This is a time when land available for new farming operations is shrinking while costs to purchase land to permit entry to farming have become all but prohibitive. At the same time, the farmer population is largely beyond retirement age and the recruitment of new and younger farmers to replace those leaving farming faces bleak prospects. We can no longer afford blissful ignorance of this situation.
Society has a vital stake in the continuance of regular and small-scale farming to provide a dependable source of safe, wholesome and nutritious produce and animal products on a sustained basis. How can the remaining farmable land be preserved and a new generation of trained farmers be put on those lands?
Farmland Survey reveals extreme challenges of local farmers
The American Farmland Trust with funding by the Puget Sound Partnership conducted the 2024 Puget Sound Agricultural Viability Survey of former, current and aspiring farmers (342 respondents) “to help understand the state of and opportunities for increasing agricultural viability for producers in the Puget Sound region.” The survey was also meant “to create awareness of and support for locally based agricultural viability projects.”
There were some surprising survey findings. A majority of respondents were middle-aged (35 to 54 years old) white women and new or beginning farmers. Also, 76% owned less than 50 acres and 57% owned their land. The survey revealed 59% of farmers produced vegetables, 40% produced small fruits, and meat was also produced by 40% of growers.
Out of 276 respondents, a third made no profit in 2023 and 14% reported a net profit below $1,000. Finding affordable land to buy, pressure from urban development, the lack of time to do all needed farm work and the cost of production compared to market prices were extreme challenges faced by the farmers surveyed.
As one King County farmer said, “Input costs and lack of profitability threaten our enterprise now more than ever. Without raising customer costs beyond sustainable growth limits all capital and requires more and more time, labor and stress to my aging body. I want to see the next generation take up the life, but I can’t counsel them [that] it is a profitable or healthy life that it once was.”
What does agricultural viability means to them? The top 3 answers were:
1) profitability, 2) sustainability and 3) community.
Land stewardship, land access/protection and market access were also topics of concern.
How to Help our Local Farmers Produce a Secure Supply of Other-than-Industrial Mega-farm Food?
It is foolhardy to turn our food supply over to out-of-state and out-of-country sources for our local supply.
Fortunately, we have two potentially promising pieces of the solution standing by. First, it is now well established that large acreage farms are not necessary for efficient operation and generating a profit. In fact, just the opposite is true. Small farms are far more efficient and profitable on a per-acre basis than large, chemical corporate farms.
Secondly, there is a fairly large population of eager young people, as well as older transition-seeking farmers, waiting to get on the land and practice environmentally compatible and ecological farming while living simple life-styles.
A Doable Plan to Save Local Agriculture
First, all the remaining farmland should be bought up by local and state governments, ASAP. Parcels can then be divided into small plots of an acre or so and rented out to new, qualified farmers by local governments or state agencies similar to the English allotment system. Another option is a three-way arrangement under a strictly regulated agreement between a landowner, new tenant and local government giving tax relief incentives in a program I devised years ago and named “Project Rebound.”
But, that is only half of what’s needed. To do this right, and to truly advance agriculture, plus make farming assuredly profitable for new and established farmers, the guiding objective should be HEALTH through nutrition. Participating farmers need to sell HEALTH as their marketing advantage and to give their products greater appeal to increasingly health-conscious customers willing to pay premium prices. What they will get back is priceless. In the process, public health substantially improves.
In order for this agricultural upgrade to take place, two things are necessary; advanced farmer training, and the provision of the necessary materials, including natural fertilizers, to raise the nutrient content of soils resulting in high nutrient dense food crops and livestock products (meat, fish, eggs and dairy). What goes along with high nutrient quality is superior taste and keeping quality plus a bonus for the farmers of greatly reduced pest and disease losses. This means fewer pesticides used.
To address the need for farmer training, I have drafted an Agronomy Handbook based on the system of farming known as Ecological Agriculture. Because it is unrealistic to expect new farmers coming onto the land to have the financial resources to afford all the needed materials to get to the optimum level of complete and balanced soil fertility, and because it is of the highest societal interest that they be able to do so, public funding sources will need to be secured either as grants or loans on generous terms.
Funding Local Agriculture Funds the Public Health
If justification is needed for provision of public money, it can be chalked-up to a substantial reversal of the Country’s ever worsening health crisis attributable primarily to poor diet based on the plethora of nutrient-poor foods being grown on the nation’s nutrient depleted chemically treated soils. Ecological agriculture is the needed replacement making possible genuine agricultural sustainability and guaranteed food security. Why not get started right away?
There are two logical sources of funding and technical assistance in carrying out this proposed soil health upgrade program. One is federal agencies (in normal times) through the Farm Bill. Another prospective source could be through a Statewide initiative that I am naming Farming Futures with a slogan of Farming for the Future. This would need to be preceded by an intense information and education campaign to inform the public about the existing and increasingly more dire situation in agriculture, and the urgent need to preserve farmland and fund material purchases and technical assistance to new farmers. If the public is adequately informed, I suspect they would approve the initiative.
There is another positive aspect of a campaign emphasizing farming for the future. This is a way to tell potential new farmers and established farmers that the problem of neglecting agricultural needs is being recognized and corrective measures are being actively sought so a better future in farming could well be coming. Should the initiative pass, the prospects for a brighter future would be markedly buoyed.
Gary L. Kline is the owner of BLOSSOM Organics Garden Store which specializes in producing organic minerally enriched fertilizers and produces the South Sound Food Gardener’s Calendar to guide your gardening for spring and winter gardens.
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