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- Urban Farms Can Hold
Great Promise for Farmers
- By Richard Taylor
Beekeeper
- There has emerged a new and fast-growing development in agriculture which I think holds great promise for sideline beekeepers. It is the rise of small specialty farms, sometimes referred to as regional agriculture, or sometimes as urban farms. I’ll explain what they are, why they are proving to be so successful, and why they are of interest to beekeepers.
First, though, note the vast changes in agriculture since the last world war. Family farms have nearly disappeared. They have been overwhelmed by corporations engaged in large-scale farming and by urban sprawl. Fields far and wide are leased to these corporations which, with vast and expensive machinery, produce virtually the entire agricultural product of this country. Imports have also increased greatly, reducing still further the role of the farmer. Melons, for example, that were once seasonal, can now be found in the supermarkets year-round, produced in warmer climates on a large scale. The same is true for most of the produce you see. The USDA estimates that the distance between the fields where foods are produced and the tables where they are consumed averages about 1,500 miles. And that means that the total energy needed to transport it is about eight times the amount of energy in the food itself. What a loss! And now, add to all that the enormous use of pesticides, hormones and, more recently, the growing development of genetically modified produce, the ultimate effects of which, on health and the environment, are still unknown.
All this has created a place, or indeed, a golden opportunity, for the small, specialty farms. They are typically very small – only one to 20 acres – and very often they are located right in the city, alongside the strip malls and everything. And the secret of their success is the unique form of marketing that some of them have developed, something that I have witnessed firsthand.
Here is how it works.
These small-time, and in fact sometimes part-time, farmers specialize in organic produce, free-range eggs and so on. So right away they meet the needs of the wise consumers who have deep and justified misgivings about pesticide contamination, genetically altered food and hormone-laden food. They no longer have to just take what is offered in such abundance in the supermarkets. The urban farmer has, ready and waiting, a large market for his produce, and he need not fear competition from the agribusinesses. These can drive down prices, to be sure, but they cannot offer the kind of food that comes from the urban farms.
Second, the urban farmer’s market is close by. Instead of being shipped 1,500 miles, the produce is consumed right nearby. It is fresh, and transportation costs are minimal.
Third – and this is the most innovative aspect of the whole approach – some of these urban farms have developed what is called a share system of marketing. It works this way: Customers pay for their produce in advance, that is, at the beginning of the growing season, by buying their share. A large family will purchase a full share, for maybe $400 or $500, and a small family, of perhaps only two people, will buy a half share. Then, as the season advances and the produce begins to be harvested, these customers go once a week to the farm to get their share. The produce is set out on long tables, perhaps in a large cooler, and signs indicate that day’s share. For example, at the tomatoes the sign will read “Full share six tomatoes, half share three,” and at the lettuce “Full share two bunches, half share one,” and so on for each different product. The customers go around and help themselves, following the instructions on the signs. Potatoes and the like are sold by the pound – whatever works best.
Now the great advantage of that, in case you haven’t noticed, is that the farmer has the produce sold in advance. He or she knows what it will bring and is not at the mercy of the marketplace. There is no fear of delivering produce to a market, only to find that agribusiness has gotten there first, ready to take a price below what it has cost the urban farmer to produce the crop. And the customer wins, too, by knowing that the produce is fresh and of the highest quality, to say nothing of the better flavor. Children, sometimes averse to eating vegetables, now find that they are delicious.
Of course the farmers are not limited to this kind of marketing. They can still take their produce to the farmers’ markets that have become so popular in the last few decades, and to other outlets that guarantee organic methods of production. Now, then, where does beekeeping fit in to all this?
Well, the sideline beekeeper is in somewhat the same position as the family farmer. He cannot compete with the big commercial outfits that number their colonies in the thousands and move their bees around in huge trucks. And the sideliners have a made-to-order outlet of the sort just described, provided they are willing to produce honey without the use of chemicals or pesticides. People who are serious about organic food are great users of honey, often buying it by the gallon. And the urban farmer, who is already highly diversified and doing everything on a small, manageable scale, can himself be the sideline beekeeper.
I have thought about all this quite a lot lately, and more than once I have wished I was younger. I think I would find a couple of acres of very fertile soil and become an urban farmer-beekeeper. I’d have not only all the joys of beekeeping, but also the deep satisfaction of tilling the soil and bringing forth its bountiful yields. And, to top it all off, I’d have a respectable income from it all. My riches would not be in gold, to be sure, but they would nonetheless be real and plentiful.
Richard Taylor is a philosopher and lifelong beekeeper who lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York. He is the author of several beekeeping books. His column appeared in the April 2001 edition of Bee Culture Magazine.
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