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

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

#261

Post by astura »

TomK32 wrote: post #176
nabla9 wrote: post #39

Some commentators here have difficulty of understanding how small farming can be profitable. It's relatively easy to explain. They are not selling just the product. Just like microbreweries, small farms sell for people who want more than just a beer or lettuce. They want to distinguish themselves and buy the feeling of authentic life and values. Consumer pays more for "small farm" even if the product is not any diffe…

And at the very opposite end the big retails create their own brands that sound traditional and farm-ish while the food is purely industrial. I buy at the farmer market because it's great to know the people who produce the food I eat.

Farmers markets are ripe with the same deception

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/deception-at-the-f...

http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/far...

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

#262

Post by Toast_25 »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #246
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…

160 hours a month? I remember having a part time job. All kidding aside, I can tell you aren’t American based on that statement alone.

How strong is the overworking culture in America? It's pretty strong here, but not too bad.

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

#263

Post by ruc0la »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #246
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…

160 hours a month? I remember having a part time job. All kidding aside, I can tell you aren’t American based on that statement alone.

Never stated that I am American^^ Up to your profession but 8 hour is the standard here.

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

#264

Post by imhoguy »

bharath28 wrote: post #181
nabla9 wrote: post #39

Some commentators here have difficulty of understanding how small farming can be profitable. It's relatively easy to explain. They are not selling just the product. Just like microbreweries, small farms sell for people who want more than just a beer or lettuce. They want to distinguish themselves and buy the feeling of authentic life and values. Consumer pays more for "small farm" even if the product is not any diffe…

For those who are interested in the topic, i just finished reading this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3109.The_Omnivore_s_Dile... . The author follows the ingredients of a meal he makes all the way back to the farms. He seems to romanticize certain notions of naturally grown foods and at other times, is given to polemic against the agriculturally industrial complex (quite justifiably at times). The book itself…

Thanks. Working link to the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3109.The_Omnivore_s_Dile...

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

#265

Post by why15characters »

JPKab wrote: post #243
clord wrote: post #112

We did this. My wife has a masters in microbio, and I worked at IBM on their C++ and for Fortran compilers for about 8 years (yay std::atomics). I still do remote contract work to help pay for upgrades to the farm. Would be nice to get one of my side-projects finished and start pumping out some income streams, but it's not a big rush anymore. I have a point of sale system built with React and Haskell that integrates…

I grew up in a rural community where farming was basically the only industry. It's easy to talk about how awesome it is when you basically are selling insanely overpriced boutique goods (organic, free-range, etc) to yuppies who are willing to pay triple for their calories. Once enough people do this, the prices fall and you're just another farmer, scraping by. I grew up working on farms. It's not romantic to me in an…

> It's easy to talk about how awesome it is when you basically are selling insanely overpriced boutique goods (organic, free-range, etc) to yuppies who are willing to pay triple for their calories.

Most of the hipster microgreen crowd aren't even making their money that way, they are making it by scamming other hipsters into trying to do that by acting like anyone can make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year selling $10/pound lettuce to hipster restaurants. There's obviously a very limited number of restaurants in the "overcharge people for local food" market to sell to. But you don't need to do that crap. You can sell normal vegetables for a normal price to normal people and make a perfectly reasonable living.

>Once enough people do this, the prices fall and you're just another farmer, scraping by.

The reason most farms are "scraping by" is the same reason most restaurants fail, and most programmers can't handle fizzbuzz. Most people are simply incompetent, regardless of their occupation. Every farmer I see complaining about money is wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of them are driving around in $80,000 pickup trucks while complaining about how poor they are.

>Being outside is nice, but there's a reason the kids doing this grew up in suburbs and cities: they have no idea what agriculture really involves when you have to achieve economies of scale to make it remotely profitable.

You don't have to achieve economies of scale to be remotely profitable. Not every farm has to be a corn+soybean rotation.

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

#266

Post by ruc0la »

dreamsdreams wrote: post #199
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…

This is great and I'm planning to do the same. Currently working as a software programmer but figured I can move to a tropical country and have a higher quality of rural life. However I don't know how to get started on using computer assisted agriculture to grow sweet potatoes. Do you have any recommendations of courses or resources that can help get started?

I have an agricultural engineering BSc, too. So it was not a big transition for me. My family helps me a lot since I am studying and also having a job. I work a lot; my life is always in a hurry. Maybe paying for a consultant is the best way if you do not know how to start.

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

#267

Post by [deleted] »

queeerkopf wrote: post #103
kakarot wrote: post #36

I spent some time working and living on a farm run by someone under 35. I'm not sure how much their personality and lack of managerial skills ultimately contributed to their inability to turn a profit, as they certainly had cashflow, but it also occurred to me while I was working there that the kind of farm we had (10 - 20 acre, general organic produce) was a nice thought but without extensive community support (some…

Something similiar already exists if i understood you correctly. Look up 'community supported agriculture' (CSA).

[deleted]

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

#268

Post by wheresmyusern »

ive considered doing something kind of like this but just grow enough food for myself -- so a garden rather than a farm. the draw for me is reducing my living expenses. modern houses make absolutely no sense because their design carries vestigial baggage from thousands of years ago, from a time when we didnt know about any of the physics or technology that we know about now. it turns out that you can build a passive and maintenance free house for about the same amount of money as a traditional house.

someone else commented about the fact that modern suburban life is a hell-scape. i couldnt agree more. people think you have to do it in order to live. but you dont, just buy land on the outskirts of the city and build a house on it. the city is right there if you want it. i dont want it most of the time, personally. but sometimes i really do.

there are also people in here who say how they know farming, the grew up on a farm and its horrible. i really think that there is a new trend on the horizon of people moving away from the city, but this article misses the whole point. they wont be farming, because farming does suck. theyll just be making their lives more secure and cheaper by owning land and a house instead of renting. this will continue to make more and more sense as solar power and electric cars and self driving cars become more and more reliable and cheap. i really do think we will see more and more people opting for city outskirts.

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

#269

Post by ruc0la »

spraak wrote: post #140
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…

That's so cool and really inspiring to me! Do you have a blog or anything?

Yes, but mostly about tech stuff. I have just started the orchard thing, so it has been my first year. I will consider posting agriculturally related articles shortly. If it becomes actual, I will leave the URL here.

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

#270

Post by ruc0la »

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #113
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…

How long do you estimate it will take you to pay back the loan?

I could pay back in 5-6 years at the current pace. But the loan is long-term (10 years) designed for farmers.
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