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So you want to buy a farm?

• yalogin 6y ago
  Is there a similar article for farms in the US? This is a unique perspective from India and appreciate learning about it.
  • mod 6y ago
    I would look at youtube, there's a very active homesteading community.
    • waheoo 6y ago
      ... of successful homesteaders. The survivorship bias of this movement is akin to vanlife. A lot of people burn out. I've seen some get themselves into a poverty trap they can't get out of. Can't pay off the farm, can't make enough to survive, can't make enough to sell up and move back to the city, been out of job market too long to get a job on their old industry and would be stuck unemployed / on povo wages.
      • jjeaff 6y ago
        Ya, the thing you have to realize about running a small farm is that you are either competing with the huge industrial scale guys or you are competing with all the small town family farms that were born into it. And most of those who were born into it have either bought and built their farm over their entire life or inherited it. It's hard to make a living selling farm products when you have a mortgage payment and you are competing with people who don't and also with people who are more than happy to make near nothing as they are mostly living on pensions and social security anyway. We have lots of farmland in my family that is passed down. It's a beef cattle ranch. And it's really not even that profitable even though the land is fully paid for. My grandparents farmed it their whole lives, but they also worked as teachers and now get that pension as well as social security. The farm is more of a way of life than a way to make a good living.
        • ndespres 6y ago
          There's another gap between small family farms and huge scale enterprises. There is a lot of demand for local but quality. Whether it's grass-fed beef, eggs from truly free-ranging chickens, or heritage breed pork that's well butchered (harder than you'd think to find quality animal processing) people are looking for things that the more traditional farms don't know about and the big farms can't afford to do. I think there is a market for focused quality. Of course in the meantime I'm still punching the clock at my IT job but hope the farm can eventually sustain itself.
          • jjeaff 6y ago
            Ya, there is definitely a niche for that. But it can be difficult. Usually involves certifications and finding the right markets that want what you have in the quantities you can produce it and not more. Also, a lot of the places where land is cheap enough are pretty far from places where demand for heritage pork or wagyu beef is high. Also, I have found that the old timers are pretty slow to change, but there is actually good reason for that. They have seen the trends come and go, some have jumped on those trends and eventually gotten burned (in my area, it was ostrich and emu farming). Also, the slow methodical farm build-up over the years tends to evolve out a pretty efficient and effective farming method. I remember a few years ago, my brother and I got on this kick thinking there was a lot of money to be made on the farm by further fattening or "finishing" the cows before selling them. As traditionally, a lot of farms will sell yearlings to feedlots for a lower price. The feedlot then fattens them up and sells for a profit. But after a lot of research and number crunching, we found that the math just didn't work because we would have to pay to ship in the grain, since it isn't grown very locally and then we would also have to eat the higher cost of shipping those heavier cows to the auctions which are also not that close. The old timers knew this wasn't a profitable pathway even though they didn't all necessarily know the whole story of why it isn't a profitable pathway. We have found this to be true in a lot of cases with older farmers. They know some things won't work, even if they don't fully know the details why.
        • bluGill 6y ago
          Most large farmers start in livestock because you can afford 10 acres, put cows on it, and then go to the nearby town for a job that supports your life. All the profits from the cows is reinvested into more land until you have enough to get 100 acres of crop land. Then it is farm nights and weekends while working your day job. If all goes well (it doesn't always go well) about the time you are 45 you have enough land that you can retire from the town job to work the farm. Note that even though the farm is worth millions, what you can income in the above plan is never more than $50,000/year.
      • throwaway5752 6y ago
        If they were successful they wouldn't be encourage people to subscribe. They are attempting to be successful youtubers, in a number of cases. I saw this researching rocket stove configurations.
        • spiderfarmer 6y ago
          Selling the dream is always more profitable than living it.
          • fogihujy 6y ago
            It depends on what the dream is. Even you intend to become a hermit, you still need to pay taxes in most cases. That means you need to either sell your produce or make money through other means.
            • FooHentai 6y ago
              Or live in an area that'll let you put the property up as collateral to zero your taxes until you die.
              • fogihujy 6y ago
                That sounds awesome. I wish there were places like that around here. :)
    • spiderfarmer 6y ago
      What’s their main revenue stream? The homesteading itself, courses or the Youtube advertising dollars? Selling the dream is always more profitable than living it.
      • OJFord 6y ago
        Maybe I misunderstand the term, but why would 'homesteading' necessarily be much if anything it a revenue stream? Doesn't it mean roughly 'doing things that shift the scale towards self-sufficiency'?
        • foxhop 6y ago
          Yup, self-replicating, self-renewing systems. Check out the 8 forms of capital. There might be more money being produced by "selling the content/dream" but money isn't the only thing these systems will output. Eating your own produce means being a producer in the economy. It's not a hobby if it feeds you.
  • disown 6y ago
    Even better. There are youtube videos of people setting up homesteads all over the US. Buying property, clearing land, raising animals, planting crops, logging, etc. It's mostly geared towards the family farm, but I'm sure there are channels of large scale business farms.
    • bregma 6y ago
      Do they ever do an episode where the pay property taxes? How about one where they encounter healthcare needs?
  • vram22 6y ago
    Yes, somewhat at least. Gabe Brown's Dirt To Soil book (haven't read it, but seen some of his videos (~1 and 2 hours length), and my guess is the main points of the book should be roughly the same as the videos. You can see them too, on YouTube). I have mentioned his work a few times in HN comments linked below[1]. Others have, too. Search for those comments by searching for his name in the search box at the bottom of HN thread pages, powered by Algolia, or directly do it at hn.algolia.com. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24996445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24996445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24827234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24827234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24669509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24669509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24669458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24669458 Make sure to watch some of his videos too, not missing Treating The Farm as an Ecosystem", a 3-part series by Living Web Farms on YouTube. As a related aside, Living Web has other good videos too, including one called "Ferment Everything" (or "Anything") or such name, by Meredith Leigh.
    • vram22 6y ago
      I think I read somewhere that he (Gabe Brown) is one of the 25 most influential farmers in the US (at least in the regen ag field, if not overall). Edit: Googled "Gabe Brown 25 influential". First hit: https://www.no-tillfarmer.com/authors/379-gabe-brown#:~:text=He%20has%20also%20been%20named,with%20the%20Soil%20Health%20Academy https://www.no-tillfarmer.com/authors/379-gabe-brown#:~:text....
      • vram22 6y ago
        >one of the 25 most influential farmers in the US. Correction, if the extract below is true (and emphasis mine): “Gabe Brown was just named one of the 25 most influential people in agriculture. In the entire world,” says NRCS’ Ray Archuleta. “It is an honor that he is coming to visit NC, and no one knows ecological farming like he does.” From: https://organicgrowersschool.org/gabe-brown-lectures-in-western-nc/ https://organicgrowersschool.org/gabe-brown-lectures-in-west...
• techsupporter 6y ago
  The colloquialism "to buy the farm" meaning "to die" made this a funny click. My thought process went from "not really, but let's see what the author is on about" to "ohhh, the kind with acreage not caskets, got it."
  • User23 6y ago
    This dark joke comes from back in the day when if an airplane crashed on your farm you’d get a significant insurance payout from the federal government. So the joke became that the failed pilot “bought the farm.”
    • disown 6y ago
      Interesting, TIL. But is there no profit in kicking the bucket?
      • vageli 6y ago
        > Interesting, TIL. But is there no profit in kicking the bucket? Not for the deceased, at least.
      • mangamadaiyan 6y ago
        For the butcher, yes. Not for the pig.
    • meekrohprocess 6y ago
      My grandparents told it differently. To them, it was a dark colloquialism from the world wars. Infantry would often talk to each other about how they were looking forward to "buying a farm" once the war was over and they went home to their families. When the soldiers died in the trenches, as they often did, it was said that they had "bought the farm" as a euphemism. Usually it was better than saying how they actually died.
    • lowbloodsugar 6y ago
      Huh. I thought it was because you got a small plot of land (about 6' by 2', with a nice headstone).
• retox 6y ago
  Off-topic but what is the original source of the trend of talks/articles that start with "So you want to..."? I find it very annoying, though I don't know why.
  • azhenley 6y ago
    I was also curious, so I looked it up on Google Ngram Viewer. Looks like the phrase became relatively popular in the 1940s and then started a steep rise around 1994 up until 2012 when it peaked.
    • retox 6y ago
      Thanks, I hadn't thought to try there. It does have the ring of a 1940s public service announcement.
  • zenxblr 6y ago
    Haha :) yes it was a little clickbaity. But as long as it gets many to understand and act on this a little better than trying to flog dead soils to produce something, worth it.
    • retox 6y ago
      I didn't mean any animus towards this post in particular :)
• m0zg 6y ago
  My parents had a rather large garden (I wouldn't call it a farm), and we grew 3 crops a year in it. As a kid/teenager I hated it at the time, since they made me work there. Fast forward 30 years I have a bunch of raised beds in my backyard, grow produce, and find it more rewarding in that non-monetary fashion, than just about any other thing I've done. Properly set up (basically just automatic drip irrigation, which is super cheap) it's very low maintenance. So yeah, I agree with the author. As an engineer, doing this to make money is stupid. But as a lifestyle thing I think it's a lot of fun. And then you also get to eat what you grow, in addition to the "lifestyle".
  • Scoundreller 6y ago
    > basically just automatic drip irrigation, which is super cheap Any preferred go-to guide on setting that up? I'm thinking of something with an IBC, and some type of moisture sensing automation, so I can pre-fertilize the water and walk away for 2 weeks if I wanted to without coming back to death.
    • m0zg 6y ago
      I didn't go high tech like that. I just went to home depot and bought some cheap tubing, fittings, pressure compensating drippers (which auto-regulate the flow), stakes, and a 3-way Orbit timer. They have free catalog at the store, which you can just take to plan out your set up. I also don't use fertilizer in the water - instead I use manure in the soil. So I laid out the thicker plastic tubing, then connected smaller tubing that goes to each plant. Set up the timers to give it sufficient time (you may need to set them up to water twice a day if you have very hot weather and want to save some water). Then you just turn it on and walk away. It takes care of itself. In my garden I also have to sprinkle some pellets against slugs, and install a motion sensitive scarecrow sprinkler which scares away the deer. That's pretty much it. Check on it every now and then to make sure your plants aren't wilted in the afternoon. Once you dial in the timings, it's completely hands off.
      • tomglynch 6y ago
        Fantastic comment. I can actually see myself doing this. How often do you add manure through the soil?
• a012 6y ago
  So there are people around me who also are interested in buying some acres to living the dream. But as the post listed, there are a lot overheads and surround issues/problems. Like do you want to grow things "organically" or have to buy *icides to battle enermy of bugs or diceases? At scale, it's too hard to manage the use of chemicals to keep your farm bountiful year round.
  • driverdan 6y ago
    "Organic" farming still uses pesticides and herbicides, much worse outdated ones.
    • dejv 6y ago
      Organic farmer here: I haven't seen country that allow herbicides for use in organic farming. Speaking of different pesticides you are basically left with nonsystematic fungicides (a lot of them as sulfur or copper based) and biological control against living pest.
    • dehrmann 6y ago
      Good ol' nicotine.
    • ozborn 6y ago
      Reference for this claim? My understanding is that oeganic farming uses less inputs overall (including pesticides and herbicides ) and some organic farmers use no pesticides or herbicides at all depending on the crop.
      • bluGill 6y ago
        Every farm is different. What you call the chemicals is also different, but everything (including water) is a chemical in the end. Organic just chooses to limit modern chemicals that often are much safer. Organic is a one way conversation: conventional farmers do use organic chemicals when they are the best for the job. If they use less herbicides it is because they are not counting diesel fuel to run their tractor as herbicide. Sure they don't apply roundup, but they spend a lot more money and emit a lot more CO2 pulling steel through the ground to destroy weeds because they are not allowed to use a good herbicide. Also beware of less inputs in other ways: you can mine the land for nutrients by not putting fertilizer on it as well. Fertilizer isn't only about more crops, it is also about the fact that everything you take off the land includes a certain amount of various nutrients that are forever taken off too. This isn't a problem for pure subsistence farming (subsistence farmers carefully save their poop), but as soon as anything leaves the farm you need to replace what is lost.
• driverdan 6y ago
  I always laugh when someone who has never worked on a farm talks about buying one. Most farming is hard work, much harder than an office job. And most small farms do not make much money, especially if you don't know what you're doing. If you're thinking about it go get a job on one first before you buy anything.
  • R0b0t1 6y ago
    What they're probably thinking of is buying land, which you can lease or pay to have tended. Getting into this market is understandably more difficult; if it was easy free money everybody'd be doing it.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    • onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago
      Or I see this a lot from people who live in an apartment with no yard or balcony who really just want a small garden.
    • dehrmann 6y ago
      A lot of land within a few hours of the Bay Area is pretty expensive because it's very productive, it's often bought with Bay Area money, and people pay a premium so they can "have some land." Oh, and you're competing with people with low taxes because of Prop. 13. With land priced like that, especially when you lease it out, it's even harder to make money. If there's a house on the property and it's halfway close to a town, you might make more leasing the house than the property. At least when people get into buying apartment buildings they're not competing with someone who will pay a premium so they have room for a horse and can watch the sunset over their field.
  • hardwaregeek 6y ago
    It's up there with buying a restaurant as poor business decisions go.
    • 6y ago
• vmurthy 6y ago
  I miss home already :) (I'm from Bengaluru/Bangalore referenced in the article and Coorg is ~5 hours drive). For some of you who may not be familiar with some of the terms: 1 lakh = 1 hundred thousand
• selfinvariant 6y ago
  I know that the motivation behind the question is outside of the blog post, but I'm really curious, and would love to ask folks here, what is so exciting about living on a farm? Is it about independence? Or radical self reliance? As a person who lived my whole life in cities, I have a very hard time to find an appeal in a lifestyle like the one described in an article.Can someone share what they like / appreciate about the life on a farm?
  • akiselev 6y ago
    The food. When it's small scale and the varieties aren't selected for industrial efficiency, many fruits and vegetables taste like they're from another world. Coming from another country, the biggest appeal is eating strawberries and blueberries that taste like the blueberries and strawberries I remember as a child and tomatoes and cucumbers that have actual flavor that can carry a salad without globs of "dressing." I think I've had a proper blueberry once in 20 years and only because it was some celebrity chef known for obsessing over his ingredients. Thankfully, I have family members living out this dream so I don't have to do all the hard work myself :)
  • fogihujy 6y ago
    I can't speak for anyone else, but in my case: * Peace and quiet. It's quite evident whenever I visit a city, but it is, of course, a matter of getting used to it. * Safety. Out here I only need to worry about the casual pack of wolves, or getting run over by a drunk neighbour out on the road with a tractor. Where I lived before, getting stabbed or shot during a mugging was an actual risk. * It's away from the grind. Working from home, no matter if you do farm work or just work remotely, is much quieter than being in an office and you are able to concentrate and work uninterrupted in a way that simply isn't possible in most office environments. * No commuting. * An active lifestyle without having to resort to things like going to the gym. * Community. Most people don't know their own neighbours. Out here, people stick together because there really isn't many other options. That's both a blessing and a curse, though. Independence and self-reliance are nice bonuses, but they really just come with the lifestyle; you can't live on a farm without some of both.
  • redis_mlc 6y ago
• zenxblr 6y ago
  I wrote this - thanks for posting it @happy-go-lucky Yeah the subject is a little clickbaity but hey, as long as many do read it :p And yep, this is from an Indian pov and for those with cash to spare looking to get involved again, but some of our experiences at TVC will likely be universally relevant. Of course, it's a journey and we're still learning much.
• zenxblr 6y ago
  I wrote that. Thanks @happy-go-lucky for sharing that. This is indeed an India based pov. And based on real life experiences and learnings over 4 years now at this farm. Lots more to learn and understand, surely. I'm sure there's some stuff that translates well across geography too, especially the patience bit. Do want to see regenerative farming grow, because as it happens today is eventually a dead end.
  • FlyingSnake 6y ago
    First of all kudos for sharing your wonderful experience. I must say geography also helped you a lot with your experience. Your experience would've been much different if your farm was in Bidar or Anantpur. I would love to hear more about your journey and keep sharing your tales with us!
    • happy-go-lucky 6y ago
      > Your experience would've been much different if your farm was in Bidar or Anantpur. I'm from the latter, own some ancestral land there. Here, we're always on the lookout for ways to counter the extreme aridity of the region. We know it's not easy and like asking the impossible.
      • zenxblr 6y ago
        Sameer Patil has effected a fairly amazing transformation at his farm somewhere up there I think. Take a look https://www.facebook.com/patilnaturefarms https://www.facebook.com/patilnaturefarms
        • happy-go-lucky 6y ago
          Thanks for chiming in. Sure I'll check out what they do and how they do it. I'm in the thick of it :)
• exolymph 6y ago
  My friend Travis Corcoran recently ran a very successful Kickstarter — $95k+ raised — for a book called Escape the City which is a practical guide to the non-fantasy version of this dream. > Seven years ago I moved from the city to a farm where I taught myself to garden, raise animals & cook "farm to table". I show you how. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tjic/escape-the-city-a-how-to-homesteading-guide/description https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tjic/escape-the-city-a-... If you're interested there's a button on the Kickstarter page to buy copies via BackerKit. IIRC you get immediate access to a GitHub repo with most of the book already in it, although don't quote me on that.
  • voldacar 6y ago
    I saw his interview on justin murphy's podcast - he seems like a super interesting guy! Glad to hear the book is doing well
  • LunaSea 6y ago
    Why would someone need 90K to write a book while already having a profession? Interviewing three people is also apparently worth 5K. And the book's photos are black & white ...
    • pjc50 6y ago
      For the same reason as raising a billion dollars of series A funding: it's not about what you need it's about what people will give you. Despite all the defensive language, kickstarters are really pre-sales. 90k sales for a book is very respectable but not overwhelming. It means he's found a great market for this book.
    • TuringNYC 6y ago
      To determine whether there is a market for the book, not via soft commits like "interest" but with hard commits like pre-sales
    • tjic 6y ago
      Author of "Escape the City" here. I didn't "need" $90k to write the book. I chose to sell copies of a book, at typical book prices. Thousands of people chose to buy the book. That's where the $90k number comes from. > And the book's photos are black & white ... "The food is terrible...and the portions are so small". The wonderful thing about the free market is that those who want to buy a thing can, and those who don't, need not. Cheers!
• raptorraver 6y ago
  I'm starting to sell my city apartment this week and we are going to move to the country side to start a small scale farm! I've worked in the farm all my youth and this summer we lived on the place and did some small scale gardening. I don't have any (at least many) false thoughts about how cool and romantic it will be. It will be hard and frustrating at times but waay more fulfilling than the current tech job. We're planning to start scaling little by little, year by year, me working still remotely. The main reasons we're doing this are that I've dreamed about this past 15 years and to raise our kids in a healthier surrounding and teach them how to grow food and take care of animals. For anyone having similar dreams checkout Richard Perkins' educational job in the regenerative agriculture space. He has written excellent book Making Small Farms Work[1] and he has active Youtube channel[1] as well as internet courses. [1]: http://www.ridgedalepermaculture.com/blog/new-book-making-small-farms-work http://www.ridgedalepermaculture.com/blog/new-book-making-sm... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/user/mrintegralpermanence https://www.youtube.com/user/mrintegralpermanence
  • PopeDotNinja 6y ago
    How much land does one need to become self sufficient? Let's assume that means producing enough biomass to generate the resources necessary to have a surplus of food or money.
    • philshem 6y ago
      It depends on your growing zone but 10 acres is typically suggested. (There are many opinions so I don’t put one particular source here.)
    • fogihujy 6y ago
      It depends on how you use it, but at least a couple of acres. Potatoes are quite efficient, and rabbits and chickens can pretty much live off left-overs and patches of land that are otherwise unused. That would be a rather boring existence, though. 3-4 acres should be more than enough for the basics for a _small_ family, if you accept to buy the more exotic items from a store, and that you will probably never grow fat.
    • 6y ago
• foxhop 6y ago
  I have a YouTube channel which follows similar processes and I document the procedures I use for growing plant based foods on small scale in Connecticut, Agricultural Zone 6b. Check out my latest video here: https://youtu.be/IAaBBjMFWEs https://youtu.be/IAaBBjMFWEs I'm trying to get to 1k subs to unlock mobile streaming so I can stream my garden chores to show the work involved. If you are into this stuff please subscribe, I look forward to answering your comments.
  • spiderfarmer 6y ago
    Why do you need subscribers? Do you want to be a farmer or a Youtuber? Do you want to live the dream or get rich by selling it?
    • theodric 6y ago
      As folks like Richard Perkins, Moreno, and others have made clear, you don't have to choose between those two options. Nothing wrong with having a small side income that generates interest in your farm and opens up a broader market to which to sell your products. Self-sufficient subsistence farming is unrealistic, but selling your vegetables and eggs to Yippies at retail prices is potentially a decent living.
    • dageshi 6y ago
      What point is expertise, if you cannot share it?
    • foxhop 6y ago
      I want to show people it's possible to work with natural systems to create self-renewing wealth and document my journey so others may reap the benefit of learning from my experiences so they may avoid simple mistakes. Especially starting out, there are plenty of places to waste time and energy and the feedback loop of waiting multiple years to see results of a test is too slow, if we are to gain adoption we need a better way to transfer to each other what works and what doesn't. A video is one way to do that. A person might watch a 5 minute YouTube video and take with them something which took me years to get right. That 5 minutes could translate into many years of learnings which may be applied immediately to their system if they share a similar context. Being rich is a mindset, and therefore anyone who identifies as it, is it. In most ways, I'm already rich. Sharing my journey could be considered philanthropy for the planet and all living things on it. Yes, I spend time making videos but I think this is my most important work so far, if I don't share then the experience dies with me. I will have no regrets for trying. I'm only one person after all, and we need global change so I need help and community. This post is a call-to-action, will you join me?
• gscott 6y ago
  Not farming but if you get a chance to watch Homestead Rescue on Discovery it is great.
• nbzso 6y ago
  I am happy now. There is a hope. Now we are talking about real decentralisation. Make this way of thinking popular and use technology properly on a small scale and really good things will start to happen.:)
• evidencecrime 6y ago
  Buying a farm doesnt look like it is a bad idea. You just need to keep and healthy life and make sure not to be overloaded by the work load that there is, especially at the beginning. I think being a young farmer in 2020 can be difficult, but there is a possibility of bringing something new, some freshness into this depressed industry.
• tim333 6y ago
  >Don’t do it in lieu of a mutual fund investment... Not for the “investment portfolio” your wealth advisor will track. My dad bought a farm (UK) and it did far better as an investment than the wealth advisor "investment portfolio" in terms of capital appreciation. Also the UK has great tax breaks on farms. Just saying it can be a mistake to disregard that stuff.
• nicbou 6y ago
  People vastly underestimate how much work "simple" lifestyles are. It's the same with van life. It sounds great in practice, but simple things like showering, defecating and preserving food become very difficult. I suspect that with farming or homesteading, you forego things like financial safety and the ability to take vacations. I value those things a lot. In my opinion, the best way out is a lifestyle business, or spaced out consulting gigs. Work all winter, play all summer. Alternatively, spend a few hours a week on your project, and the rest of your time doing what interests you. This is what I do, and it made me realise a few things: - I really like programming when it's not for someone else. It's what I end up doing the most with my free time. - The biggest benefit is having so much free time to fill with things you enjoy. This probably isn't the case if you try to live off what you grow. - I don't spend nearly as much time in the garage as I thought. Woodworking or motorcycle repair are hard, and the initial setbacks are extremely demotivating. You won't hit the ground running, so you better prepare for disappointment. My initial dream was to work on motorcycles all day, but I can barely find the courage to work on my daily ride, let alone the 40 year old Honda gumption trap that's spread all over the shelves. It's hard to jump from something you're proficient at to something that you completely suck at. I'm just glad that my life doesn't depend on it.
  • woohoo7676 6y ago
    > Woodworking or motorcycle repair are hard, and the initial setbacks are extremely demotivating. You won't hit the ground running, so you better prepare for disappointment. This mirrors my experience as well - also there is a dollar cost to each try, and no undo button, which puts more pressure on each attempt. I still enjoy doing hobby woodworking, but it's not quite as zen in the beginning as I imagined.
    • yazanobeidi 6y ago
      The joy of construction comes from the difficulty of combining design thinking with entrepreneurial financial prudence and first principles engineering to overcome obstacles that (often) arise. And then of course, translating these ideas into tangible functional art. It is very much like software engineering, but as you say ; the stakes much higher.
• bluGill 6y ago
  Missing from the above is step one: go to your local university and learn how to farm. Every area is different so what is smart in one area is bad in another. This is why you need to find a local university: researchers there know what works in your area. this article repeats a lot of common "sustainable farming" and "save the soil" type phases, but what most people think is sustainable is in fact harmful in the long run. Other things might be okay, but your local university knows something even better to build up your soil.
  • zenxblr 6y ago
    What the univs around here have been teaching have killed soils and the ecosystem to near collapse levels :/ There's a need for those who can afford to be patient for 4-5 years to try regenerative methods. And many farms have gotten there, esp given the tropical climate and monsoons that we have.
    • bluGill 6y ago
      There are many different universities so I have no idea which one you mean. However I do know that all the ones I know of are doing real scientific research into the question. They have been trying to spread what works. Many of the things people think of as good actually harm soil, while what you think of as harming the soil may in fact harm it. Most of the people talking about Organic good are using their voice to make money, not spread the truth.
• mhb 6y ago
  I liked the movie The Biggest Little Farm about getting a farm running: https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com/ https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com/ Realistic? Idealistic? Impractical? I don't know and I'm sure others with more knowledge will comment, but I thought it was interesting and entertaining.
  • jelliclesfarm 6y ago
    Entertainment
• jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  The article doesn’t even touch upon ground realities re labour issues. esp during covid times in India. Or on the ground practical challenges. Hobby farmers in India should stick to fruit orchards(coconut/mango) or spices. The govt incentivises small farmers a lot. Also, in India..you can’t buy farmland unless your family..father or grandfather has been a farmer or land owning farmer. Indian origin foreign citizens cannot buy farmland. Altho some states are trying to change it(Karnataka where Coorg is being one of them) I am disappointed with this article. It has the opportunity to create new farmers and guide them but ended up like rah rah self help fluff piece.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• known 6y ago
  “I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world” —George Washington (b. 1732) https://archive.is/X0UJc https://archive.is/X0UJc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_policy_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_policy_of_the_Uni... In my experience, farming is 24x7 hard work;