I’ve wrapped up my work at my first farm stay in New Zealand on a 15 acre permaculture farm. Over the past couple of weeks I have had the chance to prepare beds for planting, practice seed-saving, seed fresh beds, transplant seedlings, take care of hens, cull a rooster flock, and do so much more on the farm. There are many more insights that I will continue to share over the coming months but while it is still fresh, I want to share my top three learnings about challenges that small scale vegetable growers face. 

Crop marketing is a pain-point for farmers of all sizes

Coming from a commodity grain marketing background in the U.S., I wasn’t previously aware of the specific challenges that small vegetable farmers face when it comes to selling their produce. There are unique challenges with many of the available crop marketing avenues. For example, direct sales at places like farmers markets can be challenging given leftover product must be discounted the following week or meet its fate as food waste. Other channels such as selling to grocery stores and wholesalers, is difficult as a small grower due to the licensing fees and food safety regulations. It is hard to find a market for all of the vegetables grown on a diverse vegetable farm.

Consumer demand doesn’t fit a crop rotation that is best for the soil

My second takeaway is a nuanced version of the crop marketing problem. In order to run an organic permaculture farm, it is necessary to have a variety of crops and systems that work together. For example, if a farmer ONLY planted kale year over year because of consumer demand, that takes a toll on the soil. The lack of diversity in consumers’ diets is a challenge for farmers when they need to plant a combination of different types of crops to ensure the soil has the nutrients it needs. Certain crops put nitrogen back in the soil and others add more organic matter. Having a good rotation of crops is essential in running a small-scale organic farm. Planting the same crop year over year leads to pest and disease pressure that is unmanageable without synthetic chemicals. As consumers, we have grown accustomed to eating what we want. We don’t think about the importance of a crop rotation on a farm in order to keep the soil healthy. I believe, if more people were aware of the importance of diversity of crops on a farm, maybe we would have more diversity in our diet as well.

Conversion towards organic/permaculture/biodynamic farming takes time

It takes time to convert a piece of land to organic methods. I have read stats that say it takes anywhere from 5-10 years to build the soil health back to a place where farmers will have diminished weed and pest pressure. Often times, pieces of land that were previously being farmed using conventional methods or had just been pasture, have a lot of pest pressure initially. The lower income from lower productivity of the land in the first couple of years of conversion is often too much of an economic burden on farmers to be able to make the transition. Farm policy that supports farmers during this change would make a big difference.