Farming: a trend or here to stay?

with Forrest Pritchard

In some circles, it seems that sustainable farming is on the rise. Farmers markets are growing more and more popular, and young people are volunteering to work on organic farms. But sales at farmers market are down, overall, and less than 2% of the population is directly responsible for growing our food in the U.S. So what is the truth of the matter: is sustainable, soulful farming here to stay or a pipe dream? It’s critical to our future, so how can we make it work? How do farmers balance making a profit with still being true to their core values: establishing farms that properly care for the land, the animals, and the customers?

Today we converse with Forrest Pritchard, farmer and author of “Growing Tomorrow: Behind The Scenes With 18 Sustainable Farmers Who Are Changing The Way We Eat.” We discuss the advantages and problems facing farming today, and what can each do to make tomorrow’s farming landscape more promising.

Notes:

Is farming a new trend or is it here to stay? In some circles, it seems farmers markets are growing more and more popular, and young people are volunteering to work on organic farms. But farmers market sales are down, overall, and less than 2% of the population is directly responsible for growing our food in the U.S. So what is the truth of the matter: is sustainable, soulful farming here to stay or a pipe dream? It’s critical to our future, so how can we make it work? How do we balance making a profit with still being true to creating farms that properly care for the land, the animals and the customers?

Today we continue our conversation (begun in episode #99) with Forrest Pritchard, farmer and author of “Growing Tomorrow: Behind The Scenes With 18 Sustainable Farmers Who Are Changing The Way We Eat.” We discuss the advantages and problems facing farming today, and what can each do to make tomorrow’s landscape more promising.

Highlights of the conversation include:

the two foundations of slow food, sustainable farming: regenerating mineral-rich soil and strong sales
the trends of farming today
the effect of social media and activities at the farm
capturing the attention of a busy, distracted consumer
the balance between increasing sales and keeping the “soulful” heart of farming
the problems all farmers face, regardless of scale
the impact of immigration policies on farms
how the solutions from conventional farming create more problems
the uniqueness of farming
what happens to a farmer who sells his farm
the topic of Forrest’s next book and what motivated him to write it
the critical nature of involvement with farming and producing our own food