How Big Should A Farm Need To Be?
G'Day Folks,
I spent the morning with Hannam Vale Public School last week. What a pleasure it was to be in front of so many curious kids and their questions. One question in particular had me thinking for the rest of the day. One of the kids not older than 9 had raised her hand and held it there for quite some time. Finally when it was her turn to ask a question she said “how much land do you need to be a farmer?”.
My answer was rushed as we were almost out of time, I told her that if you had access to a really popular farmers market and farmed 1 acre impeccably. Then you could support a very modest life and raise a family. It wouldn’t be easy, Mother Nature doesn’t give you a wet weather allowance and your farmers market isn’t going to pay your sick leave. But nonetheless, if that is the life you should want to live, then it is doable up to a point your body can no longer sustain the workload.
My family and I started out with a dream of growing food on a single acre, selling it at a local farmers market and living a humble life. We have only grown into what we are today out of a need to survive. We realised early on, a single acre of crops and a farmers market were not going to support the 3 families living on our farm at the time. Since then I have watched a lot of smaller farms struggle to remain viable. Some have disappeared and others are bravely trying a myriad of ways to keep their farm alive.
To a point the economist is right, but the economist is not only short sighted but narrow minded. The free market is only free when everybody gets a chance to play the game. There will be winners and losers, but so long as we all get a hit of the ball at some stage, only then is it a free market. When we let only the biggest and the wealthiest play ball, it is no longer a free market. When this happens, slowly and then suddenly, we all lose.
