What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living

Re:What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a l... by SwellJoe on Friday January 01, 2016 @10:08PM (#10824772)

Whole Foods does it as a part of their "local" and "organic" brand identity, but even they don't buy from very small providers. Walmart and the major grocery chains generally do not.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/02/04/171051906/can...

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/08/08/where-does-your-grocery-...

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Re:What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a l... by tptacek on Friday January 01, 2016 @10:25PM (#10824826)

Sure, Walmart is not buying bespoke crops from small family farms.

But it's not my argument that small family farms are likely to supply a significant portion of all the produce the median American buys at a grocery store.

Rather, my argument is that there are steady, high-volume buyers for small family farmers. Whole Foods can constitute a tiny fraction of the produce sold in the US (though: they don't; they're extremely popular) and still be one of several means by which it is viable for small farmers to be in business.

And, I guess my point is, this seems to be the case.

When you read this Salon article, you didn't get a bit of a "Brooklyn" vibe from this particular "mid-20s, early-30s" farmer outraged that their watermelons and lavender flowers buttered by the Sacremento sunlight on their less-than-one-city-block farm plot couldn't pay all their bills?

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