How to Get Back To The Land

“Are you ready for the country? Because it’s time to go!”
Neil Young

We often get emails from folks wanting advice on how to get back to the land. Since most people can’t afford to buy a farm outright or to leave their job without another source of income to replace it, how is it possible?

Perhaps you could start as a volunteer to gain experience for your CV plus decide if the farming life is really for you. You’ll also get valuable contacts who may be able to help you find a farmer who needs an intern/apprentice or live-in worker.

WWOOF is a world wide network. In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.

WWOOF: The Movie Trailer from Ashley Terry on Vimeo.

Similar to WWOOF, GrowFood also connects farmers interested in teaching with people interested in farming. You can spend some time working in exchange for room, board, and experience and build a career for a lifetime. The mission of GrowFood is to help grow a community of 50 million new small-scale organic farmers.

Then there's Sustainable Farming Internships and Apprenticeships

It offers a directory of on-the-job learning opportunities in sustainable and organic agriculture in the U.S. (and some in Canada) as a tool to help farmers and apprentices connect with each other. The listed farms are primarily seeking interns/apprentices from North America. Apprenticeship programs on working farms are a great opportunity for people to try their hands at farming and gain production skills.

If formal education is more your thing, there's Generation Organic. "Gen-O" is the new generation of organic farmers taking the lead in producing high quality food for the future while caring for the environment. Organic Valley started Generation Organic to nurture a new generation of organic farmers.

Once you have all this experience, and really know that farming is for you, you could get yourself on a farm by offering help to a farmer.

The increasing age of farmers presents a great opportunity.

In most developed nations, most of the younger generation are opting to leave the farm and head for suburbia. As a result those left farming are getting older and older.

According to the last census, for example, in 2006 the median age of farmers in Australia was 52 and in the USA was over 58 years old. It is likely to have risen a couple of years since then. And in Australia 40% of farmers were over 55, with 18% over 65, well past the usual retirement age. More than a quarter of U.S. farmers are older than 65.

Many existing farmers must be desperate for help running their farms. Many farms also have vacant houses. So why not offer your services in exchange for a modest wage and a place to live and start a garden? You could either approach farmers directly, send out a resume, or advertise on local notice boards. If you are keen, it’s definitely worth a try.

Sad Day for Food Freedom

The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2751 - the so-called Food Safety Modernization Act - on Dec 22 with a 216 to 144 vote (yes, many members of the House did not even vote).

Formerly called Food Safety Bill S510, this Bill is NOT About Food Safety. It is a draconian piece of legislation that literally places food under the control of the Department of Homeland Security, the organization created supposedly for foreign terrorists. Now, the DHS has the legal power to seize food production, force recalls, and shut down any farms it deems unsafe. This includes your backyard garden - should you want to sell anything you produce on your land, or even give away to a neighbor.

So it is now a revolutionary act to grow your own food, and we hope you all do!

Wherever you are located we urge families to develop their own square foot gardens and become as independent as possible from the attempt to control our food to restrict our freedoms. For help on how to grow your own healthy food see the Natural Solutions Foundation’s Food Freedom Journal at http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2788.

Better buy yourself some heirloom seeds while you still have the chance.

In this video made prior to the passing of the bill, Glenn Beck explains the implications and urges people to express their opposition to it:



Here, Dr. Rima E. Laibow MD, Medical Director of Natural Solutions Foundation, urges First Lady Michelle Obama to intervene on behalf of the people:

Sustainable Meat Production

We recently made a trip to an organic farm in the south-west of Western Australia to make a documentary film on how to slaughter pigs and chickens on the farm (we are presently producing the videos and they will soon be available to buy). It was an opportunity to learn from experienced farmers how to kill, de-hair and prepare a pig for butchering, as well as to try out the latest version of the “Mutha Plucka” chicken plucking machine we are developing.

We arrived at the farm in the afternoon and started heating up water for the pig kill as the sun went down. This is so we could complete the work at night and not have to worry about flies which can be a real problem here in Australia.

Early the next morning, before they were fed their breakfast, we headed off to the grower chicken pen to select a few victims for the table. The chickens looked small but when you picked one up it was surprisingly solid and heavy. Given that it usually takes me at least 16 weeks to grow enough meat on a regular rooster to make it worth butchering, it was astounding to learn that these chickens were only 5 weeks old. Wow! It turns out that they were commercial meat birds purchased as day olds from a specialist breeder. Now I believe that it makes no sense to try and grow meat birds unless you can tap into these super meat bird genes!

In case you were thinking of doing just that, the farmer did give us a few warnings about these super-broilers. Firstly, they eat an absolute heap – way more than other chicken breeds of similar age. Then again, I’m willing to bet they do it efficiently, and still use a lot less feed to get to table size than your usual backyard rooster.

Another issue with these chooks is general weakness. They are bred for packing on the flesh not for a long and healthy life. The farmer got rather attached to one very friendly bird which she didn’t have the heart to kill. However, despite considerable coddling and care, it still only lasted to 3 years of age. When they mature these “Steggles” type breeds are so heavy they can hardly get around and don’t handle hot conditions at all.

To overcome these issues, breeders of commercial meat chickens use different male and female lines to maximize productivity and vigor of the adult breeding flock.

Here's another example of sustainable meat production using local, non-industrialized agriculture, in action at Polyface Farm: