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?
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?