The Trials of Spring

Spring is an enchanting time of year: a time of beginnings & awakening, verdant shoots of green grass, sprightly wild flowers,  multi-colored flowering fruit trees, sap is rising, people falling in love, and so many beauteous things. For me, it is all of those – and also one of the most stressful times of the year. How so?

Spring: “sap is rising” is a common expression – my energy is up too: I wake up at 5:30, coffee, yogurt & toast, some quiet time, and then I’m ready to GO! Except that it’s cold & rainy out – not fair! Nature is geared up & my motor is revved up – with no place to go! I guess I could go fishing, repair farm equipment – but, in the rain?

THIS IS THE HARD PART – WAITING. Many think that the challenging part of farming & gardening is the work – well yes, it is a lot of work – but at least, when I am working, I feel good/productive. I can work long hours and my body aches – and it feels so good compared to “chomping at the bit” (a reference to bygone days when we worked with horses: they were ready to go and we held them back with the bit in the bridle…).

Rain – there is nothing as comforting as the sound & smell of rain when we really need it – I wake up in the night and hear the pitter-patter on the rood and ah! all is right with the world. BUT -  it is equally discouraging when we have too much. Folklore around here says you should always welcome rain – if you don’t, you’ll be looking for it soon. I know I should be thankful for the rain but by the 4th week of it – I’m ready to scream & do an anti-rain dance.

At Sandhill, we put a lot of energy into agriculture:  food for ourselves as well as to sell. In general, more of the food for ourselves is raised in gardens (smaller plots near our houses) and field crops are more for sale (although our fields are very small – the largest being 3 acres).  Most of the human energy here goes into producing food for ourselves and we eat it fresh as well as preserve it – canning, drying, & freezing. My partner, Gigi, manages a lot of the production in our gardens – which entails coordinating people to do the work – some are experienced, others are new. We have 4 interns and 2 visitors here now – they mostly work in the gardens. I manage field crops and bees – I deal with fewer people and more equipment. I note that Spring is both a high & stressful time in our lives &our relationship: there is so much to do and talk about. When the weather is ideal, we barely see each other because we are busy. When it keeps raining, we see each other a lot – and we fret about being behind schedule: we have transplants that should be in the ground; she is trying to keep people busy outside of the garden and I am trying not to work soil that is too wet.

WAITING – a challenge and difficult part of farming. Why can’t we just RELAX and enjoy – whatever the weather?? Ah why not indeed? Perhaps it’s time to read, meditate, do yoga, go for a walk, admire the wildflowers….

Failures

Failure. Ouch! We don’t like to use that word to describe our endeavors or any facet of our lives. In New Age lingo we prefer things like: missed possibilities, unfortunate circumstances, unplanned learning opportunities, new challenges, etc.

What failure?  Sandhill’s tempeh business. In our 35 years on the land here, we have experimented with various crops and products to earn income: (beginning with highest total income) sorghum syrup, honey, mustard, horseradish, condiments (salsa, relish, etc), seeds, and occasionally, fresh vegetables & fruit. For the last five years, tempeh was in the #2 spot. What happened?

First: what is tempeh? It is a cultured soybean product – originally from Indonesia. Some call it a meat substitute due to it’s high protein levels – so it is popular with vegetarians. We make it by from soybeans that we grow on the farm: the beans are cracked in half, soaked, and then boiled until soft (but not mushy), cooled and inoculated with rhizopus oligosporus (a spore, which we buy). The inoculated beans are put in one-half pound ziplock bags, flattened (like a hamburger patty), and placed in racks inside of a homemade box that maintains it at 90 – 100 degrees F for about 24 hours. During this time, the spores develop and grow throughout the soybeans making them more digestible for humans (like yogurt is to milk). We then freeze it and sell it  frozen. There are many ways to prepare it: marinate it in soy sauce, herbs & spices, or simply fry, bake, broil, etc. Tempeh ruben sandwiches are popular in restaurants.

We have been making tempeh for about 20 years – at first, just for ourselves. Other folks tried it and loved it -  so we began to sell it and it grew into a business. We sold it mostly in University towns – Columbia MO & Iowa City IA. It is  a niche market – most mid-westerners have not heard of it. It was good for us in that we could make it throughout the year – in contrast to most of our other products, which are harvested & processed mostly during the summer and fall of the year. It was a  steady income.

About a year ago, we began having  production problems. Previously our failure rate averaged 3-5%: these were pieces  in which the spores failed to develop evenly – resulting in spots that remained as  cooked soybeans – but not tempeh. We kept these for home use and simply cut out & discarded those spots when preparing it. Now, the failure rate was 60 – 100%. At first we were undaunted – here was another challenge. We cleaned and sanitized the equipment, purchased new innoculant, were extra careful about cleanliness, etc – but the problem persisted. Friends and customers had different ideas & suggestions – we tried most of them, including lab tests. Nothing made a difference.

Finally – we admitted defeat – FAILURE. We have suspended tempeh production: telling our customers was difficult. Admitting defeat was even harder. Besides the sting  of FAILURE, there were additional factors. First, value added products have always been our specialty & niche – all our products are in this category. Tempeh was our shining example of this: conventional soybeans sell for about $10/bushel; organic soybeans about $20; however, when we made them into tempeh – we received about 10 times that ($200/bu) for our beans – there’s adding value!

Secondly, the biggest challenge in making an income from a small/organic/sustainable farm is marketing. I am often queried about the challenges of growing crops organically. My stock answer is that production is not the issue – marketing is. This has been true for us: for example, we used to make and sell pesto and garlic but due to marketing challenges, we no longer do (markets for pesto were too distant & prices for garlic were too low). For most other products, we continue to put a lot of energy into marketing. Tempeh was the exception. The demand was higher than we could keep up with – we occasionally hired folks to help with production. We hated to give up a product that sold itself but, we’ve tried everything we know to do.

Various one-liners/saying come to mind:  Nay Nay, our 12 year old, is fond of saying: “this is the exception that proves the rule.”

Down ‘N Dirty On The Farm

Now that I have your attention, I trust you won’t be disappointed.

The heading could suggest soil/dirt/fertility/etc. BUT what I have in mind is what could be considered the down side of country/rural living. Huh? Again, the possibilities are myriad:  isolation(cultural/technological), having to drive distances for services or to see friends; however, my topic here is CAFOs – Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations – aka “factory farms”. Yikes – there’s a heavy subject…

I moved to Sandhill in 1980 – I’d never heard of cafo and as far as I know, neither had anyone else in this county of 5000. Today cafos are a hot topic in many rural areas – due to the evolution of current American agriculture – others have written about it, notably Michael Pollen, Wendell Berry, etc.

Back to my story:  I’d been aware of cafos for 10-15 years, but it became personal 7 months ago when we heard that our county commissioners had rescinded our local health ordinance – so what’s the big deal? We find out that a local health ordinance is the only way residents in Missouri can establish more restrictive regulations on cafos because the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) under a Republican administration is anything but what the name would indicate. So – why did the commissioners rescind the health ordinance? Apparently, the ordinance has been in place for 4 years because some of our neighbors convinced the commissioners we needed it. They rescinded it last September because they felt pressured by both pro and anti cafo proponents. In response, some of us become alarmed and spontaneously form a group to get a health ordinance reinstated. My partner, Gigi, is very active and becomes the focal person in a leaderless group, which has been holding public meetings to educate folks on the health, environmental, and social effects of cafos. We have also been meeting with the commissioners to reinstate a new ordinance.

Here is a message that I posted to our group recently:

This is Stan’s summary of recent events and is lengthy – keeping things short & sweet doesn’t appear to be one of my gifts….
Warning:  this may be upsetting – you may want to fix yerself a cup of relaxing beverage, breathe deep, etc

What a tumultuous time we’ve had the last few days – where to begin?
After months of working on a proposed new health ordinance (mostly by Garth, Gigi, Marty, & Rudy), a series of public educational events, and meeting with the commissioners, we thought we were on track with getting the ordinance in place soon – in fact, the commissioners had already scheduled the first hearing; after another hearing and perhaps some minor revisions, the ordinance would be passed. Everything appeared to be going smoothly – we were definitely hopeful.

That all fell apart on Wed night. What happened?
For several days previous, we heard that some producers had concerns about the proposed ordinance and were having a private meeting with the commissioners. That sparked our curiosity and after some enquireies, it appeared that the meeting was called by Mennonite producers and that dairy producers were involved. Gigi talked to Paul Campbell, who assured us that since the commissioners were going to be there, it had to be an open meeting. Tuesday night Gigi calls one of the organizers to warn him that we planned to attend. He told her that we were definitely not invited or welcome there. When she pressed him, he grudgingly conceded that they would not throw us out. Whew! Do we really want to go where people don’t want us? We talk to Marty, Garth, Rudy, etc, and decide yes, we need to be there. At this point, “we” meant Garth, Joni, Rudy, Judy, Marty, Genese, Gigi, & me.

Wednesday morning: someone leaves a message on Dancing Rabbit’s (a neigboring ecovillage) answering machine that feels threatening: “you are not welcome at this meeting. It is being held on private land and is a private event. We know who you are and what you are up to. If you do come, it will be a matter of public knowledge…”  Gigi & I assume that the message was meant for us – folks often lump sandhill & dancing rabbit people together and no one at DR is active in this group.
I am outraged and stew about it all day – I was born & raised Mennonite – this does not fit my idea of my heritage….
so what are they hiding and/or afraid of? what could we possibly do to them?
Later in the day, I mention the incident to Marty who mentions it to someone else….. then, Gigi gets a phone call from one of the organizers – saying that the phone call did not come from them (wonder who “them” is?) Then a phone call from Rick Fisher asking where is this meeting?? How did he know (we’d thought this was a private affair). Rick had been told that it was a dairy meeting and that he should check it out. Ok, if Rick is going to be there, it feels less threatening…. at the same time, this may be a bigger deal than we’d thought??

That last sentence was an understatement – it was a big deal. There were more than a hundred there: mostly Mennonite but there were quite a few others as well. Copies of the proposed ordinance were on the tables. The meeting began with a statement from Paul C about the proposed ordinance – general details only. Then followed a series of speakers from the industry: a local dairy producer, representatives from Cargil, nutrient management systems, etc. All of the presentations were anti-ordinance and anti regulation in general.
A major surprise for us: our group had assumed that the ordinance did not apply to the dairy operations; however, everyone there thought it did – gradually it sunk in for us: the way the ordinance was written, it could apply to them. Another realization: I had always separated the hog cafos from the dairies because, after all, cows go out to pasture, right? WRONG! Dairy producers there told me that the general practice is that only dry cows are out on pasture – and only for about 2 months of the year; other cows are in loafing sheds & lots – but not on pasture. Yikes!  it appears that the dairies are much more like cafos than I’d thought.

Back to the meeting – how to describe it? There was an energy build up that was anti-ordinance. Not a single positive aspect of regulation was mentioned – rather, we should just all be good neighbors. The speakers used classic scare tactics: “it starts here, then they go after this… and this… etc.” The feeling I get is that anyone advocating this ordinance must be animal rights advocates and anti-livestock (even though all of us there have livestock). The energy peaks with presiding commissioner, Mike Stephenson, apologizing to the group for his role in instituting the first ordinance and that he is against any new one – wild applause! That energy keeps going – there are “testimonials” – local producers lauding modern technology and how it helps them feed the world. It keeps going & going. At various times, one of us raises a question or expresses an alternative viewpoint, but the tide was swamps us. Finally, Garth points out that there is a general spirit of fear pervading the group – raised by outside industry folks; again, the energy swirls around his words and is ignored in the anti-regulation wave – it borders on hysteria.

We are devastated – we keep looking at each other like: we’re dead. period. How could this happen?
After the meeting ends, some of us stay on for another hour or so talking to various folks. Personally, I feel hesitant to go talk to people I’ve known for years – maybe they do not want to be associated with me? On the other hand, several come to me, introduce themselves, and we have friendly conversations that usually ended on a note of: yes, we all want to be good neighbors. Gigi is like a celebrity: she is surrounded by a circle of mostly young men with very spirited conversations.

NOW WHAT??? that’s how we go home. Can we salvage anything? Gigi & I take turns keeping a spark of hope alive.

Gigi had already scheduled a meeting of our group with the commissioners for 9 am on Thursday – the next morning. I am surprised to find 3 of the Mennonite producers there as well (I guess that’s fair: we went to their meeting, they come to ours..). We talk for about an hour and a half – mostly between the cafo folks and us – not the commissioners. A lot of good honest opinions and views are exchanged. Commissioner Paul finally tells us that we need to select several folks from each side and come up with a document that we can all support – because the commissioners will only pass a document that everyone supports.
That is how we left it: Garth is responsible for getting representatives from our group.

Energetically: I felt very discouraged after Wed night’s meeting. I noted that I feel more hopeful after Thursday morning.
However, it also seems that there is a power imbalance: we want an ordinance, they do not. We have to come to an agreement to forge a new ordinance: it seems that we will have to concede whatever they feel strongly about – otherwise, no agreement which means no ordinance.

The reason I am writing this – rather than Gigi: she is a little burned out on this now and is outside in the sunshine being physically active.

Note: the day after this post (yesterday), I posted another message – an invitation to the first monthly potluck/social evening for our anti-cafo group – to reinforce our positive energy!