Thoughts & Gratitudes This November

“The lack of beginning farmers in the United States is bordering on a crisis.” -  Jesse Frost in Civil Eats article

Life is full! As November arrives, I’m reminding myself of the blessings of a busy life. The days pass quickly, but they are filled with good things – moving the cows, hauling water, preparing for winter, helping to flip my boyfriend’s house, putting the garden to rest, making jewelry. And of course, working at Rural Action to build a strong local food economy. As Rural Action’s Sustainable Agriculture Program Manager, I get the opportunity to step back from the minutiae of starting up my little farm in order to see the bigger “food systems” picture in southeast Ohio, the Appalachian region, the United States, the world.

This week I dove into an article that illuminated some stark facts about the state of farming in the US…

• The average age of a farmer is 57 years old.
• The average age of a beginning farmer is just a decade younger at 46 years.
• 3.2% of US farms account for 51% of the value of agricultural production.
• On average, a beginning farmer makes 25% of their income from farming.

What does this mean? Farmers are aging out of the profession (though retirement is often unattainable) and young people aren’t taking up the work at the same rate. Over the past few decades, the forces of corporatization and consolidation have pushed prices so low that small farmers can’t make it. For example, watch this short video about how just four companies control the beef industry. On average, a beginning farmer doesn’t turn a profit for the first three years. Add to that the large capital investment that farmers must make to start an operation (seeds, tractor, land, livestock) and the immense amount of debt plaguing young people. It’s not hard to see why beginning farmers are few and far between.

When I feel disheartened by the harsh statistics stacked against beginning farmers, I often come back to Barbara Kingsolver’s words in Letters to a Young Farmer…

“When we told our youth that farming was a lowly aim compared with becoming teachers, doctors, or lawyers, what were we thinking? We need teachers for just a few of life’s decades. If we’re lucky, we’ll see a doctor only a few times a year, and a lawyer even less. But we need farmers every single day of our lives, beginning to end, no exceptions. We forgot about that for a while, and the price was immense. Slowly, we’re coming back to our senses. Be patient with us. We need you.”

All of this to say 1) I am grateful for your support. As a newsletter reader or beef eater or friend. 2) If you don’t live near me, find another beginning farmer to support.

Here’s a quick look at some things happening around the farm this fall:

• Getting enough hay to last the winter for 16 cattle and 4 horses, an annual guessing game
• Stockpiling grass for winter grazing – taking the cattle off certain pastures to let the grass rest and grow longer so they can graze it into winter
• Taking soil tests to show me how my soils are improving each year
• Creating a corral system that makes loading the cattle into the trailer easy and stress-free come butcher day
• Harvesting sweet potatoes and carrots, planting garlic and winter rye
• Pressing apples with my cider press from the Chesterhill Produce Auction!

Finally, I am only able to pull all of this off because of my family. This August I was able to take three weeks off to explore the intermountain West. It was an incredible trip filled with backpacking, mountain biking, hot springing, and horse riding in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. The only reason I could leave the farm for this amount of time was my parents. They watched my nutty dog and cared for the chickens and cows and garden. They are the best farmhands.

Limited beef orders available…

I’m taking orders for bulk beef, which will be available this January. There are a few more quarters, halves, and wholes available, so email me to secure yours! First come, first served. Below is an estimate of pounds of packaged beef for each size.

Quarter: 62-82 lbs
Half: 125-163 lbs
Whole: 250-325 lbs

Curious to learn more about buying good meat? The Good Meat Breakdown has lots of resources for consumers on how to find it, buy it, store it, and cook it.

What I’m reading…

Becoming (and Remaining) a Farmer is Hard by Jesse Frost | “Education and training can help new farmers succeed, but new research points to systemic challenges that also need to be addressed.”

Rural America, mostly white, is becoming more diverse by Chuck Abbott | “The rural America of the future will be increasingly diverse and not as politically conservative as many assume…”

What I’m listening to…

Get cozy with my Fall Spotify playlist. Make yourself a hot apple cider and curl up with these tunes.

The History of Our Food System: What’s Wrong and How to Fix It | Episode from the podcast, the Doctor’s Farmacy. “What do wealth inequality, chronic disease, climate change, and the industrialization of agriculture all have in common? The answer is food, and more specifically our food system.”