure drudgery. It has it's rewards, but I sure don't miss it.
posted by y6y6y6 at 9:39 AM on May 13, 2006 [1 favorite]

A friend of mine is living here and absolutely loves it -- its basically a training ground for what you want to do, you can learn the trade in a safe context, and find out if that is indeed what you want. And I can vouch it is a stunningly beautiful and friendly place.
posted by Rumple at 9:49 AM on May 13, 2006

You need a lot of real world experience. Add me to the list of people saying you shuld go get work on a farm right now and don't rely on book learnin'.

FWIW I've worked on quite a few farms and I would personally raise organic livestock instead of vegetables. Less work IMHO.
posted by fshgrl at 12:52 PM on May 13, 2006

Still not sure if you mean Australia, Japan, or elsewhere, but there was an article about Homesteading in Japan which might be interesting and which touched on a few of the financial incentives available.
posted by catdog at 12:52 PM on May 13, 2006

Thanks everyone, there's a lot to chew on in the replies. To answer some specific points, I was considering doing this in Australia if/when I ever move back from Japan, although I hadn't heard about Japanese Homesteading that catdog pointed out. That's definately something to consider seriously. I was also hoping to avoid livestock beyond a few chickens. And I really like the idea of moving into a community of like-minded people and the Community Sustained Agriculture mentioned by j-dawg.

After others mentioned that getting work experience would be a good idea, I searched around and I found this: WWOOF: World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms for people who would like to volunteer on organic farms internationally to learn first-hand about organic growing techniques, and an associated Australian site Willing Workers On Organic Farms. I also found some places offering Permaculture Design courses which looked interesting.
posted by Meridian at 3:23 PM on May 13, 2006

I have a few friends who WWOOFed. The farms they worked and the people they worked for were an extremely mixed bag (like the one guy who fertilized his vegies with the uncomposted carcasses of possums. She got to weed in a veritable boneyard of tiny ribs and vertebrae). I'd hit up the permaculture design courses first. Try to do something long-term so you can see the fruits of your labors over a season- my friends that did the WWOOF thing moved to a new place every week, so there was really no way to learn if the things they were doing led to bigger tomatoes, or whatever.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:45 PM on May 13, 2006

My wife's parents tried the self sufficiency lifestyle when she was about 7. One of the hardest things they found, which I suspect you'll still come up against, is a lot of mistrust and derision from neighbours and regular farmers.

To cut a long story short, 16 years later when they sold up and moved away from the farm was the best day of their lives.

Make sure you really like the lifestyle before you commit to it and be prepared to give up a lot of things that today you see as necessities, which will end up being luxuries.

Good luck.
posted by bangalla at 1:15 PM on May 14, 2006

also check out acountrylife.com, intended for the UK downshifter crowd (which seems to be a significant trend in that area). In particular, I direct you to a thread called "the reality of smallholding" which will be some interesting reading.

Take some baby steps. Build a couple of raised beds in your backyard using the Square Foot Gardening method, see how that goes.
posted by Brando_T. at 7:05 AM on May 18, 2006