A review by inquiry_from_an_anti_library
The New Farm: Our Ten Years on the Front Lines of the Good Food Revolution by Brent Preston

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

Overview:

The New Farm is proof of concept that small-scale, organic, and sustainable farming is a viable method for food production.  An organic alternative to what has become conventional to agricultural industry.  The organic alternative does not use a complex mix of chemical pesticides and fertilizer.  Spraying chemicals is the modus operandi for conventional farmers.  The pesticides make food toxic, causing people to have health problems.  As organic farmers do not use chemicals, their food is of a higher quality with superior flavor.  Small farms do use a powerful natural fertilizer that comes from livestock.  Livestock also provide high-value products and turns waste into food.

A farm is a business, that needs money to function no matter their features.  Brent and Gillian wanted to make the farm profitable to support the whole family.  But in Canada, the agricultural industry generally loses money.  The New Farm, kept losing money in the early years, but they kept planting due to pride, appreciation of the community, and wanting to apply lessons learned from past years. 

Many conventional farmers tend to subsidize their farm with alternative income sources, which allows them to keep prices low but also hard to make farming sustainably profitable.  While The New Farm, became profitable without alternative income sources.  To make the farm sustainably profitable, Brent and Gillian broke from some small farm practices by specializing in growing profitable food rather than diverse food, and to sell to restaurants rather than just directly to consumers. 

 

Are There Notes From A Farmer?

Brent and Gillian joined the farming community without knowledge or experience.  This meant that they came into agriculture without preconceived biases, nor with foundational knowledge.  Gillian did have early experiences with farming, and relatives who were farmers.  What they did do was join various farming related associations, from which they were able to learn and obtain clients from. 

Farming is always hard work, no matter how knowledgeable or experienced the farmers are.  Nature always has surprises, and complexity that is hard to manage.  Some tips and tricks that The New Farm found was that hoop houses greatly improved the growth rate of the plants.  Plants tend to only grow when the soil is warm.  The New Farm also cycled land use.  Alternating between regions that grew food and then were fallow, while other regions did the opposite.  Crop cover added nutrients into the soil, which increased the productivity of the soil. 

Gillian and Brent wanted different things.  Gillian wanted to expand to become profitable, while Brent did not think it was possible to work harder.  They were both right.  Farming and financial difficulties strained their bodies, emotions, and their marriage.

Workers matter for a human powered farm.  The New Farm initially used interns for help.  Unpaid interns, who needed to be taught, and worked with them.  That limited the time that could be spend making sales.  They later hired Mexican workers, who were very helpful due to their skills.  They treated them appropriately.

Many food products need to be sold quickly to be edible, but often becomes waste.  The need for fast sales allows others to squeeze the farmer financially.

Most people do not really care for how organic farming works, and just want to make sure it is organic.  There are vendors who claim organic but are actually conventional.  Many expect farmers to be uneducated, while Brent and Gillian were educated and used technology to improve their agriculture organization.

 

Caveats?

This is a wonderful guide to the difficult life of a farmer.  Providing valuable lessons.  But not all values were appropriate.  Even though they obtained information when needed, there was praise for starting farming without information.  Brent recognized that Brent’s attitude sometimes made their situation difficult.