Farmer Rebecca Thistlethwaite and her family never
anticipated that they would start a family farm, scale it 430%, and then close it
all within six years.
But then, who would? Despite
their farm's closing, the light at the end of their 80-hour farming workweek
tunnel turned out to be enlightenment. She, her husband and daughter took a year off of farming not
to rest, but to search for the most innovative and successful farming models
across the U.S. Their time off-farm allowed Rebecca to manifest the essential handbook for starting and running a sustainable farm business, Farms with a Future.
Thistlethwaite’s book is a literal
farm-business boot camp for greenhorns and aficionados alike. Read
it as a new farmer and you’ll avoid many of the pitfalls that new farms make. Read
it as an established farm seeking to transition to local markets, and you’ll
reap the benefits of starting your journey to becoming a truly community-supported
farm.
Not only does Farms with a Future get real honest, like Rebecca’s blog, but the book divulges farm dos and don’ts from a variety of farm
types. Farms such as Bluebird Grain Farms in Washington, which grow and market
heirloom grain varietals, share their discoveries over the years. And the
dairy, Butterwork Farm, which is touted as “one of the most successful organic
farmstead creameries in the nation,” is featured as a prosperous model despite
the volatility of the dairy industry.
If you want to serve your community food, you
will need to get business savvy to do
so. This is one of the main take aways of Farms
with a Future. Each chapter will get you started on various
considerations such as accounting and infrastructure, but clearly each chapter
could have been its own book. Just know going in that you’ll have to go elsewhere for additional
reading on the chapters’ themes, but as it turns out, this isn’t a bad thing.
Creating the right foundation for your farm is an essential beginning to your
business and this book covers it all.
Rebecca opens by recounting how she and her
family closed the farm to explore what successful farm businesses look like all
over the country but is far from dreary – by the end of the book she and her family are taking what they learned to start a new farm. And this is great news. After all, we need
more farmers to grow our country food, to be equally connected to community
and land, and that can revel in the slightly-controlled chaos that is farming.
I caught up with Rebecca to learn more about
her book and to hear about the next iteration of farm that she and her family
are in the process of starting.
FJ: After reading your book, sustainability really takes on a new
dimension as you include the farmer, local community, environment and economic
viability in your definition. How have your thoughts of sustainability changed
throughout your journey as a farmer and writer?
RT: I first viewed sustainability just through an environmental
lens until I had the opportunity to study abroad in Belize and do extensive
traveling throughout Latin America in the 1990’s. Developing countries teach
you that there is no separation of 'man' and 'nature', and that you can't have
environmental conservation without addressing issues of power, poverty, land
distribution, access to education, and other social issues. I also came back
realizing that new models must be created here because sadly, most of the world
tries to emulate First World consumerism and industrialization. The planet is
doomed if everybody tries to live like a suburban soccer mom, to use the
euphemism. We need more sustainable models- those are what I hope the rest of
the world will emulate. Not our opulence, consumerism, and complacency.
FJ: You’ve spent a few years researching some of the more
successful sustainable farming operations out there. Are you seeing
predominately new farmers making it work, or are multi-generational farms also
making the transition to more direct markets and achieving greater economic
viability at the same time?
RT: I have seen both – I have seen many new farmers get started
with a lot of enthusiasm, media attention, and high ideals only to succumb to
economic realities a few years into it (my own farm in California was probably
an example of that), and I have seen multi-generation farms try new growing
practices and marketing techniques that are likely going to 'save their farms.’
And I have seen the opposite too – new farms who are smart and business
oriented that will probably last and family-farms that keep repeating the same
mistakes.
I would say, overall, that trying to farm without any familial
help is extremely difficult. If somebody plans to do that, they should at least
have a strong network of friends who can help pitch in (labor & capital).
In our own lives, we have moved to a place where we have stronger familial and
social networks, giving us a fighting chance to get a new farming operation off
the ground. We just did not have that in California (probably because we were
working to hard to cultivate relationships well). Writing this book reinforced
the idea of social capital – that is, the value of your social networks.
FJ: Have you seen any parallels of things that don't seem to work?
What are they and how can new farmers avoid these pitfalls?
"There are more pitfalls to fall into than there are potholes in a farm road. The biggest one is probably not seeking out advice from other farmers and feeling like you have to make all your own mistakes."
