Fall 2010

Vol. 2, No.86

Publication of the Northeast Organic Farming Association

NOFA Does it Again:

1077-2294

One More Fabulous Summer Conference

by Mindy Harris, Summer Conference

Publicity Coordinator and
Amy Scheuerman, Public Relations Intern

By all accounts, the 36th Annual Summer Conference at UMass Amherst was a smashing
success. This year rivaled past years, with approximately 1400 attendees, over 200 workshops, 100 exhibitors, and loads of fun and
immeasurable good will. The keynote speakers
packed their respective presentations each night
and brought very different contributions and
perspectives to their talks.
Sally Fallon Morell, Weston A. Price Foundation president, is a nutrition expert who advocates raw milk, fermented foods, animal fats,
cod liver oil and salt as essential foundations
of a healthy diet. She spoke as Friday keynoter.
Catherine Murphy, a documentary filmmaker,
Cuban studies expert, and Food First Fellow,
stepped in for Dr. Fernando Funes, the originally scheduled Saturday keynoter, who could not
make it to the states from Havana, Cuba. The
conference was preceded by the Northeast Raw
Milk Symposium, which hosted about 80 participants from around the region. Guest speakers included Sally Fallon Morell, Pete Kennedy,
from the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense
Fund, and a number of raw milk farmers from
across the Northeast.
The Friday keynote address was focused on
a relatively new topic - salt. In deference to
her well-versed audience, Morell breezed past
her conventional plug for raw milk. Instead,
after a brief reminder to bolt butter and gorge
on goose fat, she moved onto the new enemy:
low sodium diets. In her keynote, Fallon Morell

photo by Jack Kittredge

Much of the conference focused on the tent housing registration and exhibits, and the pond
lawn where the fair took place.

outlined the ways that salt has affected the

rise and fall of civilizations, how it aids our
bodies, and how using more salt can actually
help Americans increase their vegetable
consumption. She urged attendees to continue
to salt their foods and make sure that their
organically grown veggies were delectably
marketed with recipes including a healthy dose
of animal fats and a dash of sodium chloride.
To end her address Fallon Morell left us with
the following message, We are all worthy
of participating in bounty and diversity and
deliciousness. We must nourish ourselves and

take care of ourselves. Corporations think the

future is in their hands, but it is in our hands.
continued on page 41

Inside This Issue

Features

Fungus Devastates Bat Populations 8

More Summer Conference Pictures 41

Supplement on
Organic Farming
and Money

It Is Partly About Money

9
Tracies Community Farm
11
Organic Net Household Income
16
2008 VT Organic Dairy Economics 18
But Why Cant I Just Farm?
23
Making a Living on Organic Veggies 30
Waynes Organic Garden
35

Departments

Some workshops were held outdoors to enjoy the lovely weather.

photo by Jack Kittredge

Editorial
NOFA Exchange
News Notes
Book Reviews
NOFA Contact People
NOFA Membership
Calendar

2
3
4
42
46
47
47

Organic
Farming
and
Money

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

by Jack Kittredge
For many of us small organic farmers in the
Northeast, the financial return we get for our work
is quite modest. Some of us earn less per hour than
our workers, some make less than minimum wage,
some even lose money despite their free labor. But
there are some who are doing well, too paying
themselves a living wage and having enough left
over to put something away for retirement and
reinvest in improvements to the farm. Whichever
side of the profit picture we are on, most of us
dont want to talk about our bottom line publicly.
But economic sustainability is necessary for farm
sustainability, so we need to shed some light on this
area.
In this issue we attempt just that. We look at some of
the issues framing why people enter this profession,
as well as some of the numbers economists study.
Organic farming is a relatively new phenomenon for
our national statisticians. The recent 2007 Census of
Agriculture and 2008 Organic Survey have begun to
track organic farms and markets. We present some
of the more relevant numbers from that exhaustive
data. Those interested in the full report and the

The Natural Farmer

Needs You!

The Natural Farmer is a quarterly membership

journal of the Northeast Organic Farming
Association.
We plan a year in advance so those who want to
write on a topic can have a lot of lead time. The
next 3 issues will be:

Winter 2010 - 2011:

Organic Farming and Co-ops

Spring 2011:

Organic Tree Fruit

Summer 2011:

Legumes as Cover Crops

If you can help us on any of these topics, or have
ideas for new ones, please get in touch. We need
your help!
Moving or missed an issue? The Natural Farmer
will not be forwarded by the post office, so you
need to make sure your address is up-to-date if you
move. Those who regularly send us a subscription
fee should send address changes to us. Most of
you, however, get this paper as a NOFA member
benefit for paying your chapter dues and should
send address updates to your local NOFA chapter
(listed at the end of each issue).
Archived issues from Summer 1999 through Fall
2005 are available at http://www.library.umass.
edu/spcoll/digital/tnf/. More recent issues are
downloadable at www.nofa.org as pdf files.

Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson

411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005
978-355-2853, fax: (978) 355-4046
[email protected]

ISSN 1077-2294
copyright 2010,
Northeast Organic Farming Association, Inc

accompanying charts and tables can find them at

www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Online_
Highlights/Organics/
But for most of us, our experiences are personal
and unique. National or regional or even statewide
data does not seem anywhere near as important as
our own individual bottom lines. For these folks
we have some specific case studies of organic
farmers and their bottom lines. A detailed study
of 19 midwestern organic farms presents a wealth
of dollars and cents numbers which readers will
find quite helpful. For those interested in organic
dairying, a recent look at 35 farms in Vermont and
Maine gives detailed figures about the costs, herd
sizes, and income generated in this sector of our
industry.
Richard Wiswall, a Vermont organic farmer who
has written a well-received book on tracking farm
finances (reviewed in the book review section of this

issue) had written a thoughtful plea to pay attention

to your farm numbers if you plan to stay in business.
A simple look at your profit centers and where you
are spending more than you make will help your
operation adjust to these realities and stay around
for the long haul. Liz Henderson has laid out some
helpful numbers, from her experience, that farmers
should know about realistic expenses, while making
sure that the larger vision and values of what we are
doing are not ignored.
Lastly, we have two features on farmers -- in
New Hampshire and Connecticut. One has done
exceptionally well, financially, and one has not.
Both have been willing to share their numbers, their
Schedule Fs and answer probing questions about
their decisions and methods.
We hope all this can help you run a more thoughtful,
joyous and sustainable farming operation.

Advertise in or Sponsor The Natural Farmer

Advertisements not only bring in TNF revenue, which means

less must come from membership dues, they also make a
paper interesting and helpful to those looking for specific
goods or services. We carry 2 kinds of ads:
The NOFA Exchange - this is a free bulletin board service
(for subscribers or NOFA members who get the TNF) for
occasional needs or offerings. Send in up to 100 words and
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Frequency discount: we give a 25% discount for

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NOFA

Fall, 2010

Exchange

Successors sought for thriving, 38 acre, lowbush

blueberry farm. Land has been permanently
preserved and walking access assured. Strong
retail customer community, beautiful vistas, annual
farm festival, and value added products. Asking
$275,000. Gradual transition preferred.
Dave Gott & Ted Watt in Heath, MA. 413-337-5340
www.bensonplace.org
Farm For Sale. Savoy MA. 3 br, 1 ba. very well
keptranch house (built in 1986)with oversize
newer attached 2 car garage. Immaculate property
withsmall barn, chicken coop, one stall horse
barn, shed, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries,
hundreds of Christmas trees, large market
garden with water in field in two spots. Has been
organically farmed since 1997. 3.3 acres mostly
open. $219,900 For details contact Joe Bettis at
[email protected] 413-743-8132.
Woodstock, CT family seeks tenants for
apartment on former organic CSA site. Bright,
2 bedroom, 1000 sq. ft. apt. utilities included,
on-site laundry, solar hot water, PV, private back
deck,excellent drinking water, big sky, breezy

Blow Your Own Horn!

OFRF (Organic Farming Research Foundation)

is seeking an executive director who will bring
authenticity, financial savvy, and integrity to the
work. Full-time position based in Santa Cruz,
California with access to farmers markets, fine art
and music venues, quality restaurants, the Pacific
Ocean and redwood forests. Start date: First quarter
of 2011, Deadline for applications: September
13, 2010 or until position is filled. Compensation:
Competitive salary and benefits, Confidential
Application Process. Inquiries from candidates
are welcomed and should be directed to Margaret
Donohoe, leadership transition consultant at (408)
979-0572. For more info, please visit our web site at
http://www.OFRF.org

Please help us thank these

Friends of Organic Farming
for their generous support!

Supporting a Food Culture that is

Regional
Sun-based
Grass-roots
Kim Q. Matland

The Natural Farmer

hilltop, bird life. Established 80x100 deer-proof
vegetable garden, plus 3 more available acres for
flora or fauna. Supportive community. References
required.contact [email protected]

Little Falls, NY,80 acres for sale. This property is

a geographically and ecologicallyvaried land form
consisting of excellent soils, rolling topography,
sheltered ravines, maturing forest with frontage on
West Canada Creek and paved town road. Land
meets standards for organic certification. Asking
$165,000. For details see www.bowne.info,or
contact Doug Bowne at [email protected], 315866-1403.
FOR SALE: MOFGA-certified organic seed
garlic. Bogatyr, Georgian Crystal, German XHardy, German White, Metechi, Music, Phillips,
Rosewood, Russian Red, Siberian Red. One to
50 lbs @ $16 per lb, 51-100 lbs @ $14/lb, more
than 100 lbs @ $12/lb; plus shipping. Five per
cent discount on orders received by Sept 1. David
McDaniel or Heather Selin, Earth Dharma Farm,
207 722 3386, [email protected],
www.earthdharmafarm.com.

News Notes

The Natural Farmer

compiled by Jack Kittredge

Family Organic Purchases Up Despite Economy

An Organic Trade Association (OTA) study of 2009
purchases finds that 31 percent of American families
are actually buying more organic food than a year
ago. Researchers gathered data from 1200 families
across the country for the study
source: Organic Processing, July/August, 2009
US Organic Product Sales Reach $26.6 Billion
According to a 2010 OTA study, organic product
sales grew by 5.3% last year to reach $26.6 billion.
Total US food sales grew by only 1.6%, in comparison. Organic fruit and vegetable sales were $9.5
billion, representing 11.4% of total US fruit and
vegetable sales.
source: The Organic and Non-GMO Report
Supreme Court Alfalfa Decision a Defeat for
Monsantos Ambitions
The 7-1 decision issued June 21 by the Supreme
Court reversed an injunction banning sales of GMO
alfalfa, but, more importantly, left that ban intact,
and the planting and sale of GMO alfalfa illegal.
Monsanto immediately hit the press with the claim
that it had won because the injunction was overturned. But the ruling isnt close to the victory they
were hoping for.

The Supreme Court ruled that an injunction
against planting was unnecessary since, under lower
courts rulings, Roundup Ready Alfalfa became a
regulated item and illegal to plant. In other words,
the injunction was overkill because the USDA had
violated the National Environmental Policy Act and
other environmental laws when it approved Roundup Ready alfalfa. The court felt that voiding the
USDAs decision to make the crop legally available
for sale was enough. A different ruling could have
had far-reaching ramifications and impacted the
fastest growing sector of the US agriculture market
- organic. But the court clearly saw that and opted,
instead, to rule very narrowly.

In addition, the High Court did not rule on
several arguments presented by Monsanto about
the application of federal environmental law. As a
result, the Court did not make any ruling that could
have been hurtful to the National Environmental
Policy Act or any other environmental laws. In addition, the Court opinion supported the argument that
gene flow is a serious environmental and economic
threat. This means that genetic contamination from
GMOs can still be considered harm under the law,
both from an environmental and economic perspective.

This Court opinion is in many ways a victory for the environment, for farmers, and for consumers and a defeat for Monsantos hopes of a green
light. To represent this opinion in any other way is
just spin.
source: the Huffington Post, June 21, 2010
Vermicomposted Manure Said to Suppress Late
Blight Better than Vermicomposted Biosolids.
In composting, how important a role does the staring material play in disease suppression? Polish
scientist, Magdalena Szczech, and colleagues found
that vermicompost made from cow, sheep and horse
manure suppressed disease caused by Phytophthora
infestans in tomato, while vermicomposted biosolids
did not. There is a large body of scientific literature
on disease suppressive thermophilic composts that
deals with a range of feedstocks. However, its difficult to compare between studies because experimental methods can differ widely.
source: Allison Jack, Cornell PhD in plant pathology, in interview with Red Worm Composting, http://
www.redwormcomposting.com/interviews/interviewwith-allison-jack/
Mark Lipson Moves to NOP
OFRFs Senior Policy Analyst Mark Lipson has accepted a position at the USDA as Program Specialist
for Organic Farming. We wish him luck!
source: The Organic Broadcaster, July/August 2010

Fall, 2010

European Union Allows Member States Home

Rule on GMO Plantings
The founding principle of the European Union the
common market has been broken by the European
Commissions decision in July to allow each member state to go its own way regarding the cultivation
of genetically modified (GM) crops. As EU health
and consumer affairs commissioner John Dalli put
it, we are basically giving much more flexibility to
member states to restrict the cultivation of GMOs in
their countries. Or, indeed, to promote them. Thus,
for the first time, the single European market is proposed to be set aside, although this radically retrograde step will require the approval of the European
Parliament and a qualified majority of the European
Council, representing the member states.

The commissions decision is a clear recognition of, and even response to, deep-seated divisions
among member states over GM cultivation and
use. Despite years of lobbying by Monsanto and
other biotech companies, Ireland, Austria, Bulgaria,
France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and
Poland remain opposed, while the Czech Republic,
Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden are in
favor.
source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0715/1224274739048.html
New Law Prohibits Chemical Pesticides on all
School Grounds in New York
New York Governor Patterson has signed the Child
Safe Playing Fields Act, which bans the use of
chemical pesticides on all school grounds at both
public and private schools.Well never have
100% evidence that a particular chemical exposure
has caused a toxic injury, says Dr. Leo Trasande,
pediatrician and Co-Director of the Childrens Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School
of Medicine,but we have a responsibility to our
children to prevent toxic exposures so that they
dont carry the burden of disease in the future. A
recent report on the comparative costs of natural vs.
chemical turf management showed that natural turf
management could cost significantly less. The report
was widely credited with helping to convince legislators to support the measure.
source: Grassroots Environmental Education press
release, May 18, 2010

Fall, 2010

Rats Fatten More on High-Fructose Corn Syrup

A Princeton University research team has found that
rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
gain significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even though overall caloric intake was the same. All rats drinking HFCS, even at
levels well below those in soda pop, became obese,
without exception. Scientists suspect that the chemical composition of the HFCS the fructose being
unbound and available for immediate absorption
makes it more easily utilized by the body than that
of cane or beet sugar, where the fructose is bound to
glucose and requires an extra metabolic step before
utilization.
source: Maine Organic Farmer and Gardener, JuneAugust 2010
US Needs 13 Million More Acres of Fruits and
Vegetables to Meet the RDA
The American Farmland Trust has estimated that we
need another 13 million acres of farmland growing
fruits and vegetables just for Americans to meet the
minimum daily requirement of fruits and vegetables
set by the U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDA)
2005 dietary guidelines. With the majority of these
fruits and vegetables grown in the path of development, and the need for 13 million more acres, we
must ask, how can we afford to lose another acre of
farmland and still expect to improve the health of
our nation? asks AFT president Jon Scholl.
source: AFT press release, July 7, 2010
CoolBot A Poor Mans Walk-in Cooler
Ron Khosla, New York organic farmer and activist
in the Certified Naturally Grown movement, will
perhaps endear himself most to organic farming history by his invention of the ingenious CoolBot.
About the size of a paperback book, it is an electronic device that fools a normal room air conditioner into continuing to lower the temperature down to
almost 32F. (It does this by holding a tiny heating
element against the temperature sensor of the AC
unit. Yes, it does have a system to prevent the AC
from icing up as it goes into this uncharted territory.) That way someone unable to afford a walk-in
cooler for the normal $3000 to $8000 price of a
small good used unit can throw together some studs,
insulation and plywood, make an insulated box with

The Natural Farmer

a door, cut a hole, install a used room air conditioner, attach a $300 CoolBot, plug it all in and voila a
home made walk-in cooler for less than $1000!

I talked with my refrigeration guy about it
(I see a lot of him as we have a 50-year old corkinsulated 7x7 foot walk-in with a belt drive we got
as an ancient hand-me-down in 1982, and he keeps
shaking his head about how much longer it may or
may not work.) He was enthusiastic about CoolBots,
even though you would think they would be cutting into his business. Apparently the simplicity of
the idea sparked his admiration more than it did his
jealousy. He said the only problem is that a CoolBot/AC combo will not work well when it is cold
out. If you use it for spring and fall cooling, at under
50F outside temperature, say, the efficiency goes
way down and at even colder temperatures, it may
not work at all. (Khosla says that depends on the
brand of air conditioner you have. He recommends
LG.) But with those daytime temperatures, if you
are not going in and out a lot, you can just bring in
nighttime air and shut out daytime air with fans and
vents and run it like a root cellar. Check the CoolBot
out at http://www.storeitcold.com/index.php. As you
would expect, Ron has a lot of good info up there.

GMO Crops Widespread in US

USDA data about insect & herbicide tolerant genetically engineered crops show the staggering extent of
the acceptance of biotech crops in the US. According to their figures, in 2010, herbicide tolerant soybeans composed 93% of soy acres planted, herbicide
tolerant corn was planted to 70% of corn acres, and
herbicide tolerant cotton was planted on 78% of cotton acres.
source: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/BiotechCrops/
Bob Scowcroft Retires as OFRF (Organic Farming Research Foundation) Executive Director
Bob Scowcroft, founder and executive director of
OFRF, will retire in March, 2011. He will be much
missed by the organic community. During Bobs
twenty-year tenure, OFRF has played a central role
in gaining organic research support at the federal
level and OFRF itself has awarded more than $2.5
million in grants to organic research and education
projects. OFRF has also worked in Washington,
D.C. to get organic farming policies and programs
that benefit organic farmers.
source: OFRF press release, July 9, 2010

The Natural Farmer

U.S. Drops OCIA as Organic Inspector of Food

in China
Serious questions about organic certification in
China have been raised by the USDA. The agency,
which uses private groups to conduct most organic
inspections worldwide, has banned a leading American inspector from operating in China because of
a conflict of interest that strikes at the heart of the
organics guarantee. The federal agency also plans
to send an audit team to China this year to broadly
review the certification process. The banned inspector, the Organic Crop Improvement Association,
allegedly used employees of a Chinese government
agency to inspect state-controlled farms and food
processing facilities. The group, based in Nebraska,
has for years been one of the leading inspectors of
Chinese organics for the United States market.
Whole Foods Market, the nations leading
organic retailer, has used Chinese organic foods,
including those from OCIA-inspected producers, in
many of its store brand products, including frozen
vegetables and bottled teas. But the number of those
products has been shrinking, in part because of consumer worries about their credentials as organic.
Two years ago, the company said, it sold about 30
private label items with organic ingredients from
China; by the end of this year, it will stock only two:
shelled and unshelled frozen edamame soybeans.
Over the years, weve gotten a lot of critical feedback from customers on products that we source
from China, said Errol Schweizer, Whole Foods
senior global grocery coordinator.
source: Center for Food Safety press release, June
Organic Valley/CROPP Disallows Raw Milk Sales 13, 2010
by Members
Budget Shortfalls Hit Illinois Prison Diet
By a 5 to 4 vote, in mid-May, the board of the
CROPP dairy cooperative, owner of the Organic Val- Budget shortfalls and unpaid bills have forced a virtually meatless diet on Illinois prisoners, exacerbatley brand, voted to not allow farmer-owners to sell
ing health problems and raising tensions among the
raw milk. They cited challenges in managing milk
states prison population. The quality of prison food
supply as an important factor in this decision. All
members sign contracts committing their entire mar- has been reduced to the point that its nearly inedible, said Ken Kleinlein, president of the union loket output to the cooperative, but that has not been
cal at Western Illinois Correctional Center in Mount
rigorously enforced and many members diverted
Sterling, Illinois, noting that much of the food is
a small amount of output to the lucrative raw milk
soy-based or pure soy. When the meals are like
market. Now the policy will be taken seriously and
this, it puts a huge strain on the inmate population.
members will have to choose which business they
Until recently, inmates received several meals
are in selling organic milk for pasteurization or
containing chicken, turkey or pork each week; but
selling raw milk.
source: The Organic Broadcaster, July/August 2010 recent unpaid bills by the Illinois Department of
Almond Farmers Can Challenge USDA Pasteurization Rule
A federal appeals court ruled in early August, overturning a lower court decision, that a group of California almond farmers have the right to challenge a
USDA regulation requiring the treatment of their raw
almonds with a toxic fumigant or steam heat prior
to sale to consumers. For the past three years, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture has denied American
consumers the right to buy raw almonds, grown in
the USA, when they shop in grocery and natural food
stores.
A group of almond growers sued the government to challenge USDAs rule, but the federal district court ruled that courtroom doors were closed
to the growers claims. The USDA and the Almond
Board of California imposed the treatment scheme
to minimize the risk of salmonella contamination
outbreaks like those that had occurred with almonds
in 2001 and 2004. USDA investigators were never
able to determine how salmonella bacteria somehow
contaminated the raw almonds that caused the food
illnesses but they were able to trace back one of the
outbreaks, in part, to the countrys largest factory
farm, growing almonds and pistachios on over 9000
acres.Family-scale growers have argued that the
onerous and expensive mandated treatment regime
is only needed by the giant industrial producers, who
have less control over the quality of their nuts, and
has hurt their market because of consumer resistance.
source: http://www.cornucopia.org/almond/Koretoff_
DCCir_Opinion.pdf.

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Fall, 2010
Corrections has forced elimination of these items,
resulting in soy-based meals for breakfast, lunch and
dinner. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has a huge
surplus of chicken legs, which it sends to China and
other countries overseas. Soy was introduced into
the prisons as a substitute for meat in January 2003,
when Rod Blagojevich became governor. Archer
Daniel Midlands, a major contributor to Blagojevichs campaign, was the main beneficiary of the
new prison food policy. In the wake of the dietary
change, prisoners began to suffer from a variety
of health problems, including digestive disorders,
severe constipation, debilitating diarrhea, vomiting
and extreme pain after eating. Skin problems, thyroid disorders and endocrine disruption leading to
breast development are also common.
The Weston A. Price Foundation has filed suit
seeking an injunction putting a halt to the use of a
soy-laden diet in the prison system. The group supports farms on prison land. A self-supporting farm
program for Illinois prisons is a win-win proposition, says president Sally Fallon Morell. The
prisoners would be well fed and healthy, they would
have meaningful work, and the state would save
millions of taxpayer dollars every year.
source: http://www.westonaprice.org/press/1988budget-shortfalls-hit-illinois-prison-diet.html
Russian Seed Bank Threatened
A Russian court has ruled that the worlds first seed
bank, outside of St. Petersburg, Russia, may be
destroyed in order to make way for a housing development. Called a Living Library, 90% of the
Pavlovsk Experimental Station collections varieties
are not found anywhere else on the planet. Founded
in 1926 by Russian agricultural scientist Nikolai
Vavilov, the station became an icon of human perseverance when 12 Soviet scientists made a stand,
choosing to starve to death rather than eat the precious seed and plant collection during the grueling
900-day siege of Leningrad between 1941 and 1943.
Supporters of the seed bank are calling for appeals
to Russias President Medvedev and Prime Minister
Putin to stop this destruction.
source: http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/
go/save_the_worlds_first_seed_bank_act_now/
212?akid=178.5019.XHjz_M&t=7

Fall, 2010

EPA Fines Monsanto $2.5 Million for Distributing Misbranded GMO

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that Monsanto has agreed to pay a $2.5
million penalty for misbranding violations related
to the sale and distribution of cotton seed products
containing genetically engineered pesticides. This
is the largest civil administrative penalty settlement
ever received under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
Monsanto Bollgard and Bollgard II cotton
seed is genetically engineered to contain Bacillus
thuringiensis which acts as a pesticide. EPA restricted planting of the cotton seed product in 10 Texas
counties to protect against pests becoming resistant
to Bt and other microbial products used in sprays
and dusts. Monsanto was required to control the
sale and distribution of the cotton seed, but in 2007
disclosed to EPA that it had distributed misbranded
Bollgard and Bollgard II cotton seed to customers in
the Texas counties. EPAs subsequent investigation
confirmed that between 2002 and 2007, the company distributed or sold the cotton products more than
1,700 times nationwide without the planting restrictions in its grower guides.
source: EPA press release, July 8, 2010
New Guide Urges Organic Food Choices to Protect the Environment and Farmworkers
A new guide, Eating with a Conscience, explains
how foods grown with hazardous chemicals contaminate water and air, hurt biodiversity, harm farmworkers, and kill bees, birds, fish and other wildlife,
even if a large number of residues do not remain on
the finished food product. The guide asks consumers
to, when possible, buy organic food.
source: http://www.beyondpesticides.org/organicfood/conscience/chart.html

The Natural Farmer

Two Years in Prison for Organic Violation

A Texas Department of Agriculture inspection has
resulted in a 24-month prison term for a man found
to be falsely portraying his companys produce as
organic. He also must pay over $500,000 in restitution and is prohibited from participating in the
USDA organic program for five years.
source: The Germinator, Summer 2010
Organic Milk Higher in Key Nutrients
Cornell scientists have published a study comparing
concentrations of heart-healthy fatty acids in samples of conventional rbST and organic whole milk.
Conjugated linoleic acid levels were 23% higher in
the organic sample, and omega 3 levels were 63%
higher
source: OEFFA News, Late Spring 2010
Court Rescinds USDA Approval of GMO Beets
Federal Judge Jeffrey White has rescinded the USDAs approval of genetically engineered Roundup
Ready sugar beets. In Seprember 2009, the Court
had found that the USDA violated the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by approving
the Monsanto-engineered biotech crop without first
preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. The
new ruling officially vacated the USDA deregulation of Monsantos biotech sugar beets and
prohibited any future planting and sale pending the
agencys compliance with NEPA and all other relevant laws. USDA has estimated that an EIS may
be ready by 2012.
source: http://truefoodnow.org/2010/08/13/federalcourt-rescinds-usda-approval-of-genetically-engineered-sugar-beets/

San Francisco Markets Sewage Sludge as Organic

Sludge from the city and seven other counties industrial, hospital, commercial and residential sewage is being marketed by the San Francisco Public
Utilities Commission as organic compost or
organic fertilizer. The USDA prohibits sewage
sludge from being used to grow organic food.
source: Acres, USA, May 2010

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The Natural Farmer

Fall, 2010

Disease Devastates Bat Populations as Spread Continues

by Zoe Sheldon
Bats have long been among the creatures most
maligned by myths and folktales. Flitting in and out
of sight at dusk or hanging silently in the warmth
of a quiet attic, they are somewhat otherworldly in
both appearance and behavior, their mammalian
bodies and papery wings a bizarre complement,
their erratic, nocturnal flight and communal roosting
habits equally unfamiliar. They seem to be part
of a dimension we are unable or unwilling to
access, and though we share habitat, often in closer
proximity than we may realize, most people are
reluctant to relinquish the idea of bats as dangerous,
disease-ridden, or otherwise undesirable company.
We should recognize, though, as we watch them
swooping above ponds or streams in the waning
hours of a summer evening, that their presence does
us far more good than harm.

Organic farmers and gardeners know better than

almost anyone just how many insects can fill a
summer sky, but may be less aware that bats are
a key partner in controlling insect populations.
As voracious insectivores, individual bats may
consume up to a thousand insects an hour, reducing
pest populations that would otherwise destroy
agricultural crops or threaten public health. In turn,
organic farms and gardens foster an abundance
and diversity of insects that conventional growers
destroy through the use of pesticides. This prey
base means that organic farms consistently host a
higher abundance and diversity of bat species than
their conventional counterparts. In this respect, as
in so many others, organic agriculture comes closer
to maintaining a natural, sustainable ecological
equilibrium. Unfortunately, this partnership
between humans and bats is being severely
disrupted as Northeastern bat populations are
decimated by an emerging fungal pathogen.

White-nose syndrome (WNS) was first discovered

in upstate New York in the winter of 2006-2007.
Named for the characteristic white fungus found
encircling the muzzles of infected individuals, the
disease has rapidly spread to fourteen states and
two Canadian provinces. It is estimated that in four
winters, WNS has killed well over a million bats
as they congregate to spend the coldest months
of the year in caves or abandoned mines (termed
hibernacula). Though the syndromes pathology
is still not well understood, the fungus has been
identified as a new species and namedGeomyces
destructans for its devastating effect on
overwintering bat populations. While the fungus is
the most visible symptom of the disease, it seems
not to be the primary cause of death. Affected bats
are essentially dying of starvationsomething about
the syndrome causes the fat reserves accumulated
before entering hibernation to be depleted long
before the winter is over.Since their insect prey is
not available in these cold months, they simply run
out of energy and perish.
Mortality rates between 70 and 90 percent are
typical in WNS-affected hibernacula, though many
colonies have been entirely annihilated. Caves

photo courtesy Ryan von Linden/New York Department of Environmental Conservation

Little brown bat with fungus on dorsal surface of wing and tail membranes
that once hosted hundreds or thousands of bats are
now empty.Nine species are currently known to
be affectedthe little brown bat, big brown bat,
northern long-eared bat, tricolored bat (formerly
known as the eastern pipistrelle), eastern smallfooted bat, the newly-affected cave myotis and
southeastern myotis, and two federally endangered
speciesthe Indiana bat and the gray bat.

The origins of the disease are still

unclear. Currently, the leading hypothesis asserts
that cavers with infected gear introduced the fungus
to North Americaa genetically identical fungus
has been confirmed on bats in several European
countriesthough this has yet to be confirmed as
the sole vector of introduction. Scientists believe
that white-nose syndrome is primarily transmitted
among individual bats as they gather to hibernate
colonially, though it may also be acquired from
fungal spores present in hibernacula. Several lines
of evidence suggest that humans are also partially
responsible for the spread of the diseasethe
geographic pattern of spread has been described
as leapfrogging because sequentially infected
hibernacula have been located great distances apart
(farther than infected bats are likely to disperse),
many of the first caves to be infected were popular
recreational caves, and caves inaccessible to
humans are, as yet, less likely to be infected. This
year, WNS has been newly confirmed in Maryland,
Tennessee, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma,
Ontario, and Quebec, and has continued to leave
a wake of empty caves littered with tiny bodies
in states already affected, including Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and West
Virginia.

Perhaps most tragically, we, as land managers,

farmers, gardeners, or general bat appreciators,
remain largely helpless in the face of this
epidemic. The most substantive efforts to stem
the WNS catastrophe have been administrative
cave closuresseveral state and federal agencies
have closed their caves to recreational use so as
to minimize human-mediated spread. However, a
major lack of funding has hobbled cohesive research
and management effortsto date, Congress has
appropriated only a small fraction of the amount
deemed necessary by biologists and wildlife
managers. Because the scale of the WNS epidemic
necessitates that it be addressed on a national level,
in May of this year NOFA chapters in Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New
York, Rhode Island, and Vermont, as well as from
MOFGA in Maine, co-signed a plea authored by
several national conservation groups for increased
federal funding for efforts aimed at understanding
and mitigating this crisis. As concerned citizens,
our most useful role is to pressure our political
representatives to give this issue the resources
and attention it merits. Take action the oldfashioned waycall or write your Congressional
representatives to voice your concern.
The Northeast is now facing the loss of the vast
majority of its bats, and other regions may soon
confront a similar plight. We are engaged in the
proverbial race against time, and scrambling
more desperately by the week to keep sight of the
possibility thatbat populations can be sustained,
and in time recover, so the summer twilight may be
punctuated by the flight of these unassuming allies
for years to come.
For more information about WNS, visit: http://www.
biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/bat_crisis_whitenose_syndrome/index.html

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

Special Supplement on

Organic Farms and Money

Organic Farming It Is Partly About Money
by Elizabeth Henderson

Our society as a whole looks down on jobs that get

people dirty. Vocational studies are for youngsters
who do poorly at academic courses. We call picking
vegetables stoop labor, and the majority of the
people who do this work are undocumented migrant
farm workers whose average annual wages amount
to less than $13,000 a year, according to the United
Farm Workers. NYS law requires farmers to pay
hired helpers minimum wage, soon to rise to $7.65
an hour, and federal law requires paying legal H2A
guest workers $9.60 an hour, but there is no
requirement for time and a half for work over 40
hours a week.

The mantra of corporate business is you are either

growing or you are dying, or as Cornell and the
other land grant schools have advised farmers, Get
bigger, or get out! Family-scale organic farms
have a different set of values. We want our farm
businesses to be sustainable for our generation
and for generations to come. To achieve this, our
methods for growing food must be ecologically
sound, putting back into the soil the nutrients that
our crops take out, and improving or at least not
damaging the natural systems upon which the farm
depends. Like a living organism, the farm must
reach the size that balances resources of land and
people. Resilience is the key concept. To remain
viable, the economics of our farm business dealings
have to be fair for us as farmers, for the people who
work for us, and for the people to whom we sell our
food.
The pleasures of farming do compensate for the
small financial returns. The great variety of physical
and mental tasks makes running a family-scale
organic farm both challenging and attractive. You
can be your own boss, part time laborer and part
time practical scientist. A sort of farming fever lures
people to this work where one of the main benefits
is ag, the aesthetic gluttony of working with
nature.
Northeast farmers spend our winters planning, doing
financial management, marketing, and research on
pest control, crop varieties, nutrient management
and equipment. During the growing season, farmers
with more than 5 acres in production operate,
maintain and repair machines. And then there are
many hours of routine physical labor, growing
crops, caring for livestock and manicuring the
farmstead landscape and buildings. On a livestock
farm, there are daily chores feeding animals, lugging
buckets of water, sacks of feed, repairing fences.
Vegetable growers spend hours in greenhouses
seeding and transplanting, then planting, hoeing,
weeding, harvesting, washing and packing produce
in all kinds of weather.
Self-employed farmers have higher social status
than farm workers, but not much more cash income;
most carry a lot of debt. The hourly wage is often
less than the minimum wages we pay our workers
and many of our areas organic farms are among
the 84% of all US farms that depend on a family
members off-farm labor, especially for benefits like
health insurance. Among NOFA farmers, a cash
income after all expenses are paid of $30,000 a year
from the farm would be considered successful.
Getting Started
If new farms are needed, what does it take to start
an organic vegetable farm? The basics are land
with a good supply of clean water for irrigation and
washing produce, training for the farmer, equipment
(for tillage, weed control, trucking) and a minimum
of infrastructure (barn, greenhouse, cooler).
I asked some young farmers what they had to
invest to get started. Before farming on their own,

photo courtesy Abundance Co-op

Rochesters Abundance Co-ops Dave

Daunce shows list of current local suppliers

each young farmer devoted 4 to 6 years in some

combination of college study in horticulture and
business management or internships on organic
farms. They gained experience through jobs in
landscaping, food coops or restaurants. Then began
the search for land. One young man purchased 25
acres with a fixer-upper house, taking on a sizable
mortgage. A young woman found an older farmer
who agreed to lease 3 - 4 acres to her for just $1,
land that could be sold for at least $8000 an acre as
a big parcel or broken into house lots for $20,000 to
$50,000 an acre.
His first year of production, the young man grew
an acre of vegetables and sold them at a farmers
market while supporting himself doing carpentry,
landscaping and pruning. The second year, he
spent $13,000 for the materials to build a 20 by
40 packing shed, and $3000 for materials for a 27
by 48 greenhouse doing all the labor himself. For
equipment, he bought a late 80s 25-horsepower
tractor, a set of disks, a seeder, two mowers, and
traded carpentry work for a rototiller, spending
over $10,000 in all. His gross sales on 4 acres were
$25,000, but he also paid $8000 for labor, 3 part
time helpers at $7.50 an hour plus workers comp.
Add on $3000 in expenses for seed, potting soil,
fuel and parts. Do the math the farmers salary
- $0. By living with family and getting the land
almost for free, the young woman hopes to net
$6000 for herself.
Labor
There are never too many hands to do all the work
on a farm and rarely enough dollars to pay for all
that needs to be done. On the smallest farms, when
asked about farm workers, the farmer might say
- Meet my farmhands my right hand and my
left hand. Often, the farm work is shared among
members of the immediate family. Unpaid family
labor is essential to the whole economy of a small,
integrated farm where one of the products is the
people.

And there is no protection for farm workers who

want to organize. The National Labor Relations Act
excludes two groups of workers farm workers and
domestics. Since 911, the Department of Homeland
Security has increased its operatives along the
NY northern border from 341 to 2000, and farms
complain bitterly about raids and arrests. There is a
critical need for immigration reform and passage of
the AgJobs bill.
Marketing
There is a lot of demand for local food these days.
Going local provides many benefits at the same
time.
* Your money circulates in your own
community: family-scale farms are independent
businesses that tend to support other local
businesses. A multinational corporation is not
siphoning your dollars off to line its coffers or pay
its stockholders.
* If ever there were green jobs, employment
in local sustainable agriculture meets the definition.
* Economically viable farms preserve open
space and beautiful working landscapes.
* And eating local food saves energy. David
Pimentel, Professor of Insect Ecology at Cornell
University, has calculated that modern industrial
agriculture expends 10 calories for each food-calorie
produced. Many of those excess calories are burned
up in transportation, packaging, marketing, and
manufacturing synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.
But it turns out that buying from local organic
farmers is complicated. While farms producing
meat, milk and eggs can and do supply regional
food coops and other stores that prioritize local
purchasing 12 months a year, organic vegetable
farmers only produce during the months from
May through December. Few farms have winter
storage facilities or year-round greenhouses. There
are a few hydroponic greenhouses that run all year
long, usually fertilizing with synthetic chemicals
to provide nutrients for the plants grown in a
water medium, and aquaponic greenhouses that
cycle water from fish production through beds for
vegetables, adding worm castings, an approach that
could be certified organic.
Even in the growing season, every scrap of produce
in our regions food coops is not local. One obstacle
is the lack of distribution channels for local farms.
A small order for the store may not be worth a
farmers special trip to town for delivery. The flow
of product from California is better organized, fully

10

capitalized and subsidized through government

support for the highway system and fossil fuel
supply. Another obstacle lies with the farmers
themselves on a small farm, the farmer can get so
caught up in daily farm work that s/he forgets to call
the store at the right time. Meanwhile the produce
manager has ordered from Alberts or Four Seasons,
distributors that deliver on a reliable schedule. The
organization of FLORA (Finger Lakes Organics, a
farmers marketing coop, plus Regional Access, a
trucking company) has made more regional produce
available in New York State as Deep Root does
in New England. There is a crying need for more
marketing, processing and distribution coops.
Pricing
The final piece of the complex balancing act
is price. The governments cheap food policy
dominates the macro scene. All too often, farmers
dont get to price their products - the market dictates
the price they receive. Farmers are price takers.
Distant forces the big producers and brokers in
California or Florida set the price based on their
assessment of how to corner as much of the market
as possible. Sometimes, the organic premium
makes the price farmers can get for organic food a
little higher.
In a truly fair market, the buyer negotiates with the
farmer and pays a price that covers the full cost
of producing the product, plus a fair surplus for
savings, investment in the future of the farm and
retirement. The production costs include:
a living wage for the farmers labor in seeding,
growing, harvesting, washing, packing, marketing,
delivering and keeping track of all these expenses
a living wage for farm employees, including
required taxes and insurance
for livestock, there is fencing, shelter, feed,
medical care, slaughter and processing charges
a share of the farms overhead: land costs, taxes,
insurance, depreciation on buildings and equipment,
utilities, repairs, maintenance, communications
seed, soil amendments, production aids such as
row covers or hoop houses
equipment costs: fuel, maintenance, repairs,

The Natural Farmer

implement costs for preparing soil, cultivating out
weeds, mowing or disking residues, seeding cover
crops
Irrigation: annual share of purchase cost, setuptake down and maintenance time.
Cash Flow
In the best of conditions, crop farming in the
Northeast is a seasonal business. The winter months
are a quiet time when the fields are covered with
snow and the farm has nothing to sell.
Cash sales lag behind production. With the
exception of Community Supported Agriculture
(CSA) projects where members pay for their shares
in advance or farmers markets where customers pay
immediately, most markets pay farmers after 14 to
30 days. It may take till December for farmers to
collect all payments for that growing season. No
money comes in during the winter months. But start
up in the spring requires a big cash outlay for the
season ahead.
To grow ten acres of vegetables, an organic farm
easily spends over $3000 for seed, including cover
crops, from $2000 $5000 on fertilizer, depending
on whether the farm has livestock to make its own
compost, and $3000 - $5000 on assorted supplies
(boxes, bags, pest control materials, row cover,
hoop house plastic, irrigation tape, etc.). If the
farm has a greenhouse, heating is a major expense
from March half way through a May like the one
this year. Whether the farm has money coming in
or not, the farm must pay any people it employs.
Organic certification fees are due in February; the
rate is based on gross sales from the previous year.
As probably the only government payment most
organic farms receive, federal cost share covers 75%
of those fees up to $750.
Many farms get stuck on a treadmill of borrowing
money for operations in the spring and then paying
the loan back in the fall. Once in that pattern, it is
hard to escape and one year of bad weather or low
crop prices can drive a farm out of business.

Fall, 2010
These are the intractable realities. Of course, by
dint of outstanding talents or exceptional market
conditions, some farms are doing much better
economically than others. I am sure you can each
think of one or two. But if we are to have a local
food system that reliably provides most of the food
needs for the population of our region, we must
shift our spending priorities. The people who grow
our food, farmers and farm workers, must get a
fair share so that they can go on producing and
lead decent lives. They do not need or even want
to live like corporate CEOs. Many of the organic
farmers and homesteaders I know would be happy
to serve as models for a living economy based on
the principle of ENOUGH. The Nearings, Helen
and Scott, projected an ideal of four hours a day
for bread labor, four hours for creative and artistic
activities and four hours for conviviality. Because
of economic pressures, these days, people trying
to make a living farming are so far from that ideal
it is not funny. But if we at least begin demanding
that farmers and farm workers should make a living
wage with full benefits, (health care, compensation
for injuries and unemployment, and retirement)
from a 40 hour week, we may start moving towards
an agriculture that will sustain us into a future worth
living.
Julie Rawson &
Jack Kittredge
Barre, MA
[email protected]
www.mhof.net
978-355-2853

Vegetable and Flower Shares, Chicken,

Turkey, Pork, Lard and Eggs available
Certified by Baystate Organic Certifiers

Tracies Community Farm

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

11

Tracie nets over $30,000

on her farms gross income
of just under $105,000.
by Jack Kittredge

Only a mile or so outside the center of Fitzwilliam,

NH, on the Massachusetts border, sits Tracies Community Farm. Started just in 2007, the farm nets
owner Tracie Smith a return of more than $30,000
per year. I interviewed her in mid July.
Tracie is, as you might expect, a very high energy
person. When 19 years old and a student at the University of New Hampshire studying environmental
horticulture, she decided she wanted to farm during
the summer. So she asked her stepfather if she could
plow up some of this land in Holden, NH.
I started off really small, she says, with half or
three quarters of an acre. But I got bigger every
year.
She sold to farmers markets in the rural surroundings, and didnt do that well. The year she graduated, 1999, she heard about CSAs. Tracie decided
to try that and found 12 families willing to become
members that first year. The next year she went to
40, then 70, then 80, then 90 then over 100. She
bought bigger and bigger equipment, graduating
from her hand rototiller to a tractor. The members
came from all over: Keene, Hancock, Peterboro,
Nelson, Harrisville. Her stepfather didnt want
people coming onto his land, so Smith delivered the
shares to her customers.
In 2006 her stepfather got tired of hosting Tracies
farm and told her it was time for her to leave.
He told me that was it, she sighs. I had been
looking for land but not found anything, You know
about farmland -- it is very expensive. I had been
looking and looking and you just cant find farmland, period. Maybe you can find something with a
big house that you dont want.
It was in October of 2007, she continues, and I
had actually told all the members that the CSA was
over. I said I hoped they could come back when I
did find land. So I get an Email at the end of October from a friend of a member. He knew someone
who had bought a large piece of land and wanted
to develop parts, but leave the best farmland to be
farmed. I met the new owner and showed him the
good farmland. He worked with Monadnock Conservancy to put a conservation easement on the land.
That way I could afford it.
The total parcel was 33 acres, priced at $130,000.
Ten acres were in fields, and twenty acres in woods
-- but some of those could be opened up into fields.
They land is on prime agricultural soils. Besides
the farming easement, there was a 2 acre building
lot. When Tracie was small, her grandfather had put
$1000 in the stock market for her. That had grown
and by 2007 she was able to put down $30,000 toward the purchase, financing the rest through Yankee Farm Credit, a Vermont farm cooperative bank.
Over the years I was able to build up good credit,
Tracie states. That was the big thing. Even so, I
did try to get a mortgage from other banks, but they
gave me a harder time.
During her nine years farming in Sullivan County,
Smith had learned what she wanted. Now that she
had her own land, she moved quickly.
I signed a purchase and sale, but wouldnt technically own the land until the conservation easement
went through, which wouldnt be until June. But I
didnt wait for that. I was here with my tiller within
a week, taking greenhouses down and moving them,
moving perennials.
The building lot was covered with pine trees, she
continues. They were perfect for building the barn.

photo by Jack Kittredge

Tracie in her CSA distribution and pick-up area. Each member will have his or her order
placed in a basket, either for home delivery or farm pick-up. Note the walk-in cooler behind her
and the labels on the baskets, specifying order size and optional items.
My moms boyfriend and my partner, Keith, cut this
all down and pulled up the stumps, because they
had equipment. We had a guy mill the wood onsite.
We moved in a trailer to live in for now. It cost us
$7000.
At one point Tracie thought she wouldnt be farming
the following year and told her members the CSA
was ending. The next, she had her own farm.
It all came together, she insists, once I let go of
the dream! We were going to take a break and go to
the Southwest. I was going to landscape with Keith
thats what he does. Im a hard worker. I know
I can do something else. Of course I didnt totally
let go of it. I just let go for the meantime. I thought
maybe it would work out later. Id save up money
and that would make it easier. But when I let go, no
kidding, within a week I got that Email about the
land.
Of the ten acres of fields, Tracie is using five right
now for crops. She has had to expand her operation to make enough to pay for all the infrastructure
expenses the well, septic, barn, hydrant, walk-in
cooler. But those are now installed and functioning, and things work well. The barn is a beautiful
timber-framed structure, onto which Smith designed
a washing and packing area on the west side so it
would be cool all morning. The 500-foot deep well

gives them ample water storage capacity.

Everything is not perfect, of course. Tracie always
thought she would end up with a partner who loved
farming. Keith, however, who she met over 6 years
ago, is into nature but not farming. He has been
very helpful with his equipment a backhoe, mini
excavator, trailer, Kubota with a fork. But he likes
his privacy, Smith says, and is not happy with CSA
members circling the trailer and knocking on the
door with questions. So eventually they want to
build a house on the lot where they can have a little
separate and private space.
Smith is pleased that the new farm is not too far
from her old one about 40 minutes away. That
way she has been able to keep many of her old CSA
members. In addition, the new location is far easier
for people to get to so about half the members now
pick-up rather than having the share delivered. The
CSA starts in mid June and goes 19 weeks.
We have a large family share, a family share,
and a single share, explains Tracie. We harvest
3 days a week Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Our pick-up area includes with a farm store where
members can buy cheese, bread, honey, things I buy
in. A large family share is $600 a family share is
$450, and a single share is $350. We dont include
mesclun, herbs, kale, chard or lettuce mix. All of

12

The Natural Farmer

Fall, 2010

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

13
she is worried about the soil drying out more easily in those beds and not getting good germination.
She has heavier soils and doesnt have any irrigation
equipment to deal with drought.
One thing Tracies farm has, like most New England
farms, is weeds and rocks.
We do early hoeing, she says, to try to get ahead
of the weeds. Ive read that if you hoe before you
can even see the weed, thats the best time to do it.
And I till as soon as I take something out. We use
both our tractor tiller and sometimes a little one, for
a small area. Yesterday we had four people weeding.
We went through the whole field. There were so few
we could do that. And that is because we keep up
with it. It has been dry, and that helps.

photo by Jack Kittredge

Tracie shows some of the rows of vegetables on her farm. In this field the rows are 250 feet
long. Note the attention she has paid to aggressively addressing weeds!

those things are $30 each for the whole season to get
it added weekly. We put a little M, H, K, C or L on
their basket. I do surveys every year and find that
some people want more mesclun, some want more
chard, some want more kale, some dont want it at
all. Its not that hard, in my opinion, to give people
what they want. We harvest it anyway.

Then some people want it every other week, she

continues. So we have K8, which gets kale on the
even weeks, and C9 which gets chard on the odd
week. M9 on the odd week it works! Its evolving.
Ive evolved it! People love it because those are the
things which go bad in peoples fridges. People think
Im insane because we have these intense tags. But
Im perfecting it. It takes new members a while to
understand how it works, but they figure it out eventually. I have a pretty good website (Traciesfarm.
com), if people pay attention when they are ordering.
Its right there. But its amazing how people do not
read!
Tracie sold 280 shares in 2009, but it was such a bad
year that she dropped to 265 for 2010.
I went down, she explains, wanting to make sure
everyone would get plenty of food. It was the worst
thing I ever did! I could have 300, or more, now. Im
selling big orders to restaurants. Id rather sell to
more CSA customers, because you dont have to call
around and bother with that.

Say we have a little over a hundred pounds. explains Tracie, and the divider number (made up of
the number of large family shares plus 2/3 of the
number of family shares plus 1/3 of the number of
individual shares) is 52. Then a large family gets
about 2 pounds, a family gets about a pound and a
third, and an individual gets about 2/3 of a pound. It
is simple how it works, once you figure it out.
Once full, the baskets are reorganized for pickup by
route and name. Smith puts the pickups in order so
the driver loads the last basket to be delivered into
the car first, etc. Tracie has two baskets for everyone who picks up. They take one home and bring it
back the next week and drop it off, picking up the
other that has been filled. Home delivery members
have three baskets one is filled and delivered, the
second (last weeks) is picked up on that trip and
taken home by the driver to drop off at the farm next
week. The third is the one which is filled before the
second gets back to the farm.
After last years disastrously wet year, when the
farm had water standing in some fields, Tracie
bought a tractor-based raised bed maker. She figured
raised beds would help keep her crops up out of the
water. Of course it has been dry this year, and now

We also do a lot of mulching, she continues. You

still have to weed, but there are a lot less. Mulch
also holds the moisture in. Those rows with heatloving crops like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant
have black plastic over the beds and hay mulch
between them. Ill probably rake up the mulch and
use it on the garlic. I used plastic on the basil and
parsley this year too, because I wanted to ease their
management, and its been really nice! We have a
plastic layer attachment to put it down. I dont like
the reality of what plastic represents, but I love it,
too! It comes up pretty easily in the fall, except for
the year when I tried to reuse it a second year. I
wont do that again!
The others have just hay, she concludes. I like
putting mulch down first and planting into it. But
Im not sure that is best with onions. It seemed more
work to get them into the mulch than it would be to
spread it around them. They had a hard time establishing themselves. The guy who used to hay this
land still hays what I havent planted to vegetables
and leaves the bales in the field for $1.50 each. I
pick them up and store them in the barn.
The rocks she tries to take out as they come upon
them. Some of course havent come up high enough
yet, and others are too big to get out so she just
picks up the tiller around them.
During the season if Tracie harvests something and
has a little space shell seed it with lettuce and then
just transplant it when it is growing. She doesnt
want to bother with watering it in the greenhouse.
She also seeds lettuce with fall broccoli. By the time
she transplants it, the broccoli is coming out.
Smith has difficulty with carrots. She isnt happy
with the equipment she has for planting and cleaning them. She uses pelletized seed and plants using
a one-wheeled seeder her mom found at a yard sale.
She has an Earthway seeder with 2 wheels, but it

Half of the members get their share delivered, and

half pick up. The regular cost includes delivery. If
you pick up, the share is $60 off.
One delivery route is in Nelson. The CSA still has 15
to 18 members there. Then there is a MarlboroughHarrisville route. There are three Keene drivers,
one of whom also does the Troy members. There is
a Swansea route. The drivers deliver the orders on
their route in exchange for a free share. Then there
is a Fitzwilliam/Jaffrey/Rindge route. Those towns
are close to Fitzwilliam so most of these local people
pick up. All deliveries are to the members door.
They either are at home or, if not, have the order put
in a designated cool place out of the sun. Deliveries
are always after 3:30.
The share price is cheap, Smith feels, all things
considered. We have 10 delivery drivers, and they do
12 to sometimes 18 shares each. I used to do the deliveries myself, too. I did everything! It was intense!
I visited on a Thursday, when the crew was preparing for a Friday distribution. They lay out and fill the
baskets by large family, family, and individual sizes.
On a pickup day there is a divider number that they
divide whatever we harvest of a particular crop by.

photo by Jack Kittredge

Tracie uses black plastic on tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and other crops liking heat. The rest
she mulches with hay or even wood chips.

14

The Natural Farmer

Fall, 2010

round, and that is a problem. Derrick likes to go to

Florida in the winter, so maybe it can work with
him. But she is thinking of doing fall and possible
spring shares to be able to afford to keep the staff
working more months.

Because she has adjusted a lot to giving people

smaller shares, Tracie has a lot of extras to sell (zucchini and squash when I was there) and markets
them to restaurants and a hospital. She doesnt like
the extra work involved in calling around for orders,
but does it because she has the produce and needs
to sell it. She can usually get a delivery worked into
someones CSA route.
One of the reasons I was attracted to Tracie as a
source for this interview is that she keeps such
amazing records.
People wouldnt know it, but Im a control freak,
she admits. They think Im laid back. Im open
and free, it is true. Not rigid. But for me, if it looks
like more work in the long run, I want to deal with
the problem now. Im really hyper. Were working
at least 10 hour days. And then I have to do things
later, when the farm work is done.
One of those things is keep careful and detailed records of her finances, crops, hours worked, etc.

More rows of carefully mulched crops on Tracies farm.

doesnt work well for her. It works for spinach, but

not for a lot of other vegetables.

With the one wheeled seeder, she says, you do

each row by itself, so its a little intense. Its hard to
get it straight. I wouldnt grow carrots if I werent
doing a CSA. I bought a root washer finally, which
Im glad I did, but I dont really want to grow carrots at all. Its good for beets and other roots that
youre going to take the tops off of. But you cant
really wash anything with tops because they get torn
and tangled in it.
Tracie has four full time employees working on the
farm. I met Derrick and Sarah, who both live on the
farm and are recently out of college. Because the get
their housing and a free share of vegetables, Smith

photo by Jack Kittredge

pays them $7.25 an hour. The other two get $8.00

an hour. In addition to the employees, the farm has
work shares, where customers come on harvest days
and exchange labor for their shares.
Some are great, Tracie says, some not so. Some
are mothers with kids and if their kids are good Ill
let them bring them. They can even drive the golf
cart if theyre good. They love that!

I do Quickbooks, she says, and have all the

numbers for income and expenses. I track the crops
for what each takes. At the end of the day were all
in the barn and I talk to the workers about what all
they did and how much time it took. Then I have
overhead things that I cant attribute to a particular
crop. I track what we harvest, what we give people
each day, and what it is worth. All winter Im putting this stuff into the computer and making plans.
I dont do payroll. I have a company to do all that.
Everything else I cant let go of.

Tracie makes sure there is a big farm lunch on harvest days. Everyone eats in an outdoor pavilion,
with cooking done by a working shareholder or
Shannon, one of the employees who is a good cook.

Tracie has a Planting, Maintenance and Harvest

Schedule going from March 1 to December 6 by
task running to some 955 lines on an Excel spreadsheet. Across the top are such things as date, plant,
variety, number of rows, timing with respect to frost
free dates, estimated Tracie hours, actual Tracie
hours, estimated crew hours, actual crew hours,
and comments. Another set of records is a Crop
Journal for each of about 30 crops listing, by both
greenhouse and outdoors, the dates of each planting,
weeding, and harvest, who did it, how long it took,
what quantity was involved of seed or product, and
how many rows were done.

Smith is worried about losing her staff. Theyre

young and theyre whole future is ahead of them,
she realizes. But she depends on their help and
knows if and when they leave they will be hard
to replace. Of course she cant employ them year-

Although Tracies Community Farm is not certified

organic, it wouldnt be hard to qualify. She uses organic practices and has all the records needed. She
just never felt the need to be certified to sell shares,
and figures that is one less thing to deal with.

Smith readily admits she likes having men do some

of the work: They are better at lifting, mechanics,
things Im not great at. The women are better at details. Its all so true! My mom was a doer. She didnt
think there was anything wrong with women driving
tractor or running things. Many women are amazed
that I can do this, do the tractor work, but I let Derrick do most of it because he likes it so much.

Tracie in her washing and packing area.

It is on the west side of the barn, so it stays cool all morning.

photo by Jack Kittredge

Fall, 2010

15

The Natural Farmer

Smith has some specific financial goals: I want

to make enough money to build a house. I want to
have kids and have a house for them. I dont want to
be building it while I have them. Im 32, starting to
get gray (she laughs). I pay for major medical insurance. It costs me $1500 a year, but I have to pay the
first $5000 of anything that happens. Once I cut my
finger really bad, but I had gone before one time and
they charged me $500. So this time I decided not to
go. I just got a tetanus shot.
To meet these goals she keeps careful track of her
farm income and expenses, and has been able to
make more money almost each year. In 2002 she
netted $6,000, in 2003 she made $15,500, in 2004
only $8,400 (she had some significant capital expenses for equipment), in 2005 she netted $13,000,
in 2006 it was $11,500, in 2007 she gained $27,800,
in 2008 she made $32,500 and in 2009 (year of the
wet summer) it was only $30,800.
Her gross income was about $105,000, mostly from
the CSA but about $3200 from transplant sales and
about $3,600 net profit from sales of things she
bought for resale from local producers: eggs, granola, honey, maple syrup, etc. She had no significant
other sales because it was such a poor year that the
CSA got everything.
Her major expenses were labor - $27,000, supplies
- $15,400 (among the big ones are harvest supplies
- $2,300, mulch - $2,500, office supplies - $1,600,
and transplant production supplies - $1,600), depreciation of equipment - $8,100, fertilizer and lime
- $4,800, insurance - $3,900 (that was $2,600 for
workers comp and $1,300 for other), mortgage
interest - $3,200, seeds and plants - $3,900, taxes
- $2,300 and repairs and maintenance - $1,600.
Tracie expects that in 2010 she will have significantly more labor costs than in 2009, but of course
she is selling more, too. From the point of view of
most small farms in the Northeast, even though the
numbers arent huge Tracie is doing well to be able
to net 30% of her gross. But perhaps the most important measure is not so much her financial state
as her state of happiness: Im a CEO, a worker,
a secretary, the advertiser, the motivator, so many
things! Its a lot of work, but I love it. I tell people,
Im rich! I just dont think I want to know what
Im making per hour!
The Schedule F Tracie filed for 2009 shows her net profit for the year as $30,830.85.

Thanks USDA!
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thank USDA for strengthening the organic
regulations with clear grazing requirements.
The Pasture Rule will assure organic milk drinkers
that organic dairy farms are pasture based.
Join us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/Horizon

Baltz Family Farm, Clayton, NY

2010 Horizon Photo by Simon Russell

16

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

Organic Prices, Sales, and Farm Household Net Income:

Some Evidences in the United States and in New England
by Chyi-lyi (Kathleen) Liang,

Farms and Sales of Organically Produced Commodities on Certified and Exempt Farms, 2008

Understanding the Farm Income Structure in the

United States
Farming structure has changed dramatically since
the 1990s. The number of U.S. farms remained
stable at around 2 million between 1978, when
the current farm definition was adopted, and 2002.
Remarkably, the 2007 Agricultural Census showed
an increase in the number of farms in the U.S., albeit at the very lowest and highest ends of the size
distribution. The only two size classes to increase
in numbers between 2002 and 2007 were those
with less than $2500 in sales and those with more
than $500,000 in sales. The large sales group had
a significantly larger percentage increase (64.6%
compared to 8.9%). The increase in the number
of farms less than $2,500 is due to an increase in
point farms. Those are farms that had ZERO
sales but had a few cows or chickens, etc, to have
the potential for sales.
The structure of U.S. agriculture has long been of
interest and concern to policymakers, who 25 years
ago commissioned the US Office of Technology
Assessment (OTA) to examine the issue in detail
(US Congress, 1986). Authored by leading experts
in the field, the report predicted the loss of about
500,000 small farms by the year of 2000, or about
one-quarter of all farms today. The report also predicted that the 50,000 largest farms in 2000 would
produce 75% of all farm products. In fact, in 1997,
about 180,000 farms produced 75% of all products
and, even in 2007 that number had dropped only
to 125,000 farms rather than the predicted 50,000.
We maintain that the predictions were off in part
because OTA failed to consider new developments
of farm operations such as organic practices, direct
sales, and increasing demand of local food. These
innovative farm practices enabled linkages that
would evolve between farms, farm families, and
local communities, as well as the general publics
interests in more healthy food.

hundred percent of the organic producers in Rhode

Island who responded to this surveys had less than
25% of net household income from organic sales.
Only a few organic producers in Maine and Massachusetts (2.3% and 1.2%) had 100% of net housedhold income from organic sales.

So What?
Organic farming continues to grow as farming
structures evolve over time. Policy makers had not
predicted the dramatic changes in market situations
especially regarding consumers preferences, dietary
concerns, and willinness to support local farms.
While the total number of farms seems to start to
climb in recent years, there are still critical issues
for organic producers to consider. When more
farms enter the production cycle, it might generate more competition among producers when there
exists limited access to local or regional markets.
Seeking financial support and capital investment
will become more restricted when each farm has different needs and endowments.

An analysis of selected organic produce prices in

2008 based on the Boston wholesale markets shows
that organic produce prices were at least 1/3 higher
than conventional produce, and in a few cases
reached three times as much.
Net Household Income and Sales for Organic
Production
In 2008, the National Agriculture Statistics Services
of USDA conducted one of the most comprehensive
survey with organic producers in the US. Totally
3,637 organic producers in the U.S. responded to the
survey. Among all respondents, 91.6% had less than
25% of net householde income from organic sales;
3.9% had between 25% and 49% of net householde
income from organic sales; and 1.6% had 100%
of net household income from organic sales. One

There are many ways farmers can work together to

create more collaborative efforts, instead of competing against each other. Consumer cooperatives,
producer cooperatives, direct sale cooperatives, and

Many hands make light work. (improve on networking)

Cant see the wood for the trees.
(look at the broader picture)
The bigger they are, the harder they
fall. (pay attention to the scale of
operation and management)
Dont put all your eggs in one basket. (diversify)
Waste not, want not. (conserve food
and resources)

We can take a broader view of a number of organic

farms in different sales categories using the Census
of Agriculture data. A majority of the organic farms
in the U.S. and in New England earned less than
$20,000 in sales in 2008.

Overview of Selected Organic Prices in 2008,

Boston Wholesale Markets

shared resources are just a few good examples that

some farmers have been involved in in the New
England region. Five general rules could be developed for organic farmers to be more entrepreneurial
and to be more competitive:

References
USDA, 2007 Census of Agriculture, National Agriculture Statistics Services.
USDA, 2008 Organic Survey, National Agriculture
Statistics Services.
Chyi-lyi (Kathleen) Liang is at University of Vermont, Department of Community Development and
Applied Economics, 103 C Morrill Hall, Burlington,
Vermont 05405-0160, (802) 656 0754, CLIANG@
uvm.edu

Fall, 2010

17

The Natural Farmer

Acres U.S.A. Pre-Conference Advanced Learning

ECO-AG
WHen

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www.acresusa.com
Conference registration fees cover
attendance to all lectures, consultants hall,
trade show & film screenings.

Register by Oct. 29 & receive

twO fRee conference CDs

For further details or to register visit

www.acresusa.com or call 1-800-355-5313

Conference Cancellations: We will issue a full credit for cancellations received through Friday, Dec. 3, 2010 to be applied to Acres
U.S.A. subscriptions, books and videos, audio CDs or future conference fees. last-minute cancellations and no-shows can receive
a 50 percent credit if requested by Dec. 31, 2010. Also, your registration can be transferred to someone elses name if you cannot
attend; please contact our office. If attendance is uncertain, play it safe and register on-site. Sorry, no cash or credit card refunds.

Pre-Conference Study Cancellations: Space is strictly limited at all pre-conference seminars. last-minute cancellations prevent
us from selling the space that you held. We will issue an 80 percent credit for cancellations received by Monday, nov. 15, 2010
to be applied to Acres U.S.A. subscriptions, books and videos, audio CDs or future conference fees. Your registration can be
transferred to someone else's name if you cannot attend; please contact our office. Sorry, no cash or credit card refunds or credit
for late cancellations or no-shows.

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18

Organic Dairy Study Results for

the 2008 Production Year

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

by Bob Parsons

2008 Vermont Organic Dairy Farms

Over the past 5 years a joint project between NOFAVT and UVM Extension has examined the economics of organic dairy production in Vermont and
Maine, with the study looking only at Vermont for
the last 2 years. What we have found is an agricultural sector that experienced a surge in profitability
and prices in 2006 only to see those profits erode by
2009. The study involved developing balance sheets
and accrual income statements from participating
farms that were paid for their assistance.
For 2008, the 35 farms in the study averaged 67
cows, producing 13,438 lbs of milk per cow at an
average price of $30.90 per cwt. There is quite a
contrast of farms in the study, ranging from 257
cows to a low of 20 cows. However several of the
smaller herds were the most profitable. There is also
a contrast in milk per cow, ranging from 7789 lbs
to 19,132 lbs of milk per cow showing a range of
management practices and amount of grain being
fed. Two herds in the study did not feed any grain,
and these farms were not the lowest producing herds
in the study.
Some organic dairy farms have been able to earn
extra income from the sale of extra dairy animals.
One thing that a number of farmers are telling us
is that their culling rates have declined by being
organic, allowing them to raise fewer heifers for
their own use and sell off extra animals. Sixteen of
the farms in the study sold extra cows or heifers for
dairy production in 2008.
The farms average gross income averaged $4,555
per cow. Farms that sold extra dairy animals had
a higher income than the other farms. Obviously,
farms with a higher milk production per cow also
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Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

had a higher gross income, but higher production

does not always translate into profit.

19

The expense side of the ledger is where the

difference is made for farm profitability. Cash
expenses per cow averaged $3271 and ranged from
$4810 to a low of $1710 per cow. The lowest cost
per cow was attained by one of the herds that fed
no grain. Only 2 other herds were able to keep total
costs under $2000. In contrast, the herd with $4810
expense per cow was the highest producing herd in
the study.
The highest cost for all but two of the farms in the
study in 2008 was purchased grain. On average,
the farms spent $1218 on grain and supplement
feeds (no forage). By removing the farms that fed
no purchased feed or the 2 farms that raised all
their own feed, average purchased grain costs came
to $1363 per cow. On average, 42% of total cash
expenses were spent on purchased grain.
Other top expenses per cow were $476 for parts and
supplies, $304 for labor, $180 for interest and $159
for gas, diesel, and oil. Managing expenses is very
crucial and when looking at the expenses of 2 of
the most profitable farms, these farms were below
average in every expense category! And they were
not the top production herds either!
One expense that has been going up in recent years
has been depreciation. Frankly, organic farms have
been making a profit so they have been able to
replace equipment and make reinvestments in the
farm operation. Depreciation per cow for the study
farms averaged $472 per cow and ranged from a
low of $66 to a high of $1017. Younger farmers
were more likely to have higher depreciation as
would be expected. Older farmers without a clear
designated successor are much less likely to reinvest
in buildings although they will keep their equipment
modernized.
The bottom line is what counts and for 2008 the 35
farms averaged $917 per cow (before paying the
owner for labor and management). Again we see
a bit of variability with two farms showing a loss
per cow after accounting for depreciation. With
these farms taken out of the picture, the average net
revenue jumps to $1010 per cow.

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Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

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21

The Natural Farmer

While looking at figures on a per cow basis is

useful, we need to keep in mind that the entire farm
operation has to meet family living needs. In this
respect, net farm revenue per farm was $59,660.
With dropping the two farms that had negative
income for the year, average net farm revenue for
the top 33 farms was $66,092. Of the 35 farms in
the study, 2 farms had negative net revenue, and
9 other farms did not earn enough to support a
$35,000 family cost of living. On the other hand,
24 of the 35 farms in the study earned more than
$35,000 to support a $35,000 cost of living. We
concede that some families draw considerably more
and some less than $35,000 for family living but this
is the figure we have used during the study based on
comparable returns from the Northeast Dairy Farm
Summary.
In comparison to small conventional dairy farms as
reported in the Northeast Dairy Summary, organic
dairy was 80% more profitable. Despite contrasting
milk prices and milk per cow, organic dairy farms
generated just $162 per cow more revenue than
conventional dairy farms. However, expenses for
organic farms was $248 less than conventional dairy
farms, leading to a higher net farm revenue of $917
per cow vs. $507 for the conventional dairy farms.
Feed per cow was a bit higher for organic dairy
while conventional dairy farms spent more on vet,
breeding, and medicine.
We know that 2008 is history and we are all
concerned about now and the future. For anyone
familiar with 2009, we all know that conventional
dairy farms incurred substantial losses while organic
farms appear to have remained more viable. Average
conventional milk price dropped more than $5 per
cwt while feed prices were at higher levels, hitting
profits from both sides. Preliminary estimates
from the Northeast Dairy Farm Summary for 2009
indicate that the average farm lost more then $250
per cow. This is preliminary with official numbers
likely available in early June.
Where are we headed for this coming year?
Compared to conventional, organic looks very
appealing. But organic farmers are getting hit

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from several directions. First, base prices have

been cut and some seasonal premiums and Market
Adjustment Premiums (MAP) have been eliminated,
although the milk companies are still paying a
premium for winter milk of $3 per cwt. On top of
that CROPP has imposed a quota and Horizon has
limited some farmers through changes in contracts
requiring farmers to reduce milk production or, in
the case of quotas, take major price cuts for over
quota milk. These have hurt some farmers more than
others but have hurt all organic dairy farms. On the
expense side, some organic dairy farmers are paying
more for hauling and stop charges. Although feed
prices have declined a bit, other costs like repairs,
parts, supplies, real estate taxes, and family living
expenses continue to increase. Dairy farmers are
also finding it difficult to find credit either through
their lenders or their suppliers.

The Natural Farmer

Fall, 2010

Combine the revenue and expense changes, and

nearly every organic dairy farm will be facing lower
income in 2009 and 2010. For a number of the
farms, its going to be difficult, if not impossible,
to pull a reasonable family living after paying
production expenses. There is a need for greater
income, either through a higher base price or
leniency to produce more milk for farms to have
longterm survival. What will the market bear in
2010 is a challenge for processors, cooperatives and
farmers. I can almost guarantee there are no organic
dairy farms planning to go back to conventional
milk production unless forced to through losing
their contract. Conventional dairy prices may, at
best, approach break even this year. Under this
prospectus, there are likely plenty of dairy farms
willing to switch to organic if they could.
So the future remains clouded. Will we see a
resurgence in organic dairy sales? Is the American
consumer feeling more confident to spend more
on organic milk and dairy products? Will we see
a strengthening or stabilization of organic milk
prices? There is a lot that remains unknown for the
coming year and it will be a challenge for organic
farms to survive in this unknown environment.
This article was first published in NODPA News,
May, 2010 and is reprinted with permission.

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But Why Cant I Just Farm?

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

23

Straight talk from the

man who wrote the
Business Handbook
for Organic Farmers
on Managing
Finances, Crops,
and Staff and
Making a Profit
by Richard Wiswall

Summer and Fall harvest can be an incredibly satisfying time of year. Picking the fruits of your labor,
packing boxes full of product, and loading trucks
headed to Farmers Market or a delivery run- just
watching your goods roll down the driveway to
meet their customers is inherently rewarding. I love
stacking boxes and bags on a pallet and sending
it off to market. Maybe the feeling is archetypal:
growing plants and animals, caring for them, and
then seeing customers appreciate your efforts in the
wholesome, nutritious food you provide. Farmers
everywhere find meaning in this chain of events.
But is that feel good sight of a truck full of freshly
packed product just a well-deserved end to months
of hard work? Or could it be the anticipation of receiving the sales money for the product? Rewards
for your toils are the spoils. Is the satisfaction of
seeing your farm product meeting its customer addressing your needs of economic security?

Richard cultivating celeriac on his 1956 Farmall Cub.

As we go about our farming workweek, often multiple tasks are tackled in a single day. Most farms
grow and sell many different products such as numerous types of vegetables, flowers, fruits and/or
animals. Even a dairy farm with one main sales
product milk -- needs to put up hay, grow and
store silage, rotate pastures, utilize manure, and
raise replacement stock, just to name a few farm
components. Most all farmers perform a myriad of
tasks to produce a single item for sale.

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photo courtesy Richard Wiswall

So what does this have to do with that great feeling of seeing a truck full of product leave the farm?
That truck represents sales money, and ultimately,
financial security. But does it really?
In the harried and varied workday, farmers seldom
connect the costs of the product with the sales that
they bring in. Is the sales revenue from the product
on the truck more than enough to cover all production expenses like seed, fertility, and employee
paychecks? And enough to cover the farmers hours
that she or he worked? And to pay for overhead ex-

24

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

does each farm enterprise rate individually in terms

of profit? Unless thought is given to the profitability
of each product, all products will get averaged into
the year end Profit = Income Expense equation.
Highly profitable individual components of the farm
may see their earnings pulled down by less profitable (or even unprofitable) products.
A diversified vegetable farm may grow 40 or more
different crops. The chances of them all being equally profitable is incredibly small. Some are money
makers, some are so-so, and some are not pulling
their weight. Until they are rated side by side, their
contribution to the farms bottom line -- the average
year end profit (and the farmers reward) -- will be
hit or miss.
A goal of mine is to see more happy and prosperous
farmers. To that end, I talk at farming conferences,
help individual farms through consulting work, and
recently wrote a book, called The Organic Farmers
Business Handbook, published by Chelsea Green.
The Organic Farmers Business Handbook is not
about how to produce organic crops; rather it is how
to manage a successful, profitable business that produces organic crops. I dont want to repeat here in
this article what is already in the book, but I want to
walk through some of the basic concepts.
photo courtesy Richard Wiswall

Son Flint Wiswall, in straw hat, and employee Kate Freeman, making change,
staff the Cate Farm stand at the Montpelier Farmers Market.

penses like phone, taxes, insurance and loans? What

about farm upkeep? Vacations? Kids college educations? Why is my head starting to hurt? Where is
that feel good feeling? Why cant I just farm?
All farms have an idea of how profitable they are,
partly from looking at their checkbook balance, but
more from mandatory annual tax filings with the
IRS. Preparing tax forms for the IRS forces farmers to look at their business numbers at least once a
year. What were the farms gross sales? What were
the farms itemized expenses? And ultimately, what
was the farms overall net profit (or loss)?

This year-end tally is a valuable, but crude, tool.

While a farm may be profitable overall, it doesnt
show which components that make up the whole
farm were profitable. Nor does it show how many
hours the farmer logged to achieve that annual
profit.
The penultimate business equation, Profit = Income
Expense is often calculated only once a year at
tax time. In reality, that single equation is just an
average of many smaller Profit = Income Expense
equations of all the different enterprises that comprise the farm. The farm may sell blueberries, eggs,
salad greens, maple syrup and Christmas trees. How

Though I desire to see more happy prosperous farmers, I dont want farmers stressed out about recordkeeping and taking copious notes of everything that
happens on the farm. Being a profitable farm is not
a hard nut to crack, nor does it have to be unpleasant. As in the old shell-and-bean game, the key is to
keep your eye on the correct moving object. Focus
on what data you need to increase your farm profit.
And dont overdo it at first. In the excitement of
taking control of your financial destiny, it is easy to
become overzealous and try to do too much.
As a starting point, I recommend you take your top
selling items (1 - 5 products) and make a product (or
enterprise) budget for each of them. Your top sales
items will have the biggest effect on your bottom
line because they constitute the bulk of your current
revenue. Take a piece of paper and make the budget

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BRUNSWICK
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NEWFIELD
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BUCKSPORT
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474 River Road
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SKOWHEGAN
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WINDHAM
Hall Implement Company
1 John Deere Road
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WILTON
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63 Forest Road
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BELCHERTOWN
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10 Ware Road
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CHESHIRE
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52 Church Street
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HARVARD
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WESTFIELD
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CAMPBELL
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CANTON
Woodchop Shop
352 Cowan Road
315-386-8120
EAST WILLIAMSON
Paige Equipment
5016 Route 104
315-589-6651
ENDICOTT
Endicott Tractor
120 West Main Street
607-748-0301
GENEVA
Martins Sales & Service
1506 Route 5 & 20
315-549-7664

PORT LEYDEN
Marks Small Engine
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315-348-6715
RICHMONDVILLE
Team Dixie Chopper
1182 State Route 7
518-294-2081
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Brodner Equipment
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585-247-5218
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NEW HAVEN
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802-453-2175

Fall, 2010

25

The Natural Farmer

photo courtesy Richard Wiswall

Longtime Cate Farm customer Larry Mires

of Montpelier weighing out his tomatoes!

right now without any previous records. You will

be able to rough out a budget surprisingly well, and
the numbers you are not sure of will be the target
of your future data gathering (like how long does
it take to weed a 300 foot bed, or harvest a bushel
of carrots?) Some numbers may be easier to recall,
like sales prices, and some are documented with
invoices and check stubs. The tougher numbers to
figure are usually ones that involve labor: how long
does it take to perform a certain task? Use your best
estimates. For instance, try harvesting 20 bed feet of
imaginary lettuce on your living room floor, going
through the motions with an eye on the clock, and
use that rate as a gauge for labor on longer beds.

photo courtesy Richard Wiswall

Richards wife Sally Colman in their packing house with the tomatoes.

In creating a budget now from memory, you will be

able to target specific data you need and keep a razor sharp focus on the prize- your profitability. And
keep it simple, dont get bogged down for now with
exact costs of things like tractor time, guesstimate
for now, but be consistent. The exercise is to get a
feel for which numbers in the budget stand out, and
how they compare with other budget items.

say, 300 bed feet for crops) and the average cost
of labor. Ill set the labor rate at $15/hour, which
includes employer taxes and Workers Comp. If the
farmer does all the work, she or he will, in essence,
earn those wages in the end as net profit. But if the
farmer has a hernia operation and has to hire someone to do all the work, the employee will get the
wages, and the farmer will only see any net profit
from the enterprise.

Lets do a simple budget for eggs from 50 laying

hens. I usually think in chronological order when
creating a budget, starting with the first step performed in the season and ending with sales. Then
I set some basic parameters like scale (50 hens, or

Here goes: On Sept 1st, I buy 50 pullets (at $8 each

= $400) that just started to lay eggs. I put them in a
corner of my barn, go buy some fencing ($50) and
a feeder and waterer ($50 for both). I make a pen in
two hours. I go buy some organic feed at $20 per

50 lb bag and some bedding for the coop area ($12).

Ill pack eggs in used cartons and sell them from my
front porch, with an honor system cashbox.
Ill keep the hens for 1 year, and then sell them
for $2 each. For simplicity, I have zero mortality
in the flock. During the winter, I add a light to the
coop for 6 hours each day, and supply bedding as
needed. Morning chores takes me 45 minutes with
egg cleaning and boxing, and evening chores just
15 minutes on average (includes periodic bedding
work), each day for 365 days.
The hens each eat 90 pounds of feed/year, and each
produce 22 dozen eggs/year.

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The Natural Farmer

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Fall, 2010

So this is how it looks as a budget:

Expenses

27

The Natural Farmer

Product

Labor
($15/hour)

Notes

50 pullets
$ 400
Amortized cost of fence
$ 10
$
6
Fence will last 5 years, so total

cost is divided by 5.
Amortized cost of waterer, feeder
$ 10
Also, 5 year lifespan
Total feed costs for 1 year
$1800
4500 lbs total, $20 per 50 lb bag
Total bedding
$ 120
Labor for daily chores; 1 hr/day
$5475
365 days x $15/hr
Lighting for 4 winter months
$ 11
100 watts for 720 hrs. = 72 KWH

Total Expenses

$2351 +

$5481 = $7832

Sales
Eggs: 22 dozen x 50 hens

$5500

Bedded manure value

Year old hens sold at $2 each
Total sales

$ 300
$ 100
$5800

Net Profit (or loss)

$-2032

First off, dont shoot the messenger. And you with

the hatchet, move away from the hens. These numbers are just numbers, but numbers with some very
valuable lessons. Notice the big numbers: feed,
labor, and egg sales. And dont sweat the smaller
numbers for now, (saving some money on less winter lighting or a used waterer will not do a lot to
change the effect of the big numbers). Can you buy
feed in bulk for less money? Can you supplement
the hens feed with other free food sources (forage,
day old bread)? Can you raise the price of eggs to
$6/dozen? Those possibilities will all tilt the profitability of the enterprise in your favor.
But the burning question in most peoples mind is,
why include the whopping $5481 for labor? Sure,
it can be looked at as a chore like laundry or dishes,
just part of farm life. But we all only have 24 hours

1100 dozen eggs at $5/dozen

in a day, and some is needed for sleep and family.

The hours remaining for work should hopefully pay
some of the bills of life. And what if circumstances
dictate that you have to hire someone to do chores?
Farmers are famous for being guilty of self-exploitation. Not valuing your own time is not a sound farm
business model.
Youll notice that without labor accounted for, the
hens are a profitable enterprise: Sales of $5800 minus expenses of $2351 yields a very positive $3449
profit. Thats quite a difference from the above net
loss of $2032 with labor figured in. Another way of
looking at the labor figure is that you, the farmer,
are earning that $5481 even though you didnt write
yourself a paycheck. If you did all the chores, at the
end of the year your checkbook would have a positive balance: your $5481 in labor minus the overall

budget loss of $2032 still yields a positive $3449. It

can be looked at in yet another way- you didnt get
paid $15/hour, but rather $9.44/hour ($3449 divided
by the 365.5 hours worked).
Lets revisit our old friend, Profit = Income Expense. Profit can be increased by raising income,
decreasing expenses, or both. By selling eggs at
$6.50/dozen and decreasing feed costs to $1100/year
changes the net profit to a positive $18, while still
paying you (or someone else) a fair wage of $15/
hour.
Again, this is a simple budget with no marketing
or packaging expenses, or contribution to overhead
expenses. It is an example of roughing out a budget
to see where the big numbers are, and how they may
get tweaked to increase profit. Whether you decide
to keep hens or not is your decision. The numbers
are just information so you can make informed decision. My dear old dog Tucker costs us $600/year in
food, another $500 or so in vet bills (depending on
how many porcupines he finds) and he stinks most
of the time. He sure doesnt pencil out on paper too
well, but we know that and are not about to send
him packing. Budget numbers will get you thinking,
and change may be a result, maybe it wont.
In my book I detail some net profits per acre for different vegetable crops. I talk in terms of net profits
of $10,000 or more per acre. To a commodity farmer, some of these numbers may seem like some sort
of parallel universe. A hay crop with 200 bales per
acre yields only $800 GROSS sales per acre (at $4/
bale). Corn silage at 25 tons/acre (at $25/ton) yields
GROSS sales of $625. Those are gross sales, not net
profits. The difference of what I cite in my book and
these commodity crops is almost incomprehensible.
Yet, I have fun in my alternate universe. I like to
point out the profit differences of two similar crops,
broccoli and kale. Both are in the same family, have
very similar planting and growing requirements, yet
yield dramatically different net profits per acre. The
spreadsheets in my book, in hindsight, are mindnumbingly detailed. They started out much simpler,
like the ones I use on my farm. But I wanted to be
accurate and cover all bases, yet in doing so, I may

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overwhelm the viewer. There is tons of useful information in the fine print if you take the time to read
it -- I wanted to be as transparent as possible. But
to cut to the chase, the short version of the story is
that popular broccoli nets about $1100 per acre after
all expenses for a hypothetical diversified 5 acre
vegetable farm, while non-descript kale nets about
$24,000 per acre. Thats $24,000 net per acre! Have
I got your attention?
A well-managed diversified vegetable/flower/herb
operation can readily gross $20,000 per acre on a
small to medium scale. (Larger farms may achieve
this, but may need to sell volume at lower prices).
Some smaller start up farms realize this higher potential- I know of one 4 acre farm netting $51,000
after only five years in business, and another netting
$65,000 after 8 years farming. Granted, these are
smart farmers that seized market opportunities. But
it is possible. All farms are unique, We all need to
carve our own niche in the marketplace. And we all
need to pay attention to our profitability.
I have had the benefit of working with numerous
farmers in New England, and Id like to share some
hard to find numbers for farmers to gauge their own
businesses. Keeping in mind that there is no typical
model farm, some common numbers Ive found for
diversified organic vegetable farms are:
Gross sales per acre: $20,000 to $30,000 per acre
Net profits per acre: $0 to $20,000
Hired labor as a percentage of gross sales: 25% to
35%
Farmer hourly wage: a 40 hour work week times
50 weeks/year is 2000 hours. A vegetable farmer in
New England may work 20 hours/week JanuaryMarch, 60 hours /week April-June, 60 hours/week
July- October, and 30 hours/week November- December, for a total of 2160 hours, not that much different from a 40 hour/week year round worker. Take
your net profit and divide it by 2160 hours, or by the
number of hours you figure you work. For example,

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

photo courtesy Richard Wiswall

Richard Wiswall working in the greenhouse

a $30,000 net profit divided by 2160 hours equals

$13.89/hour.

For a hypothetical 5 acre diversified organic vegetable farm grossing $20,000 per acre, heres how
the $100,000 gross sales may be spent:
Seeds: $2000
Plants and supplies: $4000
Insurance: $2000
Fertility and pest control: $4000
Fuel, utilities: $2000
Repairs/maintenance: $3000
Supplies: $7000
Capital improvements, machinery: $6000
Rent, interest, miscellaneous: $10,000
Paid labor: $30,000
Owners profit: $30,000
Again, there is no model farm, but these expense
categories paint the picture in broad strokes to get
an idea of where the money flows.
Tips for beginning Farmers
Starting up a farm from scratch is a lot of work.
That said, many have done it successfully. Id like to
share two thoughts that may speed the process along
in a good direction.

One of the first and biggest tasks is getting access

to good farmland. If you dont already have land,
I recommend leasing land at first to develop your
business without the pressure of a large mortgage.
Leasing land for 5 years (or longer) allows you to
control your resource base without a lot of upfront
cost. Good land can get leased for $50-100 per
acre, or sometimes for free. Some land may need
more work than other parcels (e.g. building fertility,
clearing rocks or shrubs) and some may or may not
need infrastructure like water, shelter, or electricity.
With a five-year or longer lease, your investment
in the land is spread out and allows your business
to be lean and flexible. You are free from the yoke
of large mortgage payments each and every month.
Indeed, you can deduct lease payments as a business
expense, but not land payments (only the interest
portion of the mortgage payment). You can live on
the land, or live nearby, depending on the situation.
Im not against owning land, but it is not a necessity.
If you do decide to eventually purchase property, it
is far easier to get financing if you already have a
successful farm business to support the mortgage.
The second recommendation as you begin your farm
venture is to make time to manage the business.
Good farm managers are behind every successful
farm. Be as efficient as possible in every aspect of
your farm. For example, plan your marketing efforts before planting a single seed. Where, how, and
in what quantities will you sell the farm product?
Planting an acre of lettuce without a potential buyer
can be a recipe for disaster: you may end up selling the crop at fire sale prices or worse, tilling it in
altogether. Granted, you may sell every last head of
lettuce, but it sure is easier if you have an inkling of
where you hope to sell it.
When breaking into a new marketplace, I usually
start knocking on the back doors of stores and restaurants and ask if they would be interested in say,
some lettuce next June. Do they already have a local supplier? I avoid stepping on other local growers toes. We all need to cooperate as much as we
can. If there isnt a local supplier, I ask questions
like, How much do you use each week? What kind

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Fall, 2010

29

The Natural Farmer

do you like? What is the customary price? Start

developing a relationship with your possible customers. Try to get a handshake agreement for the
upcoming season. Then, in season, before the crop
is ready, touch base with the customers, letting them
know the crop will be ready soon. Set up an agreeable ordering schedule, and then deliver your finest
product.
The above scenario outlines a possible wholesale
account relationship. CSAs, Farmers Markets and
farm stands are other marketing options, but may
be harder to pull off profitably as a start up farm.
Vegetable farmers by nature tend to like diversity.
Experimenting and trying new varieties are part of
the attraction. Many seasoned vegetable farmers
started by outgrowing their diverse garden plot. But
with diversity comes complexity, and possibly less
efficiency.
Growing 2 acres of winter squash for one wholesale
account is much simpler than growing 2 acres of
40 crops, with multiple plantings and harvests sold
through a CSA or Farmers Market. The payout is
probably less on the winter squash, but as a way to
get the ball rolling, it will be far easier. And it is not
like Im against Farmers Markets or CSAs: Ive
been going to Farmers Market for the last 29 years
and had a CSA for 6 years. I know firsthand their
complexity and costs. The tendency for beginning
farmers is to try to do too much all at once. Start
small, farm smart and build your farm business.

A note on the word Profit

Some farmers have a knee-jerk reaction to the word
Profit, like it was some four-letter word. I was raised
in a household that confused Profit with Greed
and felt the same thing. Farmers are drawn to their
work not as a get-rich-quick scheme, but because of
the fundamental satisfaction of growing plants and
animals. Some farmers have a homestead mentality, and want to live outside of our current monetary
system. But we all need to survive economically
to pay some unavoidable bills. It wont matter how
environmentally sustainable a farm is if it cant sur-

photo courtesy Richard Wiswall

Wiswalls daughter Kuenzi, on the right, transplants echinacea with employee Katy BakerCohen, on the left. Noah Humphries-LePage fills in blanks in the background.
vive economically. But what is an appropriate profit? Surely it is one enough to provide the basic needs
of the farm, the farmer and any employees. And
if a farms profit is increased by sharpening ones
pencil and becoming more efficient, why not pay
the farms workforce more? Everybody wins. As the
organic movement continues to mature, should we
promote the poor farmer paradigm and the USAs
cheap food policies? Im all for a cheap food policy
as long as we also have a cheap health care policy,
cheap education policy and cheap & clean energy
policy. Should the survival of organic farms depend
on cheap labor? Can we pride ourselves on a product that pays workers poorly to produce it? Farmers

and employees that make a living wage needs to

be a priority, and not viewed as some unattainable
goal. Farmers often respond to low profits by working longer and longer hours -- how sustainable is
that?
Increased profit margins on farms provide increased wiggle room to weather bad growing
seasons, market fluctuations and unforeseen events.
More profits can be invested in farm infrastructure,
enable experimentation, pay employees well, and
meet retirement needs. Im happy to say that we
pay our employees well above the going rate. Profit isnt a bad word; it is all in how you use it.

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30

Fall, 2010

Creating a Livelihood on an Organic

Fresh Market Vegetable Farm
The Natural Farmer

by John Hendrickson, UW-Madison

CIAS Outreach Specialist

Growing produce is not the biggest hurdle facing

most fresh market vegetable growers; earning a reasonable living poses the greatest challenge. One way
for farmers to analyze their operations in order to
better meet their financial goals is to share information through farmer networks, conferences and coffee
shop talk. Farmers may feel reluctant to share sensitive financial information, however.
From 2002-2004, the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems worked with a group of 19 growers on
a participatory, farmer-led case study. The growers
collected data on their sales, labor and other aspects
of their businesses. They then created financial ratios
that allowed them to compare small, medium and
large operations in a way that respected their confidentiality. Their goal was not to provide a complete
economic analysis of their operations, but to provide
a basis for comparisons between farms and discussions of how to forge a quality livelihood from farming. Growers wanting a standard economic analysis
of their farms can use traditional balance sheets,
financial statements, and cash flow statements.
The information contained in this case study can help
guide growers as they set financial and quality of life
goals for their farms and structure their operations to
realize those goals. There is no ideal size for a fresh
market vegetable farm; growers need to use their
management skills and economic analysis tools to
figure out the scale and level of mechanization that
makes the most sense for them.
This case study involved a small number of farms
that were not randomly selected. The results, therefore, may not be readily generalized to other operations.

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

Participating Farms

Most of the farms in this project were located in Wisconsin, although a few
were in neighboring states. All but one used organic production practices. They
ranged from less than one acre to over 70 acres, and were divided into three
scale categories:

31

amounted to between 0% and 42% of gross sales. Labor on the 3 to 12 acre market farms ranged from 402 to 1,443 hours per acre and averaged just under 850.
Payroll expenses consumed as much as 34% of gross sales on these farms. Labor on the four large-scale organic vegetable farms ranged from 462 to 613 total
hours per acre and averaged 554. Payroll expenses consumed between 19% and
41% of gross farm sales.

Market gardens had fewer than three acres in active production, not including
fallow or cover cropped areas. There were six market gardens in this project,
with 0.5 to 2.7 acres in active production.

Farm finances

Equipment: Equipment value was defined as the growers estimate of current

(resale) value of all farming equipment of lasting or enduring quality, excluding
farmers personal dwellings and land. This is an imprecise measure that should
be treated as a rough guide. Investment in equipment per acre ranged from
$2,011 to $26,784; the smallest farms with no tractors had the lowest investment.

Net cash income per acre: Expenses, especially labor costs, can quickly eat
into gross sales on a vegetable farm of any size. Net income matters most in
terms of financial sustainability. The term net cash income is used in this report
to describe a farms gross sales minus all current year cash expenses. Factors
such as prescribed machinery use and land costs, depreciation and opportunity
costs were not included. Three-year average net cash income for the farms in
this study ranged from under $2,000 to over $8,000 per acre. Market gardens
experienced more year-to-year variation in net cash income per acre than the
two larger farm types.

The growers participating in this case study tracked their expenses, sales and
labor hours over the three years of this project. They helped choose what data
Market farms had between 3 and 12 acres in active production, not including
to collect and how to analyze it. They opted to compare the annual net cash infallow or cover cropped areas. There were eight market farms in this project.
come they earned from their farms without including factors such as prescribed
Some of these farms were struggling with issues of mechanization versus hand
machinery use and land costs, depreciation and opportunity costs. In their own
labor, while others were among the more successful and stable in the study.
words, they wanted to know how much cash they had at the end of the season
to provide for themselves and their householdsand perhaps take a vacation.
Vegetable farms produced crops on more than 12 acres, not including fallow or The averages and ranges for some measures are shown below. Although this
cover cropped areas. There were five vegetable farms in this project. Four were study was not designed to produce statistically significant quantitative data,
diversified organic operations. An additional nonorganic farm that followed low- average values instead of ranges are reviewed as a means to simplify the discusinput, integrated pest management (IPM) practices participated. Its numbers are sion and help respect grower confidentiality. The growers used additional ratios
not included in the stated averages or ranges. Acres in production ranged from
that are described in the full report.
15 to 80 acres.
Gross sales per acre: Small plantings of organic, fresh market vegetables,
These farming scales are both similar and different in terms of marketing, equip- herbs, flowers and berries can garner large gross sales. The farms in this study
ment, crops and labor.
realized threeyear average annual gross sales between $6,267 and $25,605 per
acre. The most impressive gross sales per acre were seen at the smallest scale of
Marketing: Selling produce directly to customers was the cornerstone of most
production. These gross sales per acre figures are based only on the land being
growers marketing plans. Most sold product through farmers markets, restauused for cash crops in a given year. If land in cover crops or fallow land were
rants and retail outlets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA); pick-your- included, these figures would be lower for most farms. Some farms had addiown and on-farm sales were less common. Many growers used one dominant
tional farm income from enterprises such as eggs, chicken or beef, which were
marketing outlet along with a variety of secondary outlets.
not included here.

Crops: All of the organic farms in this study grew a wide variety of crops, although some were more specialized than others. Diversification prevented pest
buildups and provided some insurance against crop failure. But learning to grow
many different crops was challenging, and growers with a wide array of crops
often could not justify specialized equipment purchases.
Labor: Labor hours on the market gardens with fewer than three acres ranged
from 933 to 2,994 hours per acre, and averaged just under 2,000. Payroll

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Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) appeared to help stabilize income.

CSA farms are assured relatively steady sales because members pay for their
share of the harvest at the beginning of the year. Other marketing strategies are
subject to the vagaries of the marketplace and weather.
Comparing net cash income to gross sales: Dividing net cash income by gross
sales results in a net cash to gross ratio. Higher net cash to gross ratios were
strongly associated with farms that concentrated on CSA. The smaller farms
with higher net cash to gross ratios had lower payroll expenses, with the farmer
doing the bulk of the work and keeping more money. Some larger farms maintained high net cash to gross ratios through careful training and management of
labor crews.
Hourly wage: Hourly wages were calculated by dividing the growers reported
net cash income by hours worked. Average hourly wages were as low as $3.32
on a small farm and as high as $14.90 on a large farm, averaging $7.45 for all
farms.

32

The Natural Farmer

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Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

Livelihood and quality of life

Most of the small market gardens provided part-time livelihoods for the growers. For most of the market farmers with 3 to 12 acres in production, farming
represented a primary or full-time livelihood. Farming was a full-time livelihood for all of the vegetable farmers with over 12 acres in production.
All of the growers in this study reported that they were generally, but not overwhelmingly, pleased with their quality of life. They would like more personal
time, health insurance and retirement security. The mid-and large-scale growers
also felt that dedicated, skilled employees would improve their quality of life.
There is no universal recipe for success as a vegetable grower. Farmers who
excel have a passion for growing and often have business and marketing savvy.
Employee management skills are also important. Keys to financial success included increasing work efficiency and utilizing techniques and tools to keep expenses low. Four of the five farms that focused on CSA as their sole or primary
marketing outlet were among those with the highest net cash income per acre in
the study.
If you would like to learn more about the financial information and ratios described here, please see Appendix A and B of the full report (http://www.cias.
wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/grwr2grwr.pdf) or contact John Hendrickson at the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems: telephone: 608-2653704, e-mail: [email protected]
Observations
The most significant expense on a vegetable farm is hired labor. The percentage
of gross sales that went to payroll expenses for hired labor on the under three
acre market gardens ranged from 0% to 42%. The average was 22%. On 3 to 12
acre market farms, payroll expenses ranged from 1% to 34%, and the average
was 16%.
Vegetable farms over 12 acres spent 32% on average, and the range was 19% to
40%.
Restaurants and other labor-intensive businesses can average around 30 percent.1
The percentage of gross sales going to payroll expenses plus the farms net cash
income used to pay the farmers themselves was remarkably consistent, averaging around 60% for the less than three acre market gardens and 3 to 12 acre
market farms. After adding in 10% of gross sales reinvested into equipment of
lasting value, this leaves around 30% for general overhead (annual operating
supplies and expenses).
Please note that, in this analysis, net cash income is used in lieu of farmers
wages and farmers therefore are not contributing any unpaid labor to the farm.
For the vegetable farms over 12 acres, the percentage of gross sales going to
payroll expenses plus the farms net cash income used to pay the farmers them-

33

selves averaged around 66% to 70%. After adding in 10% to 13% of gross sales
reinvested into equipment of enduring value (purchases or major repairs), this
leaves around 20% for general overhead (annual operating supplies and expenses.)
The project also collected data on seed costs. The market gardeners growing
on less than three acres spent, on average, $700 per acre on seed. The three to
12 acre market farms spent about $600 per acre, on average. The over 12 acre
vegetable farms spent an average of $327 per acre on seed. This is considerably

34

less than the smaller farms spent, due to volume

discounts.
Appendix D: Annual sales, expenses and net cash
income on three project farms

The following cash expense summaries were provided

by three individual farms, one at each scale, in the Profit
by Planning Project. They are included here as examples
and do not represent recommended budget categories or
expense ranges. Some general observations about budgets
are included at the end.
Sales and expenses over one year on a 1.5-acre market
garden*

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

All but one of the farms in this study were using organic farming methods and were likely paying more
for organic seed. These farms often grew specialty
crops with pricey seed. The non-organic grower
who grew a far more limited array of crops spent
only $165 per acre on seed.
-------1. New York City Hotel Association, 1995. In: Tempest in the Kitchen, New York Times,
March 15, 1995, page C1.
Reprinted with permission from the UW-Madison
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems: www.
cias.wisc.edu

Sales and expenses over one year on a 4.5-acre market

farm*

*This data comes from a participating vegetable farm

during one year of the project.

*This data comes from a participating market garden during one year of the project.

*This data is from a participating market farm during one

year of the project.

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Fall, 2010

Waynes
Organic
Garden

35

The Natural Farmer

by Jack Kittredge

Ive been running into Wayne Hansen for years,

mostly at NOFA conferences in Massachusetts and
Connecticut. He is always a vendor (often accompanied by his wife, Marilyn) with interesting vegetables, quite knowledgeable even learned -- about
his varieties and their culture, gregarious and talkative, but with never a positive word to say about
his financial prospects. Rampant weeds, uncooperative weather, the inability to find adequate help, and
a series of unprofitable agricultural ventures seem to
hound his efforts to make any money as a farmer.
What better time to delve into his story than an issue devoted to analyzing the bottom line? Can he
really lose money every year? How is this sustainable? Why does he keep it up? In these pages, gentle
reader, all shall be revealed!
Onoco is a village in the town of Sterling, CT. It
is located on the far east end of the state, right on
the Rhode Island border. After Wayne worked as a
contractor for a time, in 1987 Wayne and Marilyn
bought a rundown house there intending to fix it up.
But Wayne also took advantage of the land to start a
garden. He had done some small farming in Kansas
in the early 1970s and had enjoyed it. As it happened, the garden kept beckoning for more of his
time, and the house never got fixed up!
Now eastern Connecticut is not known for its great
farmland, with stony and heavily sandy soil. Wayne
recites the time, about ten years after he moved
there and having suffered many poor seasons of

photo by Jack Kittredge

Wayne Hansen stands in his garden next to his Sungold cherry tomatoes.

growing, when he finally sought out a copy of the

Windham County soils map and assessment. It described the soil in Onoco as only: suitable for agriculture with irrigation.
That was a moment of insight for me, he laughs.
I started irrigating and have been a much more
productive grower since then! I use drip irrigation
everywhere.
At this point Wayne farms on an acre of his land
and another three-tenths of an acre he rents across
the busy route 14A from his house. He has also put
in a few hoophouses, the largest 26 by 96 feet, and
the other 22 by 72 feet. These he uses primarily for
starting plants and drying onions, but with double
layers of plastic and heat in both, he has been ex-

perimenting with early greenhouse tomatoes and a

few other crops.
Trying to bring in the heat and moisture and ventilation required for good growing conditions, when it
is not there naturally, is of course expensive. Fuel
oil for the greenhouses in the winter and electricity
for the well pump and ventilation fans in the spring
and summer are among the bills that keep Waynes
operations from turning a profit.
I just got the electric bill for last month, he says.
Four hundred and eighteen dollars for fans, water,
cooling. This is extremely sandy soil. Its like a
beach. It drained out better than most peoples last
year. But then we had problems with the blight and
lost most of our tomatoes anyway.

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36

The Natural Farmer

Fall, 2010
There used to be a three-story barn on the property,
and still has the remains of a carriage house.
The guy was a mortician, explains Wayne. There
are extra braces supporting the upstairs that make
me think it might have been for stone slabs or coffins.
For equipment, Wayne uses mostly hand tools, plus
a small garden tractor and a Troybilt rototiller. He
has a Troybilt high wheel mower for weeds, as well
as a wheel hoe and hand cart.
Given the space he has to use, Wayne plants quite a
diverse number of crops. He does a lot of potatoes,
planting them in furrows made with his garden tractor middle buster and then covers them over and
hills up the soil with his tillers hiller-furrower attachment. He thinks three and a half feet is the right
spacing.

photo by Jack Kittredge

This Zephyr squash, Wayne asserts, is the best tasting squash in the world and is the most
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We have some good, some bad garlic this year,

he sighs. We have never been able to get rid of the
fusarium we brought in when we got some infected
garlic from Canada one year. Weve been saving our
own seed, but now Im going to have to buy all new,
Im afraid. Marilyn is braiding our biggest bulbs.
Theyre stiff necked, so theyre not really braided,
more like bound together.
This is my first crop of carrots, he continues. Itll
probably be lost to weeds. I havent got a good way
of growing carrots yet. I use palletized seed and I
have a one row precision seeder. But the ground is
so soft that when I tried to use it, it didnt work very
well. So I went back to my Earthway seeder. Which
also didnt work well because the pellets clog in half
of the holes. Carrots are not an easy crop for me in
any event because of all the weeds we have.
Wayne tried planting leeks Eliot Coleman style in
groups for easy harvesting. But they didnt ever get
good sized. He grows sweet potatoes without aid of
plastic or artificial heat. He is particularly proud of a
summer squash he grows. It is called zephyr and
he says it, picked at about 6 inches in length, is unquestionably the best tasting squash in the family.
He starts about 500 lettuce per week, usually selling
most of it before it bolts. But this year he anticipates a problem -- with all the heat it is bolting very
quickly. Strawberries grow well in his soil, but he
doesnt do too many because theyre labor-intensive
and need to be harvested at the same time one is setting out tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Time is a
limiting factor in Waynes operation.
I grow a lot of onion, he adds. Onions are usually
a pretty lucrative crop. With all the weeds this year
we may have trouble with them. May was a critical period and we had other things that got in the
way of weeding. I had to re-cover one of the hoop
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Wayne is a big fan of soil blocks. He plants beans

and peas directly, of course, and cucumbers in peat
pots, but most others crops he starts in soil blocks.
He has a transplanter tool he has adapted to place
the blocks into the rows.
We do soil blocks, he explains, because we get
more uniform plantings. If you put down stuff in a
seeder then you have to go back and thin it. We use
the drip tape for measuring. There is a hole every
foot. We do the lettuce in rows a foot apart, and
each lettuce is a foot apart in the row. The plants are
offset from one row to the next. When they get big
theyre right up against each other with no room for
weeds. We have a nice setup in the spring before the
weeds have taken over. It looks pretty!
I got that transplanter from Johnnys, he continues. It takes two people to operate. Other than that,
its great. You put it in the soil, open up the handles
and it makes a square hole the size of the soil block,
which then drops into it. You can plant once every
five seconds with two people. You have to have a
different transplanter for each size of block, though.
It was about $90 when I first bought it. Now theyre
$120, I think. Its well made sturdy.
Labor is the limiting factor in how well Waynes
work pays off. Without enough help, his early plant-

Fall, 2010

ings end up in weeds. May is a tough time for him,

because so much needs to be done but he doesnt
have any money coming in yet. By the time I visited
with him and Marilyn, in mid July, he had been to
some markets and had some cash.

37

The Natural Farmer

If I can afford enough people, Wayne explains, I

can get some stuff done. In Spring, which is when
you really need all the cultivating, who has any
money? I dont! I had to pay a thousand dollars for
Aprils oil bill!
In the last couple of weeks I have had some volunteers and a few day laborers and we have been able
to go after the weeds.
But Im the big manager, he continues. I have
to do everything from feed the cats to take the garbage to the dump to decide where all the plants go
and pick the peas. So I dont get everything done I
would like.
Dustin is Waynes primary worker full time during
the season and tapering off at both ends. He lives
across the street. Hes been out of high school ten
years and still works for Wayne.
He knows as much, Hansen confides, if not
more, about how to get things done here than I do.
(He laughs.) He comes on part time early in the seson, goes to full time in the summer, and goes back
to part time in the fall. He works more than I can afford. Hes my big expense because he is actually on
the books. I have to make all the extra payments for
FICA and workmans comp. Minimum wage here is
$8.25 and thats what I pay him. Hes a good kid
quite smart. Im lucky to have him. Hes worth more
than the minimum wage, but that is all I can do.
Another of the guys working here today, Wayne
continues, is a volunteer. Roger is a student at
UConn, lives on his grandfathers farm and makes
all his hay. He was saying this morning that he
hopes it doesnt rain today because his $6.50 a bale
second cutting hay is all out in the field. He likes
to do something different, so he comes out every
Friday at 7 am and works all day. I give him a few
vegetables or something. Also, some school teacher
called up and she wants to do stuff. So she comes
out two days a week for a couple of hours in the
morning and works a hoe. I guess Im lucky. It isnt
everything I want it to be, but it would never be everything I would want.
Hansen is very conscious of all he is not getting
done in terms of weeding or immediately replanting
areas that have been harvested. But he goes to four
markets a week and tries to spend his remaining
time as wisely as possible.

photo by Jack Kittredge

Waynes helpers plant lettuce in soil blocks using a transplanting tool Wayne ordered from
Johnnys. One person operates the tool, one places transplants into it, and a third follows behind and pats the block in and then waters the seedlings.

Wayne has other ways to get early money. He sells

transplants and take preorders for them -- if they pay
for them in January he gives the customer 10% off
what they would pay in May.
But Wayne has spent the last 20 years trying to figure out how to make money marketing vegetables
in eastern Connecticut. It is not near any population
centers, people are not as well educated as elsewhere, and it is sort of economically depressed. The
median income is maybe $30,000, there are empty
houses, and the farmland isnt good. He calls it our
Appalachia. What he has finally realized, after

many years, is that he needs to go where the money

is.

So he is trying out more affluent markets. For years

he has been going to farmers markets in Danielson
and Putnam. They are nearby, just off route 395. But
they suffer from the problems of eastern Connecticut.
We made less than $400 last night at Putnam, he
sighs. It goes from 3:30 to 6:00. Weve made $500
there in the past. We were the only organic tomatoes
there, so we could get $5 while everybody else got

We were surprised by the results.

We maintain our tank SCC down at 80-100,000
by spraying every fresh udder for 4 to 5 days.
Alan Mesman

Employees, he sums up, as Im sure you know,

when you get to be old are the most necessary and
most expensive part of a farming operation. Basically, Dustin makes money and I dont.
One of the ways Wayne markets is a small CSA. It
is only 12 shares, and goes 14 weeks from the last
Tuesday in June to the last Tuesday in September.
A share costs $280 ($265 if they pay in January),
a price he hasnt raised in the 10 years hes been
running it. Unlike many CSAs, however, Hansen
gives shareholders $20 worth of food each week.
So, despite the share price not rising, the prices of
vegetables do and $20 buys less now than it did 10
years ago.
It provides me with a few thousand dollars in January, Hansen says. That is really my main purpose
-- to have some income in January, so maybe you
can pay the credit card minimums that month! I
could try to do a huge CSA, but I dont want to.
These things all feed each other. We wouldnt have
met Roger, our volunteer, if we hadnt been going to
the markets. I sell to the Willimantic Food Coop and
that gives me some good contacts.
By the time summer rolls around, however, he is a
little tired of the CSA: This week we picked for
Wednesdays Old Saybrook market on Tuesday
morning. We have to leave before 7 in the morning, so we cant pick then. But we had to make sure
the CSA got its produce first, and what was left we
could take to the market. Tuesdays become very
stressful trying to balance one thing against another.

MESMAN FARM, Mt. Vernon, Washington

Alan and Vickie Mesman and son Ben and daughter Samantha
Grazing-based Certified Organic Dairy
Milking 140 cows with RHA 19,000 lbs (2x)
SCC: Before 140-170,000 After 80-100,000
The Mesman family (l-r) Alan, Ben, Vickie and Samantha.

We were surprised by our results with Udder

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running 140-170,000, we could not believe
how squirting this spray on the outside of the
udder would cut our somatic cell count down
by 70,000. But it worked. It softens the udder,
which relaxes the cow. This helps withedema
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Mesman. He and his wife Vickie and son Ben and
daughter Sammy milk 140 cows at their Certified
Organic dairy near Mt. Vernon, Washington.
At first we sprayed Udder Comfort on the whole
udder of 39 identified cows (out of 140 milking).
As a result, the tank SCC dropped down to
80,000. This boosted our quality premium
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38

The Natural Farmer

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Fall, 2010

Fall, 2010

$4. But I get tired of it. I spent a half hour once at

Putnam without a single person coming up to look
at my stand. They all had their WIC checks and
were going to the guys with the biggest cucumbers
for the lowest price.

The Natural Farmer

39

So I called up the guy who runs the markets for the

Department of Agriculture, he continues. I asked
him if we couldnt get a spot in one of the better
markets. He said, Sure. You want to do Wednesday
or Saturday? I already had a good market in Danielson on Saturday, so I went for Wednesday. We got
a spot at Old Saybrook. The first year wasnt great,
but you spend that time getting to know people and
planning out what crops work for them. Last year it
was my best market.
This last winter, since Hansen had the winter greenhouse, he decided to try a winter market in New
London. It wasnt that well attended, but the publicity person for Coventry asked him if he would like
to come up and sell his winter greenhouse produce
there. He thought hed give them a try, and came
away impressed.
They sell from November to the end of February,
Wayne relates. Its inside the Coventry high school
on Sunday, 11 to 2 and they have an Email list of
2500 people! So I started going there as a guest
vendor every couple of weeks. Then somebody had
the misfortune of having their greenhouse heater
shut down and they lost everything. But that did
open some tables for us. We did very well for what
we had. Id take these tiny onions that I thought no
one would want, put them in a bag with a high price
on it, and people would snap them up. I mostly did
chard, kale, collards, and bok choy. Bok choy actually grows in the winter, even when spinach wont.
And it was very popular. So we did extremely well
and at some point the two women who run the
market asked me if I wanted to sell at the summer
market. I said I sure would! So we have this great
market for $220 for 22 weeks. Im the only certified
organic vendor there! There is one Certified Naturally Grown guy who used to be organic, and some
people who have signed the Farmers Pledge, but
nobody else certified organic.
We just went to the Coventry regional market last
week, he continues. Its probably one of the two
or three destination markets in Connecticut where
people go just because it is entertaining. Opening
day they had 3500 visitors! Its not Danielson or
Putnam. You can make some money there. Coventry
is not a population center, but people come there
from West Hartford, which is a well-off suburb. It
was done well and publicized well. A few people
spent a year figuring out how to run a good farmers
market. Theyre not farmers. One makes soap. Its
a big community activity. We have a spot there this
year. You have to continue to show up to get invited
back next year. Last week we had all the tomatoes
from the greenhouse. It was the second week in July.
We had the best farmers market weve ever had.
We did $1000.65! We were almost the only people
with tomatoes, and we had a big pile of them. They
were $5 a pound and there was a line for twenty-five
feet of people waiting to buy them. This Sunday we
wont have as many, so it wont be so good. A guy
had a few tomatoes and his daughter came over and
said: Wow, youve got Brandywines! These look
way better than ours! She bought $13 worth of tomatoes herself.
In this case Hansens certification stood him in good
stead. The Coventry market wanted a certified organic vendor. They had one, but when he stopped
coming they lost customers at the market. Wayne is
getting $3 a head for lettuce in mid July and figures
if he can continue to grow it in the summer he can
do very well. Recently he has been packing two
heads and selling them as one because we wants
to have a substantial head. He expects his Sungold
cherry tomatoes fly off the shelf at $4 a pint.
One of the investments Wayne has made which he
thinks is key is a walk-in cooler. He has it in the
house basement, which makes it a little hard to get
stuff in and out of, but it enables him to pick crops
today and keep them in good shape for a market
tomorrow. He got it a long time ago, he says, before
anyone had heard of CoolBot!

photo by Jack Kittredge

Wayne and his wife, Marilyn (who has just braided the garlic she holds), stand in their field.

Hansen figures his crop mix partly by what sells

well, but partly by what he likes. Hes been growing quite a bit of kohlrabi, for instance! He says
every so often some 25 year-old kid comes up to his
stand at the market and sees them and gets excited,
or some lady from Germany will come by and say:
Oh, yah, Ve got dis in de old country!
I got into growing unusual vegetables, he explains, because once a lady came up to me at a
market and said: You know, I always come to your
stand first. You have all the weird stuff. Everybody
else has tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, maybe potatoes and onions. But I was growing radicchio, kohlrabi, things people werent familiar with. Theyll
come to see what you have, and maybe theyll buy
one.

People have gotten to like local food and Wayne

figures that if we are going to have it, people are going to have to pay more. Thats just reality, The idea
of cheap food and Earl Butz is long gone. Hes not
planning on leaving any of his older markets. But
he is going to charge the same in them as he does in
Coventry.
I cant really have two prices, he says, I wouldnt
feel good about that. You know: How much are
these onions? I dont know. What town is this?
But if I cant survive at the farmer-run markets, Ill
find more of the upscale ones instead. Were now
making as much at the two upscale markets as we
made doing 4 or 5 of the markets around here.
A market expert, he continues, told me: Go to
the shore. People have money there! A lot of times
theyre summer people. Theyre there to have a
good time and spend money, If you have something like Sungold tomatoes, theyre a real treat.
Theyll bring the three kids and the dog on the way
to the beach and theyll buy four pints for $4 each
and theyll eat half of them before they get off the
grounds. And theyre thrilled. Last year they were
devastated that we didnt have them!
I asked Hansen to tell me which vegetables he
thought were among the more lucrative to grow. He
said radicchio is actually pretty lucrative if you can
get it to work out. There is one woman at the Willimantic Food Coop who would buy 20 heads a week
if he could supply them.
I think onions are also one of my more lucrative
crops, he adds. I think onions can be very good.
I grow a lot of cippolini. the flat Italian onions.
Theyre very sweet and store very well. Thats about
all they sell in Italy for onions. I was charging $1.50
a pound and in Coventry they said I wasnt getting
enough. Scallions arent bad, but they are a little
labor intensive. Ive gone to $2 per bunch for them,
and havent had any trouble selling them. Fingerling

potatoes are a pretty good crop. I dont really have a

crop return analysis for these, but I know people are
happy to pay good money for good onions, good potatoes. I use a lot of my rows for potatoes. You can
grow a lot of fingerlings in a small amount of space.
I bet I could sell them for $5 a pound. I think I was
at $3.50 last year. But everybody at the Coventry
market is telling me: Wayne, youre not charging
enough money. I say: Are you sure? In Putnam I
charge $3 per head for my lettuce, but a lady across
the way is getting $1.25 per head!
But that is what you run into, he continues, when
you have a farmer-run market as opposed to a committee-run one, who know what they are doing.
They would either talk to her and get her to raise her
prices, or not invite her back. I tell people like that:
Grow in your backyard and put up a sign that says
free vegetables. Dont compete with farmers who
need to make a living.
Waynes wife Marilyn retired this year. She was a
residential staff worker at a group home for cognatively impaired women. When she was hired it was
a union job and they put her on the state pension
program as well as an excellent health insurance
plan for both Marilyn and Wayne which has followed them into retirement. She has worked there
18 years and sometimes still goes back as a substitute. All these years she was the primary breadwinner in the family and could only help Wayne on
weekends and evenings. But she is able to help more
now. An old on-the-job back injury, however, means
she isnt physically capable of doing a lot of things.
And Hansen says she needs training in many of his
systems and practices.
Hansen doesnt have any other job during the winter
and his difficult farm financial picture is in part due
to seasonal cash flow problems.
We sometimes drag in a lot of money, he asserts,
but when it comes to April and we have to pay the
$700 workmans comp bill, I still have to put it on a
credit card! Thats just the way things are. I finance
almost everything on credit cards. Back after the
crash the Bank of America offered me $21,500 at
0% for a year. I got that, which was how I was able
to pay for our big hoophouse. It was about $11,000.
I got the hardware for next to nothing. But clearing
the land, putting in new topsoil, driving the stakes,
putting it up was what was expensive.
As a result of these cash flow problems last year the
farm, which grossed slightly more than $39,000,
paid out $2500 in interest. Other major expenses
were labor - $11,900, car and truck expense - $7700
(that includes Wayne doing about 10,000 miles in
the van for markets and picking up supplies, and
Marilyn miles to markets and doing errands in her
car, all at 55 a mile), supplies - $4500, seeds and

40

Fall, 2010

The Natural Farmer

plants - $2900, utilities - $2400, gas and oil - $2300,

fertilizers and lime - $1900, repairs and maintenance
- $1900, depreciation - $1800 (for the greenhouse),
fees - $1700 (mostly market fees), and insurance
- $1500 (workmans comp and liability). Overall the
farm lost about $6,000.
Hansen is not happy about losing money regularly
on the farm. Now that Marilyn has retired there is
more pressure as they have only her pension and
both their social security checks for income. And
expenses dont go down just because you retire.
Fuel and utility costs continue to rise. Their insurance company is pressing them to fix up the house
or face surcharges. That is part of Waynes effort to
find more lucrative markets, where he can charge
what he needs to.
This little dinky place, he says proudly, is feeding a lot of folks. And I cant feel bad about charging for it. If I were making money if I had a Mercedes instead of a 1996 Ford, I might feel different.
Maybe Id feel guilty. But I dont! If I made minimum wage, if I made anything, I might feel bad. But
Im getting tired of going into debt each winter and
scraping by in the spring worrying about the credit
card minimum payment.
Why do I keep doing it, he questions, if I dont
make any money? People ask that. But I thought
what else can I do? Im not going to get a job at
Dunkin Donuts! Theres nothing else I can do, so
Im sort of stuck with this. Fortunately I enjoy it. I
like being outdoors, even when its not fun when
its wet or when things arent working so well.
People come up and thank me, he continues, for
being an organic grower! You get a lot of feedback
from people that is very reassuring. You feel like
you are doing something good and worthwhile. You
sometimes train people who are young to do this. It
would be more fun if you didnt have so many debts
and worries. But at this point, what else am I going
to do? Another thing is that we eat well. We eat all
this stuff. When the fall comes we have time to cook
and its really fun to figure out things to do with all
these weird vegetables!

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Fall, 2010

continued from page 1

41

The Natural Farmer

Workshop attendees learn about building and

maintaining attached greenhouses.

photo by Jack Kittredge

Its in the hands of us, the salt of the earth, the organic farms. We are the change
agents. It will be a bright future if you put salt on your food and allow yourself
to eat plenty of butter.

photo by Tyson Wilder

Friday keynoter Sally Fallon Morell spoke about the value of salt in
human diets, as well as the presence of adequate animal fats.

ago, Murphy originally headed to Cuba after working with Catherine Sneed of
the Garden Project, in San Francisco. After having worked with incarcerated

continued on page 44

Catherine Murphy, the Saturday evening keynote presenter, shared her

experience as a researcher and filmmaker in Latin America. Roughly 20 years

photo by Jason Chcchiara

Saturday keynoter Catherine Murphy spoke from her experience

of living over ten years in Havana.

photo by Jason Chcchiara

This banner, made by the children during the conference, led the
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42

Book Reviews

The Organic Farmers Business Handbook:

A Complete Guide to Managing Finances,
Crops, and Staff and Making a Profit

by Richard Wiswall
published by Chelsea Green, 2009, www.chelseagreen.com
$34.95, 184 pages, includes a CD with spreadsheets,
budgets, and templates for many useful management
documents
review by Jack Kittredge
You can add my praise to that of Vern Grubinger of
UVM extension, Lynn Byczynski of Gardening for
Market and Enid Wonnacott of NOFA-VT. This is
an exceedingly useful book. The first 150 pages discuss the basics of a farm business by focusing on 11
aspects of the whole experience.
True Sustainability This chapter provides tools for
you to discover and become clear about your personal goals. Not the new 4WD pick-up, but the big
ones: health, family, security, enjoyment, freedom,
etc. Richard tells of his own experiences doing the
work of farming and how it can look like drudgery
when you are too close, but looks far more satisfying if you put it in perspective and find it is helping
you to your true goals.
Farm for Profit, not Production This chapter steps
you through the beginning stages of planning for
profit. Wiswall helps the reader establish an annual
profit goal, in numbers, and then work out the production and marketing plan which will accomplish
that goal. This involves thinking through each crop,
how much will be produced, to whom and at what
price it will be sold, and what resources in land and
other inputs are necessary to produce and sell it.
Discovering Profit Centers Here we talk about actually recording the quantity and price of items sold,
and the expenses involved in production. Richard
gives lots of tips about how to minimize the time
involved in this work, while making clear that if you
neglect it you will have trouble achieving your profit
goals. He introduces the crop journal, a running

The Natural Farmer

Fall, 2010

form for each crop on which you enter the daily

work for that crop hours spreading fertility, planting, weeding, irrigating, harvesting and packing for
sale, and cover cropping the space. Besides the labor
and equipment hours, this journal allows the later
filling in of the costs of seed, fertility, packaging,
etc. for an overall look at the costs of that crop. This
journal, your bills, and the income records you also
take enable you to establish a budget for each crop.
Once you know the profitability of a bed of carrots,
you can compare that to the profitability of beets
or lettuce. At that point you can create an index of
profitability and find which crops give you the highest profit, letting you see if there are ways you can
expand production and sales of them. Wiswall says
a few extra days of this recordkeeping over the year
resulted in about a $10,000 increase in his profitability the first year he did it!

more tomatoes anyway. It is better to find a separate

market for those tomatoes, keeping the return per
tomato where it should be. The exception to this, he
says, is where a CSA is totally devoted to the members and the members have funded the whole farm
budget. Then all the produce should go to the members as they have paid for it all.

Profit Time: Crop Enterprise Budgets This chapter

shows how to include fixed expenses in crop budgets things like greenhouse, tractor, implement,
and irrigation costs, as well as taxes, insurance, marketing, etc. These overhead costs end up allocated
to crops in roughly the percentage the crop takes in
the growing area. One interesting fact that Wiswall
comes up with is that it costs a fixed $246 for two
people to load, travel to and from, set up, and staff
one farmers market. Unless you are grossing considerably more than that, perhaps you would be better
off finding a different market for those crops,

Office Paper Flows and Leaky Finances -- In this

longish chapter Richard goes into some detail about
the number of ways inadequate record-keeping and
math errors can cut into your profits. Lost invoices,
loaned and unreturned books and tools, not recording deductible expenses, paying with cash, not
reconciling bank statements, not checking unpaid
invoices regularly, using hanging scales and rounding down for simplicity instead of digital scales and
getting exact weight and pricing, and not using calculators to catch math errors can all diminish your
net profit.

Marketing Strategies Here Wiswall talks about the

importance of sales work, branding, and working
out a satisfactory relationship with the customers,
whether they be produce buyers for stores, chefs,
CSA members, farmers market attendees or whomever. He cautions about pricing needing to be related
to the sale obviously large wholesale amounts
being priced lower per unit than individual sales because of the savings in marketing costs. He also cautions against giving CSA customers too much when
there is a bumper crop (say tomatoes). He says that
diminishes the per unit return on each tomato and
CSA customers usually cant consume that many

How to Retire on Your Farm: Retirement 101 and

Business Spending Tactics Here Wiswall deals
with the fact that farmers have no pensions or retirement benefits and need to have a plan for old
age. He touts the benefits of minimizing expenses,
saving income, maximizing tax savings via IRA
contributions, and investing as much as possible for
the future. He makes a simple but thought-provoking distinction about investing in the farm itself.
To the extent that you think buying farm machinery
is an investment, he says, you are fooling yourself.
While it may increase productivity and thus profitability for a while, it ultimately will lose all value.

Effective Management This covers such basic

management as filing paperwork, scheduling time,
changing old decisions that arent working for you,
managing employees (all the way from job descriptions to retirement benefits) to farming with your
spouse (define who is in charge of what, schedule
regular meetings, express your needs clearly but be
willing to compromise, and talk about what, if any,
parts of the house are off limits to farm work and
workers.)

Fall, 2010
Investments are things that continually increase in
value, so buying a tractor is not that but is instead an
expense.
Production Efficiencies In this, the longest chapter
in the book, Wiswall proves that yes, he is really a
farmer and not an accountant. Reminding the reader
that Profit = Income Expenses, he suggests that
often the easiest way to increase profit is not to raise
income but to trim expenses. On organic farms, that
usually means cutting the biggest expense -- labor.
The easiest way to cut labor is to mechanize and
use tractor-based equipment, especially for tillage.
Wiswalls concern about the financial impact weeds
can have is evident as he waxes eloquent on adopting a strategy of farm-wide uniform raised beds so
that tillage can be standardized and efficient. (Julie
and I have just adopted this system this year on our
own farm, and I was greatly encouraged that we will
see more of those predicted but hard-to-find profits
in 2010.) Like most farmers, Richard likes to talk
about his equipment. He describes (and shows pictures of) his disk harrow, S-tine harrow, chain harrow, mini chisels, bed former, rototiller, tine weeder,
basket cultivator, sweeps, flame weeders, various
seeders, bedlifter, rotary mower, root crop chain
digger, and barrel washer. For a guy who wants to
reduce expenses, and understands that equipment is
not an investment but an expense, that is quite a lot
of hardware. But I take his word for it that each item
saves money in the long run compared to paying for
hand weeding or accepting the losses in production
that result from weedy fields.
Write Your Own Business Plan Wiswall may be
biting off more than he can chew by trying to convince farmers to write business plans. But for those
who need one usually because they are trying to
borrow money or interest investors or partners in the
farm and need to clearly examine its potential as a
money-making venture creating a business plan
can be an exciting and worthwhile achievement. It
involves a farm description of location, size, ownership, improvements, products, markets, analyses of
SWOT (Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and
Threats), of management (who manages what?), of
markets (current ones and trends), and of enterprises
(the major products you raise), farm financial forms
(Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Projection), and planning ideas and timetables. Most of
us have this information in our heads somewhere,
but putting it down in an organized form on paper is
something new. Wiswall helps with some examples
and clear statements of what you need to show and
why.
Planning for the Inevitable: The Ultimate Conclusion Of course no book on the business of organic
farming is complete without a discussion of the impact of death and inheritance on the operation. This
short chapter is more to urge the reader to make a
will, appoint a health care decision-maker should
you be disabled, and give someone the power of
attorney to deal with your financial affairs on your
behalf if you become incompetent,
The last 40 pages of appendices give detailed examples of forms, workbooks, enterprise budgets for
various crops, and an index. The paperwork is small
and detailed, but it all, as well as much else, is available to the reader on a CD which accompanies the
book. This nice touch saves you many hours of reinventing (or at least re-keyboarding) the wheel and
is just one more example of the care and thoughtfulness Wiswall shows for the reader.

Simply in Season

A World Community Cookbook

Written by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen HockmanWert
Published by Herald Press, Scottsdale, PA, 2009
Spiral bound hard cover, 368 pages, $13.99
review by Nina Marcinowski

The Natural Farmer

This brightly colored cookbook was put together in
order to help consumers cook local fresh vegetables
in season. The recipes encourage you to buy local
and eat food that is at its freshest and most nutritious. As a CSA member or farmers market shopper you will be able to find a recipe for the fresh
produce that you buy.
The book is set up in five color coded sections, one
for each season, and one for all seasons. The recipes in each section use fruits and vegetables, which
are available locally at that time of year. Each section has recipes for breads, breakfast, soups, salads,
main dishes, dessert and extras. The summer section also has some basic canning information and
recipes.
Recipes were collected from all over the country
and the world. Since this cookbook is for everyone
not all of the recipes apply to the Northeast. I have
already used several recipes from Simply in Season
for the newsletter of the CSA I belong to. They are
not complicated, the format makes them easy to follow, and there are many vegetarian options. This
cookbook was commissioned by the Mennonite
Central Committee to promote the understanding of
how food choices we make affect our lives and the
lives of those who produce the food. With this in
mind there are short paragraphs accompanying some
of the recipes on aspects of sustainable agriculture.
As a cook I like the way the hard cover with the
coated spiral binding allows the book to stay open
flat at any page. There are colorful illustrations of
fruits and vegetables but not of the individual foods
as prepared. You will find many tasty, easy to prepare recipes for your year round bounty.

Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: A Planning Manual

edited by Charles L. Mohler & Sue Ellen Johnson

2009, Natural Resource, Agriculture & Engineering
Service (NRAES), Ithaca NY.
154 pages, $24. trade paperback. ISBN 978-1933395-21-0.
review by Sue Smith-Heavenrich
The purpose of this book is to help growers understand how to manage crop rotations, build better
soils, control weeds and pests, and develop profitable farms. To do that, Mohler and Johnson go
directly to the folks who know best researchers,
extension educators and organic growers. Somehow
they manage to cram a vast amount of information.
check-lists and worksheets into this relatively thin
(3/8-inches) volume.
The book begins with basics: the hows and whys of
managing crop rotation and a short lecture on soil
tilth and nutrition. Then Mohler and Johnson offer
more than a dozen farm-tested crop sequences from
the field, along with a step-by-step rotation planning guide. Even so, its not a fill-in-the-blank and
youre ready to plant type guide. The editors dont
tell growers which crop should follow what. Instead, they challenge growers to become intimately
acquainted with their land, topography, crops and
markets and guide them to develop a crop rotation
program suited to their particular farm and cultural
style.
Crop rotation Mohler-style begins with questions:
what are your goals? Do you want to maintain
healthy soil? Control a particular disease? Add nutrients?
Then you list the crops you plan to grow and the
amount of land given over to each. One thing
Mohler and Johnson emphasize is crop diversity;
if you have a lot of acreage invested in a particular
plant family it will be harder to develop a rotation.

43

Divide your farm into small management units, they

suggest. It doesnt matter whether a management
unit is a 5x100 bed or a half-acre field what does
matter is that you map them. A hint: making units
the same size simplifies planning and record-keeping. Another hint: make multiple copies of your
maps because youll be collecting lots of data as you
walk your land and work out potential rotations.
One of the things Mohler cautions growers to do is
develop contingency plans for alternate rotations
should there be weather disasters, flooding, or a
drought in the marketplace.
Mohler includes a chapter on crop rotations during
the transition from conventional to organic agriculture, with advice for turning an old hayfield into
vegetable production. Perennial weeds, he notes,
pose a substantial problem so consider putting the
newly plowed land into a season of cover crops and
fallow. If you cant, then at least have the first crops
be something you transplant. And, whatever you
do, avoid planting viney crops like pumpkins and
squash the first year; they are hard to weed.
For those who place a high value on diversity,
theres a separate chapter offering guidelines for
intercropping. Use tall crops to reduce the effects of
drought and heat stress on shorter crops, suggests
Kim Stoner. Interrupt crop plantings with rows of
something else that will make it harder for insect
pests to find the crop and plant flowers that will provide habitat for beneficial insects. If you can, plant
trap crops to reduce insect pest pressure on your
market crops. However, understand that intercropping makes it more difficult to develop rotations, as
you now have to take into account the needs of two
crop families.
The last third of the book is given over to appendices, with a table detailing crop sequence problems
and a particularly useful list of disease pathogens
hosted by agricultural weeds. Theres even a detailed explanation on how to create management
maps of your fields using Excel spreadsheets, along
with a link to examples.

Up Tunket Road: the education of a modern

homesteader

By Philip Ackerman-Leist
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2010
Softcover, 278 pages
$17.95
Black and white line drawings by Erin AckermanLeist
review by Erica Myers-Russo
Ill begin with a disclaimer: a couple of years ago
while attending a residency at Green Mountain College, I had the pleasure of visiting the AckermanLeist homestead. I met Erin and enjoyed a hike
led by Philip. I admired the cozy house, envied the
gorgeous old russet apple trees, and sampledat the
resistance-is-futile urging of their young sonthe
sweetest, fleshiest rose hips Ive ever seen. I even
used the compost toilet.
Now, reading Up Tunket Road, I realize that visit
was a bit like reading the last page of a novel first
I began the book with an image already firm in my
mind of the idyllic denouement, the little homestead
brimming with sustainability and good cheer, nary a
conflict or compromise in sight.
One of the books many virtues is that it reveals the
workboth physical and intellectualthat went
into the creation of the homestead I saw that day,
the work which, Im willing to bet, Ackerman-Leist
would argue is on-going. What makes the tale
charming rather than didactic is Ackerman-Leists
combination of perspective and humor. (The waste
management discussionwherein Philip and Erin

continued on page 45

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Certified Organic Farm

44

The Natural Farmer

Fall, 2010

photo by Jason Cucchiara

Chuk Kittredge ends the conference by auctioning the banner.

essential questions that farmers have. Laura shared. Red Tomato was very
pleased to be part of the dialogue this year.

Sharlow and Emily Hitchcock, 8th graders who just entered their first year with
the teen conference, enjoyed the new freedom of being with older kids after
five years of attending the childrens conference. Like typical teenagers, Emily
and Sharlow spent time playing pool, card games, and hanging out with other
photo by Jason Cucchiara
teenagers on campus. With about 30 other teenagers, they participated in a
Exhibitors found eager audiences for books, clothes,
Bodycare workshop where the teens made spritzers and lipbalm. They really
soil amendments and fertility aids, tools, and much else.
liked seeing how things are made, after having always consumed products
individuals who were finding their way and dealing with personal crisis through pre-made and sold in the grocery store. The girls were surprised and amused
community gardening, Murphy felt drawn to the Cuban food crisis another
at trying various herbs during another workshop. A presenter had explained
kind of collective crisis. She wanted to understand how the country of Cuba
different uses and had the teens try herbs in different forms. At first it seemed a
was responding to the withdrawal of the Soviet Union. Catherine Murphy drew
little scary eating things from nature, they confessed. The most profound thing
a picture of a pre-crisis Cuba largely reliant upon Soviet industrial farming
the twins took from the summer conference was a lesson about global hunger,
models, which utilized monoculture planting, machinery, chemical fertilizers
presented by Heifer International. The presenter put out visuals, Emily
and pesticides, and petroleum. With the fall of the communist empire, Cuba was explained he put a world map on the ground. The global hunger workshop
faced with a transformative moment. Murphy quoted Dr. Fernando Funes, her
was designed to show teens the distribution of resources throughout the world,
mentor and researcher with the Cuban Association of Agronomists and Foresters, compared with local populations. It was eye-opening for them to see photos of
who said about that time in Cuban history Cuba had two choices to lay
kids around the world who did not have enough to eat.
down and die, or to stand up and fight. Cuba chose the latter. Devoid of ag
imports after the Soviet withdrawal, Cuba redeveloped its agricultural system in Aside from the diverse learning opportunities, lots of entertainment and cheer
a sustainable, organic way. Part of the reason the sustainable transformation was abounded. The first evening, a contra dance took place outside on the main
possible in Cuba, according to Murphy, was related to structural aspects of the
lawn, along with world drumming in the campus center. On Saturday evening,
governmental agencies, small farms, research institutions, and a general Cuban
a cajun band kept folks kicking up their heels outside, while a student DJ from
commitment to education and learning. The government made land available to the Pioneer Valley kept folks hopping in the Cape Cod Lounge to top hits.
anyone who wanted to cultivate food, research centers came together to provide The UMass Amherst dining services did an outstanding job of feeding organic
insights and leadership on new agricultural models, and campesinos (small
food to the entire crowd all weekend long. Perhaps one of the most colorful
farmers) were poised to fit into cooperatives and adapted pr4actices like crop
and relaxed part of the NOFA Summer Conference was the afternoon fair, on
rotation, diversification, and other sustainable farming methods. One of the most Saturday afternoon. Complete with pie-eating contests, corn nibbling, cow
powerful lessons of the Cuban sustainable agriculture transformation, Murphy
plop gambling, a parade, live music and auction there were amusements and
concluded, was that it is possible to develop a decentralized, country-wide
distractions all around. The farmers market brought in some new vendors, to
system of food production, based on small family farms. With the U.S. losing
family farms every year, the Cuban story seems pressing, according to Catherine.
Murphy taught us We can do with less, live with less. We lead happier more
fulfilling lives when we do with less and especially when we share what we
have. Thinking less in terms of I and more in terms of We, Cuba shows us
that we can have fulfilling liveswe may be able to save our planet and the
species as a result.
Summer Conference workshop topics ranged from honeybee management,
to draft horses, vermiculture, lactofermentation to composting for beginners.
NOFA always manages to put together a slate of topics that reaches far and
wide. Attendees included serious commercial farmers, small CSA-style local
producers, gardeners and landscapers, and urban homesteaders. One of the
presentations included leaders from business/non-profit hybrid organization Red
Tomato. The organization joined the conference to explore their model for local,
regional wholesale farm-to-large consumer distribution. Laura Edwards-Orr, Red
Tomatos Marketing Manager shared some of her experiences as a presenter.
She observed that most of the attendees at their workshop included small CSAshare type farmers, who are looking at distribution/supply chain questions.
Small farms, according to Laura, are always interested in the question of making
distribution more efficient. Although she thought that the attendees were not
specifically the kinds of farmers that Red Tomato most often works with, the
knowledge-sharing around distribution is critical to many farmers looking for
a way to get their products to market. How to move food is one of the most

photo by Jason Cucchiara

The parade of children, animals, musicians, and floats of all styles is

the official beginning of the Olde Time Country Fair.

Fall, 2010
complete the circle of exhibitors on campus all
weekend. Livestock demonstrations, including
llamas, draft horses and yoked oxens put smiles
on kids and adults alike. This year the conference
introduced a silent and live auction, which raised
much-needed funds for NOFA. Participants bid
on whale watching tours, weekend getaways to
Vermont, books and artisan products.
Kathleen Geary, one of the Summer Conference
Registration Coordinators shared how deeply she
connects with NOFA members. Participants were
always courteous, caring, loving, and helpful she
reflected. Despite all the work we put in, ultimately
the NOFA Summer Conference is about the people.
These are the people I want to be around. Their
generosity of spirit, communal outlook, helpful
nature, and general appreciativeness is what
sets NOFA folk apart. Kathleen even received
a beautiful scarf from some Peruvian attendees,
when they arrived at the registration table. As the
Public Relations Coordinator, I too received a small
token of gratitude from one of my press attendees
the editor of the Standard Times stopped by my
table and took a large heirloom tomato out of his
bag for me. This, the 36th annual NOFA Summer

continued from page 43

seek an alternative to winter outhouse jaunts which

satisfies both their own ideals and the somewhat
more prosaic requirements of the areas septic
codeis a prime example of both.)
He begins the book with a revelation (gleaned from
his students) that the traditional concept of homesteadingrural self-reliancemay be too limiting
for contemporary realities. This nudge becomes
the cue for retrospect, as Ackerman-Leist walks us
through the evolution (a term he invokes) of their
back-to-the-land experiencefrom the initial nervewracking purchase of a dilapidated cabin to its current incarnation as a working example of one possible definition of modern homesteading.
Along the way, the author shares a good bit of valuable information on the acts of homesteading: the
relative merits of different types of woodburning
stoves, the potentially catastrophic (to the plumbing, anyway) insolubility of urine salts, the proper
use and care of a scythe. But even more valuable
are the insights into the processes of homesteading,
the reflections, dilemmas, debates, andultimatelycompromises that constitute what he calls the
constant tension between good ideas and admirable
ideals.
Its herein these messy considerations, where decisions seem less like choices between good and bad
than between the lesser of two evilsthat Ackerman-Leists humility and honesty really shine. Never self-congratulatory, he unflinchingly examines the
hard questions familiar to anyone who has ever attempted to live life more sustainably. Moreover, he
examines them from multiple vantage pointsthe
pragmatic and the idealistic, the individual and the
global. Pioneering involves failure, or at least setbacks, he reminds us, but argues that these difficulties, when shared, are part of the learning curvea
learning curve which expands beyond the narrow
confines of rural self-reliance, and offers an education to all modern homesteaders.

Introduction to Energy in California

Peter Asmus
University of California Press, 2009
Softcover, 392 pages
$18.95
Numerous full-color photos and graphics
review by Erica Myers-Russo
Introduction to Energy in California is number 97
of the California Natural History Guides, and like

The Natural Farmer

Conference is the last one for Julie Rawson and Jack
Kittredge, who were co-coordinators for more than
twenty years. In reflecting about this years summer
conference, Julie said:
I feel very peaceful that the conference is in good
hands into the future. There will always be a million
details to stay on top of, and attention to the details
make for the smoothness of the experience. But the
heart and soul of the conference is well imbedded
in the next generation of organizers. Good luck. We
will be around. The past month I have been flooded
with 24 years of memories a real kaleidoscope.
Jack and I were stopped and congratulated by Grace
Gershuny on Saturday night, a conference organizer
from Vermont from way back before us. This brief
encounter reminded me that in NOFA we have successfully developed an inheritance strategy and
passing of the torch to the next generation. Thus the
movement continues.
Jack said: I plan to be picking peaches and laying
in the hammock making up silly songs for my
grandkids next summer, instead of worrying about
the conference! Ill be there -- to see friends and
learn -- but it will be wonderful to not be in charge!
the other 100 or so books in the series, it offers a
comprehensive and credible treatment of the topic.
What may come as a surprise, given the title, is
how informative it is for readers across the country.
Written by Peter Asmus, a seasoned journalist specializing in energy, the book might more accurately
be described as an introduction to energy issues,
focused through the lens of Californiathe nations
leader in both the consumption and development of
energy resources.
The book is well-organized into logical categories.
It begins with an overview of the history of energy
usage in the state (the chapter title, From Indigenous Stewardship to Millennial Crisis, sets the
tone). Asmus then describes the Mainstays of the
states energy usage, fossil fuels, before turning in
the third chapter to a comprehensive review of alternatives, including solar, geothermal, wind, biomass,
biofuels, nuclear, hydrogen, and hydropower.
Next, he addresses the challenges associated with
both the status quo and with various alternative energy sources. The Challenges chapter is the most
sobering, with charts showing increasing greenhouse gas emissions, maps projecting a growing
wildfire risk, and images of places as far-flung as the
oil fields of Iraq and a mountaintop removal mine
in West Virginia. Alternative energy sources are not
exempt, as Asmus addresses the problems associated with transmission, habitat impact, and cost. On
a more optimistic note, the chapter titled Innovation examines emerging technologies, including
the (ideally) complementary roles of government
and private industry, and the final chapter, Seven
Ongoing Experiments, looks at case studies of alternative energy programs across California. It is
this last chapter that might be of particular interest
to readers throughout the country, because it offers
concrete examples of potential energy solutions
from cool roofs to smart grids, from large-scale
humanure projects that capture and utilize methane
to biodiesel.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of Introduction to Energy in California is that it makes a potentially dry and/or confusing topic interesting and
accessible. The language is clear and engaging, and
the generous use of graphics helps the reader visualize concepts which might otherwise seem like vague
memories of physics class past. At the same time,
as is typical of the California Natural History Series,
accuracy is never sacrificed, and an extensive glossary and reference appendix make this work equally
useful to the casual or academic readerregardless
of where they live.

45
The Town That Food Saved How One
Community Found Vitality in Local Food

by Ben Hewitt
published by Rodale, 2009, www.rodalestore.com
$24.99, 234 pages, includes index
review by: Jean Hamilton
From the title and jacket description, you might
assume that Ben Hewitts The Town that Food
Saved is the book version of the media feeding
frenzy that has descended on Hardwick, VT in recent years. In fact, this book is a thoughtful and
reader-friendly look at some of the most pertinent
and complicated challenges confronting local food
advocates.
In seventeen chapters, Hewitt paints a detailed portrait of Hardwick, VT, with particularly fine strokes
granted to those residents who have been central
to the local food system. The book opens with an
introduction to the unique characteristics of Hardwicks history and geography. From that foundation, readers are introduced to the Hardwick buzz, in
which several local, state, and national media outlets
pounce on Hardwicks story of redemption by local
food and agriculture. Hewitt was one of these journalists in 2008 when he wrote an article for Gourmet magazine about Hardwicks food revolution.
Many towns and many movements vie for such
media attention, but being a neighbor to Hardwick,
Hewitt sees the bigger picture, in which he realizes
that the media spotlight has neglected conspicuous
complications. The meat of the book explores the
philosophies and relationships that tie Hardwick together in agreement and dissent.
The Town that Food Saved, reads like a gabfest with
a close and intelligent friend. Hewitts humorous
and humble voice shines through the narrative as he
introduces readers to a very human cast of characters. Along with these characters the author takes us
on a vivid journey that includes attending community potlucks, the smells and sensations of evening
milking, a masterful hog slaughter, pints at the local
pub, and member hours spent marking miso soup at
the local food co-op. The easy reading provides an
excellent foil for the difficult questions that Hewitt
encounters:
How can local food systems offer economic viability to small-scale food producers and feed the
locals? In creating fair, ecological, decentralized,
and community-based food systems is it better to
reshape mainstream paradigms (like capaitalism) or
to create completely alternative models (such as barter-based communities)?
The rich stories and detailed personal encounters
lend a tangible reality to those big questions. With
the human and ecological details of this small Vermont town, Hewitt implores us to feel the urgency
of the complicated questions and to find the strength
in ourselves and each other to [wrest] our destiny
from a system that is convoluted, hierarchical, and
dangerous for the dependence it engenders and
[plant] it in our own communities, in our own soils,
with our own hands.
As someone who wrestles with questions of fairness, inclusion and effectiveness of my advocacy, I
benefited from my time spent with this book. Please
be clear that this is not a how-to guide; you will not
find a blue print here for saving your town with local food. Perhaps more valuable, this book offers
lessons in recognizing our own and our neighbors
humanity, in collaboration, and in community. This
book reminds us that building local food systems
is about building community connections; the path
will not be clear and straight, but in the bends and
brambles along the way we will find the odd flavors,
characters, world-views, and ways of life that define
home.

Send $15 for US, $20 for foreign address to:

NOFA Contact People

46

Connecticut

CT NOFA Office: P O Box 164, Stevenson, CT

06491, phone (203) 888-5146, FAX (203) 888-9280,
Email: [email protected], website: www.ctnofa.org
Executive Director: Bill Duesing, Box 164,
Stevenson, CT 06491, 203-888-5146, 203 888-9280
(fax), [email protected]
Office Manager/Webmaster: Deb Legge, PO Box
164, Stevenson, CT 06491, [email protected], 203888-5146
NOFA Project Coordinator, Organic Land Care
Program, Clara Buitrago, PO Box 164, Stevenson,
CT 06491, [email protected], 203-8885146
CT NOFA Program Coordinator, Teresa Mucci, PO
Box 164, Stevenson, CT 06491, [email protected],
203-888-5146
President: James Roby, P.O Box 191, 1667 Orchard
Road, Berlin, CT 06037, 860-828-5548, 860-8818031 (C), [email protected]
Vice President: Elizabeth Fleming, 54 Four Mile
Road, West Hartford, CT 06107-2709, 860-5614907, [email protected]
Treasurer: Michelle Hartel, 41 Angeli Court, Berlin,
CT 06037-4083, 860-829-0749, michjelleahartel@
comcast.net
Secretary: Chris Killheffer, 112 Bishop Street, New
Haven, CT 06511-7307, 203-787-0072, Christopher.
[email protected]
Farmers Pledge Program: Contact the office.
Organic Land Care Program Manager: Ashley
Kremser, PO Box 164, Stevenson, CT 06491,
[email protected], 203-888-5146
Organic Land Care Accreditation Manager: Clara
Buitrago, PO Box 164, Stevenson, CT 06491,
[email protected], 203-888-5146
Bookkeeper: Marion Griswold, PO Box 164,
Stevenson, CT 06491, [email protected], 203888-5146

Massachusetts

President: Lynda Simkins, Natick Community

Organic Farm, 117 Eliot Street, South Natick,
MA 01760, (508) 655-2204, lsimkins.ncorganic@
verizon.net
Vice President, Leslie Cox, Hampshire College
Farm, Amherst, MA 01002 (413) 530-2029, lcox@
hampshire.edu
Secretary: Elizabeth Coe, 13 Hickory Hill Road,
Great Barrington, MA 01230, (413) 528-6567,
[email protected]
Treasurer: Jean-Claude Bourrut, 31 Parkton Road
#1, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, (617) 983-1417,
[email protected]
Executive Director: Julie Rawson, 411 Sheldon
Road, Barre, MA 01005 (978) 355-2853, fax: (978)
355-4046, [email protected]
Administrative Director: Kathleen Geary, 411
Sheldon Road, Barre, MA 01005, (978) 355-2853
(Mondays & Thursdays, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm), email
anytime to: [email protected]
Webmaster: David Pontius, 26 School Street,
Northfield, MA 01360, (413) 498-2721,
[email protected]
Winter Conference Coordinators: Cathleen OKeefe,
122 State Street, 1st floor, Northampton,MA 01060
(413) 584-6786, [email protected], and
Michal Lumsden, PO Box 157, Monterrey, MA
01245, (413) 528-8016, [email protected]
Newsletter Editor/Public Relations Coordinator:
Mindy Harris, 110 Kodiak Way #2825, Waltham,
MA 02145, (310) 663-0054, [email protected]
NOFA Summer Conference Coordinator: Ben
Grosscup, 67 North Whitney Street, Amherst, MA
01002 (413) 549-1568, [email protected]
Website: www.nofamass.org
Baystate Organic Certifiers Administrator: Don
Franczyk, 1220 Cedarwood Circle, Dighton, MA
02764, (774) 872-5544, baystateorganic@earthlink.
net, website: www.baystateorganic.org

New Hampshire

NOFA-NH Office: 4 Park St., Ste. 208, Concord,

NH 03301, (603) 224-5022, [email protected]
Website: www.nofanh.org
Co-President: Lauren Chase-Rowell, 156 Stevens
Hill Road, Nottingham, NH 03290, (603) 463-7538,
[email protected]
Co-President: Essie Hull, 115 Baptist Road,

The Natural Farmer

Canterbury, NH 03224, (603) 783-4782,

[email protected]
Co-President: Jack Mastrianni, 277 Holden Hill
Road, Langdon, NH 03602, (603) 835-6488,
[email protected]
Vice President: Joan OConnor, PO Box 387,
Henniker, NH 03242, (603) 428-3530, joconnornh@
yahoo.com
Treasurer: Paul Mercier, Jr., 39 Cambridge
Drive, Canterbury, NH 03224, (603) 783-0036,
[email protected]
Newsletter Editor: Maria Noel Groves, 186
Deerfield Rd , Allenstown, NH 03275, (603)2680548, [email protected]
Office Manager: Eleanor Moyer, 4 Park St.,
Ste. 208, Concord, NH 03301, (603) 224-5022,
[email protected].
Business Manager Barbara Sullivan, 72 Gilford Ave,
Laconia, NH 03246, (603) 524-1285, barbara@
nofanh.org
Bulk Order Coordinator: Jennifer Quinlivan, P.O.
Box 92, Strafford, NH 03884, (603) 269-0063,
(603) 731-1182, [email protected]
Organic Certification: Vickie Smith, NH Department
of Agriculture, Markets & Food, Division of
Regulatory Services, Caller Box 2042, Concord,
NH 03301 (603) 271-3685, [email protected],
www.agriculture.nh.gov

Fall, 2010

(631) 267-8942, [email protected]

Vice President: Gunther Fishgold, Tierra Farm, 2424
State Rte 203, Valatie, NY 12184, (888) 674-6887,
[email protected]
Treasurer: Karen Livingston, 2569 Rolling Hills
Rd, Camillus, NY 13031, (315) 672-5244, delv11@
yahoo.com
Secretary: Jamie Edelstein, 3745 Allen Rd, Cato,
NY 13214, (315) 427-8266, wylliefox@earthlink.
net

Rhode Island

President: Erik Eacker, Ledge Ends Produce, 830

South Road, East Greenwich, RI 02818 (401) 8845118, [email protected]
Vice-President:Nicole Vitello, Manic Organic, PO
Box 425, Portsmouth, RI 02871 (401) 480-1403,
[email protected]
Secretary: Dave Binkley 53 Hilltop Drive West
Kingston, RI 02892 (401) 667-0585, binkled@
amgen.com
Treasurer/Membership: Dan Lawton, 247 Evans
Road Chepachet, RI 02814, (401) 523-2653
[email protected]
NOFA/RI, 247 Evans Road Chepachet, RI 02814,
(401) 523-2653, [email protected]
website: www.nofari.org

Vermont

NOFA-VT Office, PO Box 697, 39 Bridge St.,

Richmond, VT 05477 (802) 434-4122 NOFA, (802)
434-3821 VOF, Fax: (802) 434-4154, website:
www.nofavt.org, [email protected]
New Jersey
Executive Director: Enid Wonnacott, enid@nofavt.
Executive Directors: Michelle (Shelly) Glenn, 334
River Road, Hillsborough, NJ 08844, 908-371-1111 org
Financial Manager: Kirsten Novak Bower, kirsten@
x 2, [email protected]
and David Glenn, 334 River Road, Hillsborough, NJ nofavt.org
NOFA VT Education Coordinator & VT FEED
08844, 908-371-1111 x 3, [email protected]
Director: Abbie Nelson, [email protected]
President: Donna Drewes, Municipal Land Use
Dairy & Livestock Administrator: Sam Fuller,
Center, TCNJ, PO Box 7718 McCauley House,
[email protected]
Ewing, NJ 08628, (609) 771-2833, drewes@tcnj.
Dairy & Livestock Advisor & Policy Advisor:
edu
David Rogers, [email protected]
Vice President: Stephanie Harris, 163 HopewellDairy & Livestock Advisor: Willie Gibson, willie@
Wertsville Rd., Hopewell, NJ 08525, (609) 466nofavt.org
0194, [email protected]
Community Food Security & Direct Marketing
Treasurer: David Earling, Gravity Hill Farm, 22
Coordinator: Jean Hamilton, [email protected]
River Road Titusville, NJ 08560 (609) 737 8860
Office Assistant and Share the Harvest Fundraiser
[email protected]
Coordinator: Becca Weiss, [email protected]
Secretary: Marcia Blackwell, Blackwells Organic
Office Manager: Barbara Richardson, info@nofavt.
Gelato, 323 Liberty St., Long Branch, NJ 07740,
org
(732) 229-8899, [email protected]
Supervisor, Organic Certification Program: Erich V. Outreach Coordinator: Caitlin Gildrien, Caitlin@
Bremer, NJ Dept. of Agriculture, 369 S. Warren St., nofavt.org
Trenton, NJ 08625-0330, (609) 984-2225, fax: (609) Vegetable & Fruit TA Coordinator: Wendy Sue
Harper, [email protected]
341-3212 [email protected]
Winter Conference Coordinator: Olga Boshart
Administrative Coordinator: Connie Deetz, 334
Moriarty, [email protected]
River Road, Hillsborough, NJ 08844, (908) 371VT FEED Administrative Manager: Elizabeth
1111 x4, [email protected]
Education and Outreach Coordinator: Joanna Dillon, McDonald, [email protected]
VOF Administrator: Nicole Dehne, nicole@nofavt.
334 River Road, Hillsborough, NJ 08844, (908)
org
371-1111 x5, [email protected]
VOF Certification Specialist: Cheryl Bruce,
Website: www.nofanj.org
[email protected]
Phone: (908) 371-1111
VOF Certification Specialist: Gregg Stevens,
Fax: (908) 371-1441
[email protected]
VOF Assistant: Laura Nunziata, [email protected]

New York

NOFA New York Offices: NY-NOFA Office: 249

Highland Ave, Rochester, NY 14620, Phone: 585271-1979, Fax: 585-271-7166; Certified Organic,
LLC Office: 840 Front St, Binghamton, NY 13905,
(607) 724-9851, fax: (607) 724-9853, Website:
www.nofany.org
Executive Director: Kate Mendenhall, (585) 2711979, fax: (585) 271-7166, [email protected]
Organic Certification Director: Carol King, (607)
724-9851, fax: (607) 724-9853, certifiedorganic@
nofany.org
Assistant Director: Lea Kone, (585) 271-1979, fax:
(585) 271-7166, [email protected]
Education & Outreach Coordinator: Matt Robinson,
(585) 271-1979, fax: (585) 271-7166, Matt@nofany.
org
Business Manager: Michelle Prohov, (585) 2711979, fax: (585) 271-7166 [email protected]
Farmer Educator: Robert Perry, (585) 271-1979,
fax: (585) 271-7166 [email protected]
Food Justice Coordinator: Kristina Keefe-Perry,
(585) 271-1979, fax: (585) 271-7166, Kristina@
nofany.org
Newsletter Editor: [email protected]
President: Scott Chaskey, Quail Hill Community
Farm, PO Box 1268, Amagansett, NY 11930-1268,

NOFA Interstate Council

* indicates voting representative

* Bill Duesing, President, Staff, Box 135,
Stevenson, CT, 06491, (203) 888-5146, fax, (203)
888- 9280, [email protected]
Kimberly A. Stoner, 498 Oak Ave. #27, Cheshire,
CT 06410-3021, (203) 271-1732 (home), Email:
[email protected]
* Leslie Cox, Hampshire College Farm, Amherst,
MA 01002, 413-530-2029, [email protected]
Elizabeth Obelenus, 22 Keyser Road, Meredith. NH
03253, (603) 279-6146, [email protected]
* Jack Mastrianni, Treasurer, 277 Holden Hill
Road, Langdon, NH 03602, (603) 835-6488,
[email protected]
* Steve Gilman, Ruckytucks Farm, 130 Ruckytucks
Road, Stillwater, NY 12170 (518) 583-4613,
[email protected]
* Elizabeth Henderson, 2218 Welcher Rd.,
Newark, NY 14513 (315) 331-9029 ehendrsn@
redsuspenders.com
* Dan Lawton, 247 Evans Road Chepachet, RI
02814 (401) 949-1596 [email protected]
David Glenn, 334 River Road, Hillsborough, NJ
08844 908 371 1111 [email protected]

Fall, 2010

* Nicole Vitello, Manic Organic, PO Box 425,

Portsmouth, RI 02871 (401) 480-1403, Nicole@
manicorganic.biz
* Enid Wonnacott, 478 Salvas Rd., Huntington, VT
05462 (802) 434-4435, [email protected]
Kirsten Novak Bower, 65 Wortheim Ln., Richmond,
VT 05477 (802) 434-5420, [email protected]
David Pontius, Webmaster, 26 School Street,
Northfield, MA 01360, (413) 498-2721, Email:
[email protected]
Jack Kittredge and * Julie Rawson, The Natural
Farmer, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005 (978)
355-2853, Jack, [email protected], [email protected]
Marion Griswold, Bookkeeper, 30 Hollow Rd.,
Woodbury, CT 06798, (203) 263-2221, marion@
ctnofa.org

Interstate Certification Contacts

Nicole Dehne, [email protected], PO Box 697,

Richmond, VT 05477, 802-434-3821, 802-434-4154
(fax)
Carol King, 840 Front Street, Binghamton, NY
13905, (607) 724-9851, fax: (607)724-9853,
[email protected]
Erich V. Bremer, c/o NJ Dept. of Agriculture, PO
Box 330, Trenton, NJ 08625, (609) 984-2225 erich.
[email protected]

NOFA
Membership

You may join NOFA by joining one of the seven

state chapters. Contact the person listed below for
your state. Dues, which help pay for the important
work of the organization, vary from chapter to
chapter. Unless noted, membership includes a
subscription to The Natural Farmer.
Give a NOFA Membership! Send dues for a friend
or relative to his or her state chapter and give a
membership in one of the most active grassroots
organizations in the state.
Connecticut: Individual $35, Family $50, Business/
Institution $100, Supporting $150, Student/Senior
$25, Working $20
Contact: CT NOFA, Box 164, Stevenson, CT 06491,
(203)-888-5146, or email: [email protected] or join
on the web at www.ctnofa.org
Massachusetts: Low-Income $25, Individual $35,
Family/Farm/Organization $45, Business $75,
Supporting $150
Contact: NOFA/Mass, 411 Sheldon Road, Barre,
MA 01005, (978) 355-2853, or membership@
nofamass.org or join on the web at www.nofamass.
org
New Hampshire: Individual: $30, Student: $23,
Family: $40, Sponsor: $100, Basic $20*
Contact: Barbara Sullivan, 4 Park St., Suite 208,
Concord, NH 03301, (603) 224-5022, barbara@
nofanh.org
New Jersey: Student/Intern $20*, Individual $40*,
Family/Farm $70*, Business/Organization $150*,
$10 additional per year for subscription to The
Natural Farmer
Contact: 334 River Road, Hillsborough, NJ 08844,
(908) 371-1111 or join at www.nofanj.org
New York: Limited Membership $20*, Individual
$40, Family/Farm/Nonprofit Organization $50,
Business $115
Contact: NOFA-NY, 249 Highland Ave., Rochester,
NY 14620, Voice (585) 271-1979, Fax: (585) 2717166, email: [email protected], www.nofany.org
Rhode Island: Student/Senior: $20, Individual: $25,
Family $35, Business $50
Contact: Membership, NOFA RI, c/o Dan Lawton,
247 Evans Road, Chepachet, RI 02814, (401) 5232653, [email protected]
Vermont: Individual $30, Farm/Family $40,
Business $50, Sponsor $100, Sustainer $250, Basic
$15-25*
Contact: NOFA-VT, PO Box 697, Richmond, VT
05477, (802) 434-4122, [email protected]
*does not include a subscription to The Natural
Farmer

Calendar

The Natural Farmer

Friday, Sept. 10: Deadline for NOFA-NH Herbal

Bulk Order, for more info: www.nofanh.org/herbs

Starts Saturday, Sept. 11: One-year Part-time

Practical Training in Biodynamics, runs September
to June, Chestnut Ridge, NY, for more info: 845352-5020 x20 / [email protected] / www.
pfeiffercenter.org
Saturday, Sept. 11 - Sunday, Sep 12:
Massachusetts Raw Milk Weekend, Raw milk
dairies around the state, for more info: www.
marawmilk.org for details, or winton@nofamass.
org.
Tuesday, Sept. 14 Saturday, Sept. 18: Mass/CT
Fall Bulk Order pick-up, various locations, for
more info: [email protected]
Friday, September 17: Class on Mozzarella,
Farmers Cheese, & Camembert with Lea
Calderon-Guthe, Burlington, VT, for more info:
http://www.ruralvermont.org

Sunday, September 19: 3rd Annual Bicycle Tour

de Farms, starts on Shoreham, VT Green, for more
info: http://www.ruralvermont.org/tdf.html
Wednesday, September 22: Class on Swiss Style
Cheese (washed rind, semi-hard reclette) with
Karen Bixler, South Randolph, VT, for more info:
http://www.ruralvermont.org
Thursday, Sept. 30 Sunday, Oct 3:
Biodynamics and the Future of Agriculture: 2010
Biodynamic Association Conference, Chestnut
Ridge, NY, for more info: www.threefold.org/bda
Thursday, Oct 7 and Friday, Oct 8: NODPAs
10th Annual Field Days, Unity, ME, Oct, for more
info: 413-772-0444 or [email protected]
Friday, Oct 15 -Sunday, Oct 17: 4th
Annual Northeast Animal Power Field Days,
Tunbridge, VT Fairgrounds, for more info:www.
animalpowerfielddays.org,or 802-2345524,or [email protected]
Friday, Nov. 12 Saturday, Nov. 13: Conference
to Build a Northeast Food System, Albany, NY, for
more info: www.ittakesaregion.org or nesawg@
nesawg.org
Saturday, Nov 13: Introduction to Organic
Beekeeping, Chestnut Ridge, NY, for more info:
845-352-5020 x20 / [email protected] / www.
pfeiffercenter.org
Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011: NOFA/Mass Winter
Conference, Worcester, MA, for more info: WC@
nofamass.org

NOFA-VT Events. For more info: www.nofavt.org

or 802-434-4122
Wednesday, Sept. 8: Crop Planning: Succession
Planting Diversification Choices, Poultney, VT
Wednesday, Sept. 8: Practices to Promote Fresh
Produce Food Safety for Direct Markets, East
Thetford, VT

47

Sunday, Sept. 12: Pastured Pork Through All

Seasons, Cornwall, VT
Wednesday, Sept. 15: Digging Deep: On-Farm
Soil Management, Burlington, VT
Thursday, Sept. 16: Biodiversity for Sugarbush
Health, E. Fairfield, VT
Wednesday, Sept. 22: Organic Pest and Disease
Management, West Rutland, VT
Sunday, Oct 24: From Forest to Farm to Feast:
The Delicious Reclamation of a Farm with
Animals, Randolph, VT
Monday, Oct 25: Whats a Coolbot? Low-cost
Storage for the Winter Market, Cabot, VT
Thursdays, Nov 4, Nov 18, & Dec 9: On-Farm
Energy: three-part course for intermediate to
advanced vegetable growers, Berlin, VT
Tuesdays, Nov. 16, Nov 30 & Dec 14: Marketing
that Sells: three-part course for intermediate to
advanced vegetable growers, Berlin, VT
NOFA/Mass Events. for more info: ben.
[email protected], or 413-658-5374
Saturday, Sept. 11: Massachusetts Food
Preservation Workshop Days, Ashland, Barre,
Shirley, Winchendon Springs, Shelburne, Great
Barrington
Saturday, Sept. 18: Massachusetts Food
Preservation Workshop Days, Brookline.
Princeton, Groton, Northampton
Saturday, Sept. 18: Making Soft Cheeses, Gill
Saturday, Sept. 25: Making Fresh Goat Cheese,
Sterling
Saturday, Oct. 2: Making Cultured Dairy
Products, Petersham
Saturday, Oct. 16: Making Hard Cheeses, Gill
Saturday, Nov. 13: Making Dipped Curds and
Italian and Swiss Cheeses, Gill
Saturday, Nov. 20: Fresh Mozzarella and Queso
Blanco, Foxboro
Friday, Nov 5. and Saturday, Nov. 6: 3rd Annual
Advanced Growers Seminar With Jerry Brunetti
Human Health and Soil Health, Barre
Saturday, Nov. 13: How to Run a Successful
CSA, Barre,
Oct. 2010 - Aug. 2011: Nutrient Density
Crop Production Courses
Saturdays Sept. 25, Nov. 20, Feb. 12, May. 7,
and Jul. 9: Amherst
Saturdays Oct. 16, Jan. 8, Feb. 19, Apr. 16, and
Jun. 18: Dartmouth
SundaysOct. 17, Jan. 9, Feb. 20, Apr. 17, and
Jun. 19: Chelmsford
NOFA/RI Events, for more info: Katie Miller
[email protected] call NOFA/RI at
401-523-2653. Directions to the farms can be
found at www.farmfreshri.org
Sunday, Sept. 12: Growing Big Volumes on Small
Acreage, South Side Community Land Trust,
Providence, RI
Sunday, Sept. 19: Bed Prep Without a Tractor:
Red Planet Farm, Johnston, RI
Sunday, Oct. 3rd: Growing Seed at Scratch Farm,
Cranston, RI
November: Winter growing at Roots Farm,
Bristol, RI

Thanks for joining and helping support organic agriculture! Choose Your Chapter & Membership Level:
Name______________________________________________

I would like to become a member of the

___________________________________________________

__________________________ state chapter

Address____________________________________________

Sign me up as this kind of member:

City__________________________ State____ Zip_________

______________________________________

Phone_____________________ Country_________________

My annual membership dues are: $________

Email______________________________________________
o farmer o gardener o homesteader o thoughtful eater
Please send this completed form to the sppropriate state chapter

(enclose check made payable to the state chapter)

o Do NOT share my address with other

organizations. Thank you!

Non-Profit Organization
U. S. Postage Paid
Barre, MA 01005
Permit No. 28

NOFA Education Fund

411 Sheldon Rd.
Barre, MA 01005

Organic Farms and Money

photo by Jack Kittredge

$5.00

Tracie Smith, New Hampshire organic grower, has seeded clover and buckwheat between these
330 foot long rows of beans. Tracies successful CSA grosses $104,000 per year, of which
she nets almost $31,000.
This issue contains news, features, and articles about organic growing in the Northeast,
plus a special supplement on

Fall 2010