It doesn't have to be "organic" to have a small farm resurgence. I've seen the CSA thing tried up here. It doesn't work simply because the area is not affluent enough, in fact it's darn poor. And, the Amish pretty well have the garden stand thing cornered. But things like orchards, vineyards, bramble fruit and other "You-pick" type places do well if the cost is reasonable. It's very easy to sell 1/2 a pig, fresh eggs, beef shares, etc.- again, as long as it's reasonable. We have to travel 45 miles to hit an area where "organic" even starts to sell, but "natural", "free range" or "chemical free" sells fairly well locally.
There is actually a 15 cow dairy about 3 miles from me, Guernseys at that. And I know that if I had enough animals I could sell as much goat milk as I could produce locally. It can be done. But it doesn't have to "organic". What people will pay for is quality, local products at competitive prices. I've seen the "organic" stunted, diseased, lousy looking produce packed in hemp bags offered by the starry eyed stoner in the "Occupy Wall St" tee shirt at the farmers market at premium prices. His stuff goes home with him. The good looking, moderately priced produce gets bought. People, most of them, aren't stupid. You have to produce something decent to sell. But it could be done. And locally I'm seeing people trying. Maple sugaring is coming back up here in a pretty big way as are orchards.
I have hope. We aren't going to see 3500 15 cow dairies in my county ever again. But we might see a fair number of 15-20 cow dairies doing as the Amish do and have a co-operatively supported collection center with bulk tanks. We may see sheep make something of a comeback and people seem to want goats. There's something stirring, I can't put my finger on it exactly and define it though. I think part of it is people seeing that $16 trill. debt and devalued dollar and realizing we aren't going to just grow out of that. Call it "prepping" and say it's crazy if you want, but it's a common point of discussion everywhere I go.
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