The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group met in Chattanooga, TN last month, and Eric and I went to represent WSMF. Joining us was our friend Natalie, an experienced young farmer with a plan to farm here in W-S. It was a cold rainy weekend, but the energy at the conference was pretty amazing. Lots of people, young and old, inexperienced and veteran, black and white — and everyone dedicated to gathering and sharing information about every possible aspect of sustainable farming.
The highlights of the trip for me were re-connecting with my good friend Walker Hancock from KY, Chuck Talbott’s gourmet ham session (with country ham tasting!), a dialogue on locally-produced foods and locally-owned groceries, Intensive fruit and vegetable production (Rashid Nuri from Atlanta is amazing!), and “The Barefoot Farmer” Jeff Poppen on Biodynamics.
The Biodynamics was especially inspiring to me, reminding me of the occult power of compost. Jeff also shared with us a vision of a simple CSA with folks taking what they want every week rather than taking home a bunch of stuff that ends up rotting in the fridge. Not sure of all the details on this model, but it was working for the farmer, and I guess that’s a good gauge. He was growing 150,000 lbs of food a year for a 200-share CSA and earning $75,000 from that. That’s $375 a share for 750 lbs of fresh vegetables. It’s good to know that it’s not impossible to do.
Since the conference I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking into the nuts and bolts of growing food for market. I feel like it comes to a point where you have to have to just do it — start small and then expand from there — increasing the size and complexity of your project over time, even building with this growth in mind through a business plan. Sometimes I wish I had started on this stuff when I first felt the urge 10 years ago! Well, no time like the present.
Tags: southern sustainable agriculture, sustainability, young farmers
