The Farm Incubator Toolkit

Exciting news! ATTRA's Sustainable Agriculture Weekly Harvest Newsletter recently posted a link to a new guide, called "The Farm Incubator Toolkit." It was developed by the National Incubator Farm Training Initiative (NIFTI), was published by the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, and was sponsored by Tufts University.

The definition of a incubator farm is "a farm that provides infrastructure and support to reduce the risks for new farmers launching their new farm businesses." The incubator farm is one of the most upcoming and progressive practices in the ag world. I see the potential for incubator farms to usher in new generations of farmers. I find it very exciting to see new documents such as the Farm Incubator Toolkit being created, because the more information that is out there, the more likely farmers will be inclined to go into agriculture.

This guide is a "manifestation of the collaboration of incubator projects coming together in a national community of practice where the knowledge and best practices can be shared with one another to the ultimate benefit of farmers and the food system as a whole." The end of this document includes many marketing and financial resources that apply to farmers specifically in the incubator farm business, as well as to farmers in general. I am investigating many of these resources for my own resource guide. Needless to say, I am very thankful for ATTRA connecting me to this new document!

http://nesfp.org/sites/default/files/uploads/nifti_toolkit_v2.pdf

Cotton, Cotton, Cotton

I adventured to Pleasant Hill, SC again and got the opportunity to see the cotton modules! Cotton is my favorite row crop, so this was quite exciting. Dr. Cribb talked to me about the cotton industry and walked me through how they pack the cotton into the modules. The machinery that packs the cotton is very similar to a combine. The machinery is called a "module builder." Use the link below to watch a video of a module builder in action if you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbp7tvDpaeQ
I also learned about the anatomy of cotton and how to pick it, which is the old-fashioned way. To pick it, you have to take the cotton out of the cotton boll and pick the seeds out of it. This is what they had to do before Eli Whitney's cotton gin was invented. Here is a picture of cotton in the cotton boll.

Lastly, I learned about the business and marketing behind cotton farming. Here are a few facts for you.

-Each cotton module weighs about 30,000 lbs., the equivalent to 15 tons

-Once cotton goes through the cotton gin, it will be about 7500-8500 lbs. of marketable cotton. The farmer can receive about $7500-8500 for this amount of cotton

-Farmers can also sell the cotton seeds for about $1500

Here are some photos of me with the cotton module! As you can see in the both images, there is a lot of cotton left of the ground. This is because the cotton module builder is quite ineffective. It is more cost efficient for farmers to use the cotton module builder than to hire field hands, so for this reason most farmers chose to use this machinery despite its inability to pick up all of the cotton on the field.

 

"Making Small Farms into Big Businesses"

I recently read the South Carolina Department of Agriculture's "Making Small Farms into Big Business". The report outlined the steps to rapidly rebuilding South Carolina's agriculture industry, a process which Hugh Lane claimed to be potentially dangerous if South Carolinians do so without closely monitoring the supply and demand.
We can only hope for such rapid development in South Carolinian agriculture. Many believe that it is possible with the goals expressed in this report, being the push for the establishment of more statewide food nodes and food hubs, the push for more grants for farmer development, the extension of programs such as the Dirt Works Incubator farm for new and beginning farmers, and more.
I would like to devote this blog to the clarification of 3 particular terms that were highlighted in this report, terms that I believe will become much more common due to the rapidly changing world of agriculture.

What is a small farm?
"A small farm cannot be defined simply by either its acreage or the amount of food it sells. A small farm is one that participates directly in efforts that create new, relational commerce, and strategic partnerships trading locally produced food."

What is a food production node?
A food production node is "a cluster of farms in close proximity to each other, working in collaboration and using common food production infrastructure."

What is a food hub?
"A food hub is more of a regional facility that focuses on aggregation and distribution of local foods for larger markets, such as restaurants, grocery stores, educational institutions, or wholesalers."

GrowFood Carolina Open House Visit

I attended an open house at the GrowFood Carolina warehouse two weeks ago, eager to learn more about the organization. I constantly hear good things around town about this organization, and their image is everywhere. In Whole Foods Market, you might have seen “Find the Fork” icons in the produce section, marking the local produce options that GrowFood has brought to the grocery store from the farmer. You also might have passed the mural on the side of its warehouse on Morrison Drive.

GrowFood Carolina is a food hub, and it connects the farmer with the restaurant and the grocery store. Although still in its beginning, the organization is highly successful in the sense that it already does business with around 60 South Carolinian farmers.

At this event, we toured the warehouse and listened to Sara Clow, the director, talk about the business as a whole. Many asked if she only seeks relationships with organic farmers. Clow explained that while GrowFood does encourage sustainable practices, not every farmer she does business with is necessarily organic. In addition, I learned that GrowFood returns 80% of the profit to the farmer, which means that this is an incredibly profitable business for farmers. On average, the “middle man” keeps a much higher percentage of the profit, because it is extremely costly to store, package, and transport mass produce to restaurants and grocery stores.

GrowFood is partnered with the Costal Conservation League, which is an incubating organization for the company. The mission of the Costal Conservation League is to protect our environment, and by encouraging the local agriculture, the League is being proactive in saving our costal lands from development.

I learned that GrowFood Carolina is one of the most profitable organizations in our area that local farmers have access to. I look forward to seeing GrowFood grow over the next couple of years, easing the transition of food from the farm to the table. 

Dirt Works Incubator Farm Visit

Today I visited the Dirt Works Incubator Farm on John's Island, which is a farm that is operated by Lowcountry Local First and Clemson Extension. I met many of the farmers there and got to see all of their hard work.
This farm is very unique because it was built to accommodate beginner farmers who want to learn sustainable methods and start off debt- free. In total, it is a 10 acre plot of land that is divided among a couple of farmers that run their own businesses. In addition to cultivating crops on this land, the farmers become mentors to seasonal apprentices, thereby teaching others what they themselves have learned. In a way, everyone there is a mentor to each other. The Dirt Works Incubator Farm is built up of hardworking people that work together in order to both learn and educate others.
Although there is a lot of freedom on this farm in terms of what the farmers and apprentices grow and how they grow it, there is a unifying approach- a holistic approach. Instead of using conventional techniques, this group uses alternative methods. For example, they focus on a method called "biointensive agriculture", which one of the farmers defined as "maximizing the crop potential in terms of space". For example, broccoli need a large amount of spacing in between each plant. You can, however, plant a lettuce in between these plants in the row to utilize the space, since leafy plants can survive in a high- moisture environment without a ton of space.
In addition, I learned about many other encouraged practices that are used on the farm, most of which take a holistic approach. You may be wondering what I mean about holistic approach. By "holistic", I mean that the applied farming practices treat the crop well as a whole,  allowing the farmer to reek the most benefits from the crop as possible. A few of the new practices I learned about were the farming of succession plants, including forestry. This practice is beneficial because instead of rotating crops seasonally, you can have a longer-lasting source of produce. I also learned that instead of creating row crops, you can create winding rows. This is particularly good in terms of maximizing the use of the plant space. It also increases biodiversity.
All in all, I had a wonderful time today at the Incubator Farm, and I look forward to returning very soon to work on it myself. I am ready to get my hands in the dirt again!
Here is a picture of the Incubator Farm-

As well as the logo of the Dirt Works Incubator Farm-

“Will Feds Bankrupt Small Farms With Food Safety Rules?”

This article from the Huffington Post is about the new FDA rules included in the 2013 Farm Bill. Many are protesting the new rules, which were created to help insure food safety and terminate contamination. The protesters believe that small farmers will be forced to abandon their farms in order to oblige to some of the new rules. The “Food Safety Modernization Act” changed the rules on water testing, for example. Farmers fear that this new water regulation makes it near impossible for them to find usable water, because this act declares many water sources contaminated and unfit for agricultural use. Another part of this act tightens the use of natural fertilizers, such as compost and manure, which are two key ingredients to farmer success in terms of sustainable practices. Many also complain that this act makes aggregating farm products, or combining many scrap resources such as fruit excess to make jam, near impossible. Not only do these regulations fail to facilitate a small farmer’s job, but the government also has yet to create training programs to help the producers adequately meet the requirements.

The author of the article projects that small farmers will have to pay 4 to 6 percent out of their gross income to accomodate these new regualtions. If this proves to be an accurate projecture, then many farmers could percievably suffer.

The article also mentions important programs that were excluded from the 2013 Farm Bill, which includes the following: Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP), Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), Outreach and Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (OASDFR), and Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI).

As someone who has meticulously analyzing the 2013 Farm Bill, I can say that by excluding the above programs, the 2013 Farm Bill is not necessarily damaging farmers. The goal of the 2013 Farm Bill was to mainly prevent overlap in programs, and to efficiently consolidate instead of having an excess of programs to oversee. While I am not arguing that some of the programs taken out are very beneficial for small- scale farmer success, I do see what the government is trying to accomplish. Many of these programs have not disappeared  but are rather consolidated under other titles. In addition, I am excited about new programs that are included that this article failed to mention, such as ARC.

Instead of focusing on the detrimental changes to the Farm Bill, I chose to focus on the positive additions. While I want to be open to understanding how the changes will have a negative impact, I believe it is more productive for me to focus on how farmers can adapt and use their provided resources to still be successful.

Here is the link to the article: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-slama/food-safety-rules_b_4235080.html

General Steps to Successful Farming

I recently read a comprehensive report on steps to success in small- scale farming. I got the report from nebeginningfarmers.org, which is one of the many websites that offers great resources to farmers specifically in the North East. I have been looking at these websites to learn how to write a resource guide, because there are many exemplary ones for farmers in other areas. The goal of this report is to “leave readers contemplating possible benefits of adopting these recommendations against their likely costs in particularly social and ecological contexts”. The steps for success that this report synthesized apply to all farmers, and I found them to be very concise and accurate. I will note that I combined a few of the points into one.

Key Social Conditions for Success Failure

1.       Access to materials

2.       Accessible farm input suppliers, info providers, service providers

3.       Good markets with room for specialty niche

4.       Must have supportive family, community, and neighbors willing to help

5.       Surrounding land that is compatible with enterprise

6.       Taxation and other costs must be reasonable relative to income

7.       Suitable policies with farming and marketing

8.       Access to adequate health care

Personal Characteristics of a Farmer Necessary for Success

1.       Willingness for physicality

2.       Appropriate managerial knowledge technical skills for producing, harvesting, storing,   delivering, and marketing

3.       Flexibility and innovativeness

4.       Fast learning through trial and error

5.       In tune with business world

6.       Able to avoid too rapid growth

7.       Take outside opinions, especially with marketing/ susceptible to cultural knowledge

8.       Creative in marketing the farm portfolio

9.       Above all, persistence and perseverance

Farm Business Characteristics Necessary for Success

1.       Adequate resources and cash flow

2.       Sounds farm vision and contingency plans

3.       Balance diversification and specialization, rationally setting rates of expansion or contraction

4.       Must match concentration of production scale, production technology, and available resources

Another point from this report that I found very interesting was the definition the writers used for success and failure of farmers. They prefer to use the term “continuation” for success and “exit” for failure. I appreciate these new terms because I think that it is an interesting way to describe the success and failure of farmers. Since farming is such a unique occupation, it makes since to me that there should be unique terms for farmer success and failure.