Looking Past the Idyllic Red Barn

I love working in agriculture because while not everyone knows much about actually growing, processing, and getting food onto the table, everyone knows about food. In fact, most people think about it three times a day. One of my favorite Wendell Berry quotes is: “Eating is an agricultural act,” calling out the fact that we are all participants in our agricultural system. 

While living in both urban and rural areas, I’ve spent a lot of time talking to producers that run farms of all shapes and sizes, around the country and the world. I’ve talked to market gardeners at my local farmers' market, as well as Midwestern grain growers managing thousands of acres. 

One of my favorite parts of job has been getting the chance to learn about such a wide variety of agricultural operations. From oyster cultivation to pastured poultry, to fruit and vegetable farms, I’ve learned so much from having conversations with a diverse group of producers. While every operation is unique—not just in their enterprises, but also in their cultivation techniques and climate—I’ve seen enough business plans to know that there are some underlying commonalities between many of these local and regional-scale businesses. 

The producers I’m talking to decided to farm because they are passionate about what they do, they care about the environment, and they are committed to bettering their communities. Everyone knows regional-scale agriculture isn’t easy; you do it because it is an essential and important thread in the fabric of a local, resilient community. But these are still businesses and they have to turn a profit if they want to stick around. I want more urbanite foodies to get the chance to see into the reality of the regional farms and food producers they want to support. And not just the good parts, but also the challenges of operating a local food business. 

Over the past couple of years, there have been a number of documentaries that have come out to tell the story of regenerative farms. These movies have beautiful shots of idyllic barns, rolling green hills, and happy animals grazing on pasture. While these films play an important role in spreading the good word about regenerative agriculture and educating the urban consumer, they also only tell one part of the story. 

The reality of the farm business (with the idyllic red barn and bountiful locally grown, organic vegetables) is much more complex than the rosy stories that are told in these documentaries. Every conversation I have with a regional-scale food producer is a reminder that the path toward success is not straightforward. Here are a few takeaways I want to share from these conversations in hopes of providing a more realistic glimpse behind the curtain.

Enterprise diversification is key. 

Most types of agriculture (with the exception of some types of indoor cultivation) are seasonal. This means that at certain times of the year, cash is going to be tight. Also, the incoming cash typically doesn’t line up with the upfront costs required to get a crop in the ground, or chickens on pasture. The most successful farm businesses that I have seen recognize this cashflow issue and get smart about ways to bring in money at different times of the year to keep the business afloat. But oftentimes, these other enterprises are not the types of businesses that are seen as core to agriculture, even though they can be core to the survival of the farm business.

For example, an agritourism business vertical that hosts monthly on-farm dinners or farm stays acts as a critical part of the business that can offset the seasonality of the actual agricultural production. While the farm stays wouldn’t exist without the farm itself, these farming-adjacent enterprises are sometimes the most profitable business line for these farms. 

I’ve also talked to farms that are intentional about starting enterprises that augment their cash flow at times of the season when production is low. For example, I know of a vegetable operation that has a firewood business in the winter. No one gets really excited about firewood, but in order for that local veggie farm to flourish and have the cash to buy inputs for the following season, the firewood is a critical component of their business.

If a farmer doesn’t want to rely on an off-farm job to supplement their farm business, these supplemental enterprises are key and can be one of the most important pieces of the puzzle to reach economic sustainability.

Managing land regeneratively often involves trade-offs.
By now, the concept of regenerative agriculture is familiar to people outside of farms and food businesses, but only at a high-level understanding. The various regenerative practices and techniques like no-till, biological inputs, and cover-cropping are all pieces of a larger regenerative management framework. There is no single practice that could make a farm “regenerative.” In fact, there are often trade-offs that producers have to make when deciding the best practices for their land, climate, crop, and business. 

Two classic examples of this are the reality that many larger organic farms have to rely on tilling (rotating the soil to kill weeds) since they don’t have synthetic chemicals at their disposal to kill the weeds for them. Tilling the soil also greatly disturbs soil microbiology. Other farms argue that a little bit of synthetic weed killer is better than tilling. 

Another example is plastic use. Many organic farms, particularly those growing at a larger scale use plastic mulch to diminish weed pressure given they can’t use synthetic chemicals, but then at the end of the season, they end up with large amounts of plastic waste and bits of leftover plastic in the soil.

It is extremely difficult for a regenerative, organic farm to implement best practices 100% of the time, while also managing a profitable business. There are trade-offs that have to be made when running a regenerative farming system, and while perfection may be the goal, it is elusive.

Getting started is really hard, especially for new and beginning farmers or businesses transitioning to regenerative practices.
Unlike tech companies, or other types of startup businesses, starting any sort of agricultural business— whether that be production or processing—takes a high amount of startup capital to get off the ground. As a technology company, you can hire a developer and months later have a minimum viable product to bring to market, but in agriculture, you need land, inputs, a whole growing season, the weather to cooperate, sales channels, and more. 

Most of the time, producers that are looking to grow food commercially for their community don’t have access to the capital they need to get off the ground. This is even more challenging for larger farms and food infrastructure projects. While debt capital can provide an important piece of the puzzle for these types of farm businesses, a business cannot be started on debt capital alone, and finding other sources of capital for a down payment on a piece of land or non-securable equipment is a big challenge for many producers.

It’s also important to understand that when farms transition their practices away from commodity farming and towards regenerative practices using biological inputs, no-till farming, and other regenerative practices, they typically have to weather a 3-5 year period where the land isn’t as productive. Soil organic matter and biological activity take time to recover after being sprayed with synthetic inputs for years, and during this time the crops produced are not yet “certified organic,” so they can’t earn a premium price. On top of this, traditional banks often refuse to offer a line of credit to these producers anymore given the shift in the farm’s practices. While organic doesn’t always equal regenerative, this is a story that is very common among the farmers that I talk to that have gone through a transition to certified organic or have simply transitioned away from synthetic inputs. 

I am telling you all of this as an advocate of regenerative agriculture’s movement to build local and regional food systems. I am telling you this because I believe that more knowledge about agriculture and where our food comes from translates to better support, solutions, and stewardship. As eaters and participants in our agriculture system, looking past the idyllic view of regional and local food is what can help us build more appreciation for and contribute to stronger, regenerative, local, and regional food systems.