Is it good for the farmer?

Quality of Life

The farm to table food system must help the farmer to achieve basic quality of life goals. The two most fundamental goals are maintaining the physical and emotional resources of the farmer and family members, and providing a reasonable income commensurate with the range, quality, and size of various enterprises on the farm. Emotional stress runs throughout much of the literature in Extension publications related to the family farm. Overextending the physical capacity of family members to attend to production, harvest and selling of foods can be just as debilitating. Families choose farming for a variety of reasons such as lifestyle, location, raising a family, enjoyment of production, and the satisfaction of selling directly to appreciative customers. We now know that farm families must have a passion for their farming pursuit; they must love and enjoy the practice and challenges of bringing food and fiber products to market. We also know that this endeavor must be financially rewarding. Consequently, we must recognize the importance of matching the interests and resources of family members with the demands of production and marketing. Exactly, who are the “we” in this equation? A successful farming community that is good for the farmer has developed a variety of support systems to guide the farm family in their practices and decision making. Internet resources provide an important base of information, but sustainable farming communities depend on personal and local support. This support may come from a variety of sources.

Support Systems

Local Extension faculty and staff can work closely with family farms to assess their short and long-term goals, as well as help with production practices, marketing issues, and comparing the return on various enterprises to develop financial viability. An agriculture professional can assist local farmers with onfarm research and marketing projects through SARE-funded programs. Non-profit organizations can also provide a number of services for farming communities. These organizations typically qualify for grant and corporate funding to support projects of interest to local farm families, often generating marketing materials for the larger public on the availability of local foods through “Farm Fresh Buying Guides” and maintaining websites to help promote local farm communities. For example, the Community Agricultural Development Center in Northeast Washington was instrumental in obtaining funding and partnering with Washington State University Extension to develop local small-scale processing facilities for poultry and livestock. Small scale processing and marketing cooperatives may offer a means of achieving what is beyond the reach of individual growers such as entering new markets or achieving better prices for their products. These cooperatives may wholesale products to restaurants, supermarkets, and institutions and become a valuable marketing strategy for the local farming community. Special events bridging connections between farmers and chefs may be an effective way to improve marketing opportunities for the local farming community. For instance, several Farm-Chef connection events sponsored by Eco-Trust were held in the Pacific Northwest. These day-long events typically held in urban centers feature chefs looking for quality products and farmers looking for profitable markets. “The farmers are here looking for a market and the chefs are here because they want access to local, fresh and sustainably produced products,” explains Sylvia Kantor, from Washington State University’s King County Extension. Some of the best support comes from farmers themselves. Any farming community can only succeed to the degree that local farmers are willing to help each other. It is up to the larger community and its many organizations to facilitate this exchange. Farm walks have become a popular event where the farmer carries on a conversation on the farm with other interested farmers about production issues. A sustainable food community will find ways to connect consumers with their local producers. Over time, community members should have the opportunity to learn fully about the foods produced in their locale and the families who are producing that food. Farm tours, farmers markets, CSA’s, educational events, and publications are all ways to facilitate this connection.