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A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

washingtonpost.com

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Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#21

Post by ska »

Retric wrote: post #2

Their are no "three-acre farms," at best it's a garden. My old boss operated a 80 acre micro farm while holding down a full time job. It was a hobby that at best broke even, but he had fun. PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income.

  They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income.
That's assuming that the product is fungible. If your market stall can generate higher margins because you are the farmer, and/or due to the type of farming, this argument isn't so clean.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#22

Post by JorgeGT »

ruc0la wrote: post #18

I am doing pretty much the same. I am currently an engineering student, working part-time as a programmer. Although the job market for programmers is excellent in Europe, I bought an apple orchard (via loan) pretty close to the capital of the country where I live. Due to the proximity of the capital city, I can sell my product at a decent price and earn more than an average senior dev here. I also enjoy being outside…

> I am planning on purchasing drones to calculate NDVI and other useful stuff.

Have you toyed already with Sentinel-2 NDVI? There's a free API: https://scihub.copernicus.eu/twiki/do/view/SciHubWebPortal/A...

It would be interesting for instance to have a cron job warn you if the values get too low, etc.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#24

Post by Cthulhu_ »

MsMowz wrote: post #3

Farming is no way to make a living. I'm glad that these people are finding success, but I come from a farming community and family and for decades farming has only been affordable if you also had another full-time job. Although microfarms for trendy produce might not be so bad.

You're right, most farming is a race to the bottom; more crops and produce for lower prices has been the goal for years. This article however is more about exclusively-priced artisan goods, probably even without an intermediate party / wholesale. I can imagine that, as long as the economy stays good, some people can make a decent living with that. But it really depends on, on the one hand, how long they can do it with minimal overhead (like wholesale), and on the other hand how long people are willing to pay a premium for organic / local produce.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#25

Post by Retric »

ska wrote: post #21
Retric wrote: post #2

Their are no "three-acre farms," at best it's a garden. My old boss operated a 80 acre micro farm while holding down a full time job. It was a hobby that at best broke even, but he had fun. PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income.

They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income. That's assuming that the product is fungible. If your market stall can generate higher margins because you are the farmer, and/or due to the type of farming, this argument isn't so clean.

> higher margins because you are the farmer

That's an argument to pretend to be a farmer, while also buying from a 3rd party. Another benefit is as a tax doge.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#26

Post by Cthulhu_ »

jonreem wrote: post #14
Kurtz79 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income." If the stall sells products coming from the farm, the difference is lost on me. It's like saying "it's the Sales department that generate income, while Engineering is just a cost".

The difference is that (as I understand it, not at all an expert in agriculture) the stall would generate nearly equal income if you just bought produce from another farmer and sold it at the stall.

if Eve Online taught me anything, this is correct. Either you buy produce wholesale and resell it with a markup, or you spend the time / effort yourself. It's really a cost vs time / effort calculation. Of course, if things scale up - like, if the demand for artisan cheese becomes higher than the microfarmer can produce - buying the materials in bulk and slapping the own brand on there becomes more attractive.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#28

Post by gwright »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #9
Retric wrote: post #2

Their are no "three-acre farms," at best it's a garden. My old boss operated a 80 acre micro farm while holding down a full time job. It was a hobby that at best broke even, but he had fun. PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income.

"PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income." If the stall sells products coming from the farm, the difference is lost on me. It's like saying "it's the Sales department that generate income, while Engineering is just a cost".

It sounded like the difference between production and distribution to me. Perhaps it is hard to differentiate for a tiny farm. But it becomes obviously different as the volume goes up and the farm begins selling to a distributor.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#29

Post by rb808 »

Retric wrote: post #2

Their are no "three-acre farms," at best it's a garden. My old boss operated a 80 acre micro farm while holding down a full time job. It was a hobby that at best broke even, but he had fun. PS: They might say be operating a stall at a locally grown market, but it's the stall not the farm that's generating income.

Around here most small farms are a tax dodge. If you have a big house and a big yard you pay $30k property taxes every year. If you call it a farm and sell a few pumpkins taxes disappear.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#30

Post by mikewhy »

ruc0la wrote: post #18

I am doing pretty much the same. I am currently an engineering student, working part-time as a programmer. Although the job market for programmers is excellent in Europe, I bought an apple orchard (via loan) pretty close to the capital of the country where I live. Due to the proximity of the capital city, I can sell my product at a decent price and earn more than an average senior dev here. I also enjoy being outside…

> I am planning on purchasing drones to calculate NDVI and other useful stuff

As someone who works at a company that uses Drones to do NDVI, look into EVI. And getting a proper calibration plate, or a light sensor you understand, will allow you to make the results much more accurate.

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