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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

#231

Post by sliverstorm »

scott_s wrote: post #223
Nomentatus wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest efficiency is nutritional, and taste - varieties that travel very, very well trade off a lot of nutrition for that trait.

From the studies I have heard about, there is no measurable nutritional difference between organic and non-organic food. See https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/no-health-benefits-from-org... I am unaware of such studies for small farms versus large farms.

Your parent is not talking about organic methods, but rather different varieties of crops. E.g., big red beefsteak tomatoes are popular and travel well while little heirloom varieties do not, so you are going to have access to additional, possibly more nutrative, varieties if you buy local.

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

#232

Post by sliverstorm »

pcurve wrote: post #7
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.

As someone with first hand experience or exposure, what do you think are main reasons? I'm still amazed at how cheap food is in the U.S. (though quality just isn't there for the most part).

Not a farmer, but it's hard manual labor to produce a commodity product, competing against mega-conglomerates with endless capital, robotized everything, and economies of scale for days. Water rights are hard to come by, actual water is vanishing, and airable land is getting ever more expensive. Many farmers farm plants that can't be propagated (Monsanto). Soils have been mismanaged for decades, insects & weeds are constantly developing pesticide & herbicide resistance.

Basically, talk to a knowledgeable farmer and you'll learn about a whole new world of struggles. Just about the only upside is increasing interest in local and/or organic products.

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

#234

Post by googletazer »

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…

You should blog about it, haven't seen something like that before.

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

#235

Post by razakel »

jjoonathan wrote: post #154
huehehue wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's at least a third explanation as well, which is the fact that eggs from farmer Tom down the road are likely to taste 1000x better than the egg-inspired food product in a McGriddle. I can't imagine many people are thinking "Screw local farmers, I want Tyson Chicken Nuggets!". That might be a bad example but the point is that cost is probably the bigger factor here, not politics or lifestyle or even taste.

> better than the egg-inspired food product in a McGriddle. People always use this as an insult, but how cool would it be if fast/processed food providers had actually found a way to make eggs/chicken/beef/etc artificially? It's been an area of active research with decades of failed attempts to show for it. Achieving fast-food level quality would be a huge step forward.

The secret to fast-food "quality" is the same as any other restaurant: fat, sugar and salt.

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

#236

Post by cdubzzz »

jbob2000 wrote: post #38
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".

Put it this way - if you bought your apples from the grocery store and sold them in your stall, it would probably sell just as well. It's the experience of going to a market and buying from a stall that people like, NOT the produce.

Last week a train broke down on the tracks between our house and the small produce market we usually go to. We didn’t want to wait, so we turned around and went to Giant (the large super market in our area). It had been a long time since we got produce there and it was absolutely terrible. I forgot how much better the local stuff we get is. Most of the time, I will only ever go in the morning because the place fills up in the afternoon and I generally dislike “the expiernce” of going there. All this to say, in our case, it absolutely is the produce.

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

#237

Post by randomdata »

hkmurakami wrote: post #69

If you look back, many successful SV types become part time or full time farmers, starting with perhaps David Packard. Seems like that connection with the land is ingrained in us somewhere no matter who you are.

Or is it the tech? Agriculture tends to run at the forefront technology adoption, so you have a chance to play with tech you are unlikely to find elsewhere. That’s what drew me to farming.

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

#238

Post by robk »

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…

Which country? I'd love to pop by the orchard!

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

#239

Post by phyller »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #34
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.

Only in the land of North American industrial mega-corp agriculture would 80 acres be "micro" anything. The farms next to me (I live rural) are 20-30 acres and are farmed by professional subcontractors that employ dozens of (immigrant seasonal) labour for picking etc. and use heavy machinery that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and are shared between multiple farms. Likely if your old boss operated a 'micro' f…

Some areas are not capable of growing whatever you would like. Huge areas of the United States don't get enough water to support most kinds of farming. In northern Montana for example, the average land required for each cow/calf pair is 40 acres. If you had 80 acres there and could scrounge up enough water you could rent some equipment for a few days each year and grow alfalfa.

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

#240

Post by 8ytecoder »

zokier wrote: post #210
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…

> Modern life is a dystopic hellscape from this perspective Hellscape, yes, but that hellscape also has funded your farm and that is something that I'd keep in mind. It is pretty big luxury to be able to (financially) go and live on the countryside, doing farming more as a lifestyle rather than means to livelihood.

Also don't forget that without the 'hellscape' that pays for the expensive pasture fed eggs (and other things), they may not have such a cushy income to sustain a countryside life. I always consider what happens when everyone switches to this lifestyle. Unless and otherwise we have robots who can go work at the factories that build everything from a tractor to a cellphone, other people have to live in the 'hellscape'
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