Plowing it Alone: The Difficulties of Farming in the Modern Age

[Draggingtree]

Plowing it Alone: The Difficulties of Farming in the Modern Age

 

By Gracy Olmstead • December 10, 2013, 6:40 AM

 

With the locavore movement rapidly expanding, many urbanites are seeking a farming lifestyle. But as Whitney Light points out in her Monday Narratively feature, these aspiring agrarians may find their new vocation harder than anticipated. She tells the story of married couple Dan and Kate Marsiglio, who left their teaching jobs in 2005 to start an organic farm. The couple has made great improvements over the years—but like many, they’ve found the idyllic pastoral life more evasive than hoped:

 

In mainstream food magazines and agricultural journals alike, tales of city kids and hedge fund managers trading suits and ties for overalls have many forecasting a future of yeomanry in America. To be sure, new farmers remain hopeful that moment will come. But they’re also the first to report that in beginning farming, the honeymoon period is brief.

 

Eight years after they launched their farm, the Marsiglios now have 30 cows, 25 sheep, 150 chickens, four pigs, a vegetable garden and greenhouse—but they’re still barely breaking even,. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/plowing-alone/

[Pepper]

@Draggingtree

 

GMTA

 

Stumbled on that story from Narratively last night via Reddit I think.

 

So here is a fascinating but sobering article bump for Plowing it Alone