Farming Democracy: The True Cost of Farming

We want to open the farm gates, open the books, and open our hearts to the community and let the world see the true work, rewards, and costs of farming! 

This book will tell the story of family farms doing things differently, working for a ‘new normal’ in agriculture that is fair to soil, water, animals, and people. These farmers are building regenerative, agroecological systems that are viable in an epoch that has seen a sharp decline in the number of farms globally.

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"Few vocations are as foundational to civilization as farming.  Few vocations can destroy civilization as fast as farming.  That’s not a conundrum; it’s a real assessment of trajectory.  With the industrialization and centralization of farming, most people have adopted an “out of sight, out of mind” relationship with this foundational vocation.  Before the wrong trajectory extends too far, we all need to immerse ourselves in the stories of those who dare to challenge the orthodoxy; who dare to follow a different trajectory that benefits the soil, the people, and the planet. 

This collection of transparent, personal vignettes into the lives of real people caressing real land producing real food and fiber touches all of us profoundly with the peaks and valleys of farming.  Better than fiction, these stories articulate reality; the reality of how, why, and where food and fiber enter our plates and homes.  Knowing something about our intersection with food and fiber is a starting point for earth stewardship.  Let the lessons begin."

Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm

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Summary

When we talk about the true cost of farming, it can be difficult to identify and quantify the costs that industrialised agriculture is externalising to the environment, animals, workers, and the public’s health and well being. This book posits that if there was full transparency across the food system, it would not look as it does today.

Farming Democracy shows the true cost and labour of farming. We’ve brought together diverse small-scale farms to tell their stories – how they produce their food, where and how it’s processed and value added, how they distribute their produce and connect eaters to the place in which it is grown, who they employ and under what conditions. Each farm has opened their books to share their true revenue and costs to shine a light onto these realities as never before.

To paraphrase a famous philosopher, those who control the means of production control the world. For too long that control has been in the hands of corporate, industrialised agriculture serving the interests and maintaining the wealth of distant shareholders at the expense of the planet and its inhabitants. But things are changing, and the number of regenerative farmers is growing, slowly wresting control back into the hands of the people to the benefit of local communities, ecosystems, and animals everywhere.

Your support of Farming Democracy is two-fold. Your contribution will help to publish this important book to share family farms' stories, which we hope will inspire more people into farming, and offer insights into what the opportunities and challenges are in running a small-scale regenerative farm in Australia for those already on the land or wanting to know more about alternatives to the industrial food system. It will also support the food sovereignty movement and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance as we work toward a future in which everyone has access to nutritious and culturally-appropriate food grown and distributed in ethical and ecological ways, and enact your right to democratically determine your own food and agriculture systems.

This is your chance to play an active role in the food sovereignty movement. 

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"As our planet and we ourselves enter the Anthropocene epoch - driven by the lunacy of economic rationalism and the most powerful vested interests on earth - the problems seem so big it is easy to switch off. Moreover, we know the practices of industrial agriculture are key factors in destabilizing most of Earth's self-regulating systems. They are also destroying human health.

However, the good news - no, incredibly exciting news! - is that regenerative agriculture does the reverse. Regenerative agricultural practices, for example, can pull down more carbon from the atmosphere than any other approach, while at the same time renewing human health.

The exciting and empowering corollary also is that regenerative agriculture is bottom-up. It comprises an underground revolution which disempowers the big end of town and restores both farming and social democracy, along with individual sovereignty. The eight courageous farmers in this book reveal, warts and all, how this revolution is being enacted in Australia and world-wide. These examples are inspiring, powerfully democratic, regenerative, and truly healing of society and ourselves."

Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler

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About the Authors 

This book is the product of collaboration and the intense commitment of small-scale regenerative farmers from around Australia. 

The farms in this book are as diverse as the food they produce, some with full or partial control of their supply chains, with varying levels of diversity and integration in their models, and at different places in their thinking about the role of growth in their businesses, all thoughtful in their approaches. Two of the families are even transitioning out of a successful life of regenerative farming while maintaining a focus on contributing to a better world in which everyone enjoys an equal right to good food. There are young farmers just starting out and those who've been at it for up to a decade, and while most are first-generation farmers, some are from multi-generational farms carving out a space for the next generation. 

What they all have in common is a commitment to transparency and building a fair food system. They value labour and keeping more farmers on the land, and they have a shared vision that animals should be raised outdoors on grass, not cramped together in huge, stinking sheds or grown in petri dishes in sterile labs. These are farmers who know the people they feed – they primarily sell directly and are fully accountable to their customers.

Some have encountered the barriers that regulation and planning schemes designed for industrialised agriculture create for small-scale farms, and are working together for reform to enable the regenerative farming movement to flourish. They work daily for food sovereignty, supporting peoples’ right to culturally appropriate, nutritious and delicious foods grown in ethical and ecologically-sound ways, and many actively advocate for everyone’s right to determine their own food and agriculture systems.

Our intense gratitude and thanks go to the following authors, farmers, and comrades in the fight for a healthy and fair food system: Applebox Farm, Bellasato Farm, Caroola Farm, Fat Pig Farm, Jonai Farms and Meatsmiths, Old Mill Road Bio Farm, Roly Poly Farm, and Woodstock Flour - for adding their narratives to this collection of stories. 

Applebox Farm

Marnie grew up locally on a beef and sheep property east of Traralgon in Gippsland and has spent all of her working career in Gippsland. After completing her Associate Diploma of Applied Science in Natural Resource Management, Marnie went on to work in the areas of natural resource management, agriculture, land regeneration, and spent the last 10 years building a small diverse sustainable agricultural business.

Marnie and her family spend hours each week slowly building on their diverse small farming enterprise with the vision of removing the need eventually for all outside inputs into their farming system. Of particular interest to Marnie is helping to create strong communities through participation and education and empowering them for positive change.

Bellasato Farm

Bellasato Farm breed, grow and produce award winning Sommerlad chickens on 140 idyllic acres in Hinchinbrook, tropical North Queensland. As first generation farmers, they’ve learnt some huge lessons over their very short 2.5 year farming life, and love bringing great produce to their community, friends and family. They’re passionate about regenerating their landscape, improving soil, plant and animal health, and would love to see more folks getting to know their farmers, and better still, becoming farmers themselves.

Caroola Farm

Caroola Farm was a mixed organic, permaculture and holistically managed farm in the NSW Southern Tablelands. Owned and operated by Penny Kothe and Paul McKinnon, Caroola Farm grew to be a driving force in small-scale integrated sustainable agriculture between 2012 and 2018. Caroola Farm grew and sold produce locally into the surrounding towns and the Canberra region, along with providing education and a demonstration site for new and existing farmers. The farm ran on a ‘shopping basket’ approach, growing vegetables, fruit, making preserves as well as growing and processing a range of poultry, cattle, sheep and pigs. Penny and Paul decided in 2018 to sell the farm and take their skills on the road to help other farmers across Australia. 

Fat Pig Farm

From our paddocks to your plate. Sadie Chrestman and Matthew Evans run Fat Pig Farm in the Huon Valley in Southern Tasmania. They raise free-range Wessex saddleback pigs, a small (very small) herd of beef cattle, dairy cows and chooks. Full time gardener, Nadia Danti, tends about one kilometre of highly productive market garden beds. Each week the farm's produce is harvested and turned into a delicious long table Friday Feast in the purpose built on farm dining room.

Jonai Farms & Meatsmiths

The Jonai (aka Tammi, Stuart, Oscar, Antigone & Atticus Jonas) tired of choosing between saving the world or savouring it, so figured out a way to do both. They raise pastured heritage-breed Large Black pigs and cattle in the central highlands of Victoria, and transform the meat into a range of fresh cuts, smallgoods, charcuterie and salumi in their on-farm butcher’s shop and commercial kitchen.

The farm is a paddock to paddock CSA (community-supported agriculture), with any waste from the boning room transformed into bonechar and returned to the soil to produce their own vegies and a small commercial crop of garlic. 95% of produce is sold to their 85 household members in Melbourne and the region. Animals are only fed so-called ‘waste’ – surplus, damaged, or unwanted produce from other food and agriculture systems in Victoria (e.g. spent brewers' grain, eggs, whey, and fruit), creating a net ecological benefit by diverting many tonnes of organic waste from landfill and exiting the agro-industrial model of segregating feed production from livestock farming.

Jonai Farms enacts food sovereignty, which asserts everyone's right to culturally appropriate, nutritious and delicious food grown in ecologically-sound and ethical ways, and peoples' right to collectively determine our own food and agriculture systems.

Old Mill Road Bio Farm

Fraser and Kirsti have been living on their family farm since 2002 and have been growing vegetables for income for the past 12 years. Prior to that neither of them had any experience farming. They have no qualifications that relate to agriculture or horticulture but have muddled along regardless. Their farm is an evolving organism and produces mainly seasonal mixed annual vegetables and supplies those vegetables to local markets in the shortest possible supply chain. They enjoy their occupation very much, eat very well, make enough money and are constantly challenged, inspired, fulfilled and tired by their days.

Roly Poly Farm

Roly Poly Farm is a small scale, diversified market garden and pastured animal farm located in the hills of Gidgegannup, WA. It is run by Melissa Charlick and Declan McGill, and currently in its first year of operation in 2018. Their focus is on building up a resilient, ecological farming system, one that is considerate of soil health and supporting a functional ecosystem surrounding food production. They currently have a 15 member Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program where members purchase a share in the harvest, receiving a 13 week box delivery of seasonal produce in return. They also provide vegetables and pasture raised eggs at farmers markets and to select restaurants and retail outlets.

Woodstock Flour

Ian and Courtney of 'Woodstock Flour produce grain and mill flour on their 4th generation family farm, 'Woodstock', in Berrigan NSW. Managed by Ian's parents Bob and Jenny Congdon, the farm is Certified Organic and incorporates sheep, cattle and cereal crops on 2000 acres. 

In addition to leasing some land on the farm, Ian and Courtney buy grain off Bob and Jenny to mill into wholegrain, stoneground flour. They sell the flour direct to small bakeries and customers in in their local region and in Melbourne. They're part of a growing movement of farmers, millers, bakers, academics and plant breeders who are working towards building local grain economies in Australia. They envision a food system where wheat is no longer treated as a commodity and farmers can share the risk of production. 

Ian and Courtney are passionate about contributing to a biodiverse grain landscape by growing heritage grains and developing different wheats that taste great, mill well and perform well on their farm. Currently, they're growing out some heritage seed they sourced from the Australian Grains Gene Bank. They're also passionate about regenerative farming and are currently experimenting with no-kill cropping and pasture cropping to improve soils and build resilience.

We need you

Through the work of these farmers and producers we've created a book that will appeal to farmers looking for inspiration and a community of like-minded growers, just as it will appeal to mindful eaters everywhere who want to know just what the true cost of farming really is and their role in voting for fair food with their dollars every day. 

But in order to do these stories justice, we need your help.

                                             Photo: Linsey Rendell

REWARDS - Books & Tickets to Farm Day Out!

While the main reward offered is a copy of the book itself, we will be launching the book at AFSA's first Farm Day Out on 17 March 2019 at Jonai Farms in Victoria. It will be a celebratory day on the land with a line up of great Australian bands, and of course bountiful food and drink produced in ethical and ecologically sound ways! 

Farm Day Out is set to become our major bi-annual fundraiser for the AFSA Legal Defence Fund, which we established in 2016 to support farmers grappling with overly burdensome, scale-inappropriate regulation and planning laws as they strive to grow good food and feed it to their communities. We have already supported dozens of farmers in need, and achieved a major win for food sovereignty with significant planning reforms in Victoria in 2018 that recognise the low risk of small-scale, pastured, mobile livestock systems. 

We're excited to announce that 'small town songbird, country resurgent, spellbinding messenger of heartbreak and womanhood' Freya Josephine Hollick will be here to woo us at Farm Day Out, and Sean McMahon, who ' traverses a musical landscape from densely textured alt-country through to an eclectic blend of folk, blues, ‘cosmic’ country and rock and roll'. Sal Kimber rounds out the musical offerings, 'born and bred in the mountain valleys of Victoria, Kimber’s songwriting is stitched with tales of rivers, wild horses, flood, fire and the strength and vulnerability of the human spirit.' 

Farm Day Out will start with a morning of optional farm tours at Jonai Farms and Meatsmiths to see how these leading small-scale agroecological farmers manage a diverse system that includes pastured pigs and cattle, an on-farm boning room and commercial kitchen where Tammi and her team transform whole carcasses into a range of fresh cuts, smallgoods, charcuterie, and salumi, and a thriving community-supported agriculture (CSA) model with 85 happy households that receive monthly packs of uncommonly delicious meat while sharing the risks as well as the rewards of the farm. 

Bands will kick off around midday and play until 5pm, and there will be bountiful food and beverage trucks to purchase beautiful food and drinks produced in ethical and ecologically-sound ways. All proceeds of Farm Day Out go to AFSA to continue fighting for food sovereignty for all!

It is our goal to produce a book as cost-effectively and ecologically-sound as possible. The following is a breakdown of costs: 

Printing (Finsbury Green)  $9,640.58

Authors $4,000

Illustration  $3,000

Design & Editorial  $3,000

Project Manager  $5,000

Total  $24,640.58

Finsbury Green are committed to a low carbon footprint, and use only certified recycled paper stock.

Books will be posted to supporters through Australia Post or alternatively be available for collection at the Farm Day Out launch and subsequent book events around the country. 

The Project Manager funding will not only keep the Farming Democracy project moving forward, but also contribute to the ongoing work of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) to support the growing movement of small-scale agroecological farmers in Australia and globally, as will any funds raised in excess of our target. 

When the campaign ends, the book will sell for $35. 

Subsequent proceeds from the book will go to AFSA to continue our work towards a future where everyone has the right to culturally appropriate, nutritious and delicious foods grown and distributed in ethical and ecologically-sound ways, and to advocate for everyone’s right to determine their own food and agriculture systems.

                                                Photo: Alan Benson