The Hands That Feed Us: On Tour - Episode 11: Soil in the Wind - Deleau
A dust storm in Manitoba reveals which farms lose their soil, where that soil ends up, and the ways that building good soil also help build stronger communities.
What we're learning
The Hands That Feed Us: On Tour - Episode 10: Why Farm? - Harvest Moon Society
I’m a bit obsessed with the romance of farming. But, that’s not what a farmer who’s overworked and under-thanked wants to hear. This episode is about the suitability of the word ‘romance’ in farming, and what farming is ultimately all about.
The Hands That Feed Us: On Tour - Episode 9: Do Young People Want To Farm? - Minnedosa
If you spend a lifetime making interest payments on a piece of land, do you ever really own it? How do young farmers get started if the cost of farmland outstrips the amount they can earn from it?
The Hands That Feed Us: On Tour - Episode 8: The Next Generation - Sustainable Brandon
What happens when it’s time to pass a farm on to the next generation? Should it be sold to the highest bidder? Inherited by the oldest son? How do we make sure that the wealth stays with the farm — and that the next generation can afford to take over?
The Hands That Feed Us: On Tour - Episode 7: Farming Alone - Prairie Garden Seeds
A big advantage of the farming lifestyle is community. Which makes it that much harder to farm successfully as a single farmer. Rachelle Ternier at Prairie Garden Seeds has some unusual ways to build a ‘we’ as a single farmer.
The Hands That Feed Us: On Tour - Episode 6: Enticing People Back To The Farm
What levers do we have to take commerce out of the commodity market? To live outside the logic that says the lowest price is the best price? At Farm 140, I found a room full of people figuring out how to do just that.
The Hands That Feed Us: On Tour - Episode 5: Money Doesn’t Cause Success
What levers do we have to take commerce out of the commodity market? To live outside the logic that says the lowest price is the best price? At Farm 140, I found a room full of people figuring out how to do just that.
How to invest romantically
Despite the title, no, this post isn’t about how to find commitment with your significant other. I’m talking about financial, not emotional investment, and I’m talking about the romance of believing things into existence, not your love life.
What does romance have to do with our economy?
I believed we could build our farm together by being good at business and I didn’t realize she needed me to be good at romance.
What makes "The Farming Lifestyle" worth it?
As I've learned more about how farmers live, my thinking about the problem has shifted. I've grown. And I've realized that focusing on how much money farmers make misses the bigger picture.
How feudal are our farmers?
There's a question that haunts me when I'm lying in bed pondering what The Hands that Feed Us is really about: Are we at risk of reverting to feudalism?
Why Food Insecurity isn't a Subset of Poverty
Money may be a possible solution for starvation, but no matter how hungry you are, you still can't eat it.
Capitalism doesn't invest in farms is because capitalism for farming is broken
The cost of land is a big reason why the capitalist is necessary in the first place. In business terms, land is a capital cost: It's a big, up-front cost that has to be paid out of the farm's profits over time, but it only needs to be purchased once.
What the Stats on Farmland Prices Don't Tell You
The story I tell — that the average farmer will be dead by the time the average farm is paid for — is a classic example of lying with statistics.