I stopped by a local boutique farm in my area earlier this summer. It was a nice place and I always like to support local businesses, but within two minutes I could tell that this was not a serious commercial outfit. It was ridiculously labor intensive, and it took hours of work to to produce suitable quantities of the products they were selling.
I got to know the owners, and I learned that this was basically just a hobby. The guy was a retired investment banker, his wife ran the store while he ran the farming operation, and he said they cleared about $400 per month after all the expenses were paid — and they didn’t pay themselves any salaries.
They had jars of one particular “organic” item on the shelf for $15 apiece. A mass-produced brand name version is sold in the nearby chain grocery store for $7.99.
The typical car in the parking lot was a Subaru, a Volvo or a Tesla.
Look. I don’t sell produce on the side of the road. We have owned/operated farms in this county since 1889. The issue is not about economies of scale. The issue is about government approved monopolies. Legislation is bought by huge corporations that write the rules. And they they twist them.
My dad died 2 years ago at 94. My brother died last September, I’m the last of my generation, I’m 75.
My niece, nephew and my brother’s widow own 1/2 of the farms, I own the other 1/2. I hope to keep it intact. But in today’s world, it is not an easy task.
I spent 40 years in the wholesale hardware distribution industry, I know about distribution and about agriculture. In 1995 I moved back to where I was born. I will not leave again until the plant me, here.
“Farming is easy, if your pencil is your plow and the nearest field is 1,000 miles away.”