Econ 101, anyone?

Last updated on: August 24, 2014 at 8:40 pm by Jane the Actuary

Econ 101, anyone? 2014-08-24T20:40:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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First of all, let me say that I hope everyone’s having a great vacation — at least, I’m going to assume that the reason why, for the last few days, my blogger-counted page views have been pretty low, is that everyone’s on vacation.

In any event, here’s the news from today’s business section: “Illinois’ would-be farmers learn from the ground up” (this seems to be under a paywall that’s strict enough that even when following a link from a google search, it still requires me to log in, so I’ll pull the key info below).

The article starts by profiling a new farmer, Shea Belahi, who runs a 1-acre farm near Champaign. She rents her farmland through the incubator program sponsored by The Land Connection, a nonprofit, and focuses on vegetables such as peppers and tomatoes. She sells her produce through a CSA, and to restaurants, and at a farmers’ market, but isn’t actually turning a profit, relying on her husband’s income, and her part-time grocery-cashiering job.

Another new farmer, Katie Kenney, raises cows, chickens, goats, and sheep and grows fruit on 4 acres outside of Champaign, and is considering converting her home into an “agritourism” bed and breakfast, where guests would help with the farm chores. She earned a $710 annual profit, and, again, depends on her husband’s salary.

Both of these women are graduates of the Central Illinois Farm Beginnings program, run by The Land Connection, with the aim of training individuals who didn’t grow up farming to become farmers, specifically, fruit and vegetable farming. The objective is to increase the variety of products that are locally grown, because, as the article and a farming instructor note, “Illinois imports more than 90% of its food,” and exports its own crops.

Does this make any sense?

I don’t know how suited, or not, Illinois is for fruit and vegetable farming. Michigan is known for cherries, and has a fair number of apple orchards, and there are plenty of U-pick blueberry farms near our favorite summer spot, Grand Haven. Is the same true of Illinois? Or is its specialization in corn and soybeans a practical response to Illinois’ climate and soil conditions, and due to the mechanization that’s possible with these crops? The principle of comparative advantage dictate that it’s entirely reasonable to import produce and export grain, simultaneously — after all, no one laments the fact that Illinois imports X% of its computers, or automobiles, or the like.

Even if it is possible to profitably run a fruit-and-vegetable farm in Illinois, does it make any sense for these individuals to attempt this as sole proprietors of micro-sized farms? Wouldn’t a trainee farmer be better off working as a “hired hand” to gain experience first? And is there no wholesaler, no cooperative, who can buy the produce rather than requiring these women to establish their own client base from scratch, an especially shaky way of doing business when each individual farm risks their crops failing, and a restaurant, or market that’s committed to buying from them won’t have a steady supply.

The future of our food supply cannot possibly be in the form of these eager 1 or 4-acre farmers, working with no economies of scale, no mechanization, nothing other than their own two hands planting, pulling weeds, and harvesting. And yes, these are just two women, but the article touts the program they attended as gaining ground, and it sure seems to be setting them up for failure.

(By the way: my dad grew up on a hobby farm of about this size, maybe larger — his father worked full-time in Denver, but they saved and bought land outside the city, since both his parents had grown up on farms but left during the depression. They had livestock of various kinds, and a scrapbook of 4-H ribbons, though I’m not sure how much they had in the way of crops, or whether it was mostly egg and milk money. The whole family had chores, and even then it was never more than an income supplement.)

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