I hope the year has treated you all well. Great things are happening for small farmers across the nation: the number of farmers’ markets is increasing; virtually every university has some type of small farm program going; and more importantly, I am hearing more stories about farmers working together like they used to; they are sharing equipment and ideas, and forming marketing cooperatives.

Why is this so important? Because it is a grass roots movement led by farmers who want to stay on the land with their families. David Baltensperger Ph.D., Professor at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, says because alternative crops offer more intensive and diverse uses for land, a potential result could be more small producers. (I’m all for that.)

Baltensperger also noted that niche crops would grow on limited acres, but target specialty markets with higher per acre income (see About Ag for $9,000/acre asparagus). He also said you have to spend more time marketing alternative crops, but you get a premium for doing it.

Since the beginnings of agriculture, around 10,000 species had been used in food and fodder production. Today, only 150 crops feed most humans; just wheat, rice, corn, and potatoes provide 60% of the human diet (as noted in a press release from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Diversity provides economic as well as nutritional stability.

Agriculture has gone full circle; we went from hunter-gatherers to subsistence farmers to small, diverse family farmers to mega-farmers. The mega-farming monoculture system is not sustainable, as proved by the millions of dollars we spend yearly as government subsidies to enable our mega-farmers to make a profit.

The agripreneurs of today (small diverse family farms) operate with no government subsidies. They grow niche crops and market them; they do not let the commodity markets of Wall Street determine their prices and markets, so they escape the merry-go-round of conventional subsidy-supported agriculture.

The agripreneur of today has a successful marriage of lifestyle and business. He or she grows niche market crops and sells them for retail price. Agripreneurs make a profit in a lifestyle that they choose.

It is not easy, but it is definitely worth it; if you do not fight for what you believe in, no one else will do it for you; your destiny is in your own hands; only you can make it happen; have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.