Is it worth it?
The question hangs in the air at Peasants’ Plot farm, over high tunnels destroyed by the weather with plastic blowing in the wind and a trailer painted warm green and blue inside.
Julia and Todd McDonald have the conversation every week.
“The whole game of farming is a risk on many levels,” Julia said. “It’s sort of an experiment. We want to see if small, organic farmers can make a living.”
Right now they’re not.
After six years of farming 20 acres in a small town in Kankakee County, about an hour south of Chicago, with three at high production, they’re wondering if the ledger will ever get out of the red. Even with a booming community supported agriculture system in place that usually has about 250 customers, their costs keep exceeding their profits.
“Farming is a risky business,” said Chad Miller, manager at the Kankakee County Farm Bureau. “It’s a gamble every year.”
The risk comes from reliance on variables beyond the farmer’s control, Miller said. Weather destroyed two of Peasants’ Plot’s three high tunnels. And then there are the tractors that break at the worst moments. Or rain that ruins sales on market day. Or the seasonal hunt to find, screen, and train new workers.
Of the 818 farms in Kankakee County, nearly 30 percent reported net losses for the 2012 operating season, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Census data released in May.
Only 25 of those 818 farms were vegetable farmers. And for them, the risk is even higher.
Unlike corn, soybean and wheat farmers, there are no federal subsidies for vegetable farmers.
“You don’t get no help from the USDA as for funding,” said farmer Brent DeVries who tends 100 acres of vegetables and melons on DeVries Farms in a far corner of the county. He has another 600 acres devoted to grains.
And the USDA insurance program doesn’t offer the same sort of support for vegetable farmers that it does for grain farmers. In order to file a claim, fruit and vegetable farmers have to lose 50 percent of their crop. And even if they lost every single plant, the total reimbursement would only be 50 percent of the total estimated value of the lost crop.
On the contrary, grain farmers can take out insurance with coverage policies up to 80 or 90 percent, said Ed Brown, Kankakee County executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency.
Plus, farm equipment and infrastructure is expensive. Selling CSA shares covers the operational cost of growing vegetables, but leaves no extra capital to invest in equipment that would streamline the process and ultimately cut costs.
To overcome that barrier, Julia and Todd launched a crowdfunding campaign in March and raised over $16,000 for new infrastructure like a root washer and cold storage unit they hope will bring profitability. They’ve been able to rebuild one of the high tunnels, and hope to complete the other two in time for the 2015 growing season.
Despite the stress, they persist for one simple reason.
“Who else is going to do it?” Julia asked.
Taking Responsibility
A rising generation of farmers are answering that question by taking responsibility for food production.
“It’s risky but a fulfilling job,” said Donnie Benoit, chairman of the Kankakee County Farm Bureau’s Young Leaders.
And with 60 percent of farmers over the age of 55, according to U.S. Census Bureau Data, raising up young agribusiness leaders is crucial, Miller says. Especially in Kankakee County, where 80 percent of the land is farmed.
“There’s a youthful generation that want to get into this and don’t mind working for peanuts to do it,” said Harry Carr, farmer at Mint Creek Farm, an organic and sustainable farm in Stelle. “But it’s challenging to do that and be able to make it.”
Buying land and getting loans and a return on initial investment is difficult, James Theuri, an educator at the University of Illinois Extension explained.
That’s because farming is a capital-intensive venture, Brown said. The USDA offers higher-risk loans as alternatives for young farmers who can’t get money from banks.
“Funding institutions don’t have a whole lot of faith in new, beginning entrepreneurs,” Theuri said. “The risk is higher, you know?”
Julia and Todd do know. But every week their conversation comes back to the same conclusion.
“If we stick with it, we’re going to win,” Julia said resolutely. “We want to demonstrate the viability of new farmers in small organic growing.”