“It all starts with the soil.” That’s a mantra new farmers often hear, and for good reason. No soil, no crops. It might also explain agriculture’s obsession with land. One of the main operating principles of SPIN-Farming is to reduce the amount of it needed for commercial crop production.
Limiting a farm’s growing space creates advantages. Adaptability is a farmer’s most valuable asset. What that means in practice is to always be ready and able to change, to follow the money. Large scale growers on thousands of acres can’t deviate from set plans because they have too much effort and money invested in them. Family farmers with hundreds of acres are used to following patterns based on long-term trends and continue to struggle to find a business model that works financially.
SPIN farmers working about 40,000 sq. ft. (an acre), or less, can quickly deal with changing circumstances like unusual weather events and new sales opportunities. They are constantly on the lookout for new market niches and change up their growing plans to cater to them, sometimes in a matter of weeks. They can make the small, ad hoc plantings to fill in supply gaps that larger growers don’t have the time or to do. They can also experiment with novel or exotic crops that aren’t worth it for large farmers to grow.
Urban space is at a premium, and that imposes discipline on a farmer in figuring out the least amount of land they need to generate their desired level of income. Instead of vast open fields, small plots here and there are perfect, especially for beginners who lack experience and resources. Once growing space is measured in square feet rather than acres, cities offer land options, both publicly and privately owned, for farm startup.
When finding land is not all-consuming, a farmer can devote their energy to more immediate pay-offs, like getting operational and cash flowing. That’s when cities’ unique resources become apparent. First is infrastructure.
Buildings are already in place. These are investments farmers don’t have to make. Garages or old warehouses can be used for processing and storage. The heat island effect is a natural, and free, season extender. Municipally-owned systems are a safe, reliable and affordable water source. There are also abundant sources of supply for gear and equipment, some of which can be salvaged at no cost or repurposed. Irrigation can be created with hoses, manifolds and valves from garden supply or hardware stores. Refrigeration capacity can be borrowed or built for a few thousand dollars, or even less. Roads and highly trafficked shopping areas provide a wide variety of distribution points and gathering places that are ready-made sales channels that connect farmers to their most important resource of all. Eaters.
“Without people you don’t have anything.” That in a nutshell describes the importance of markets. The more people there are, the more opportunities there are to find enough of them to support a business. In cities there are a lot of people, all of them spending money to eat. It’s a farmer’s task to figure out how they fit into that flow of money and redirect some of it their way. They have lots of easy-to-identify groups they can cater to that can provide an initial base of support in a farm’s first few years. That means not having to deplete savings to run the operation. They can continue learning on a basic level without being afraid of running out of financial resources. This buys them time to figure out how to establish their business and reach a sustainable level of revenue. They can then use the business to pay for expansion if that is the goal.
It’s a given that an urban-based farm may be temporary. This is risk management for a new farmer. They do not over-invest in gear or equipment or permanent structures. This minimizes pressure so they can get to know themselves as growers and entrepreneurs. Their misjudgments and mistakes do not have crushing consequences. It’s easier to overcome setbacks. As their skills and customer base increase, they can expand with additional plots, knowing how best to match their farm’s size to their abilities, budget and ambitions.
For cities, a farmer can be an interim developer, maintaining vacant land and making it productive in the short term. When circumstances change, farmers can receive a small percent of their plot’s value when it is sold to cover re-location costs. This helps them to move on to a larger or more permanent site.
It has long been thought that land is a farmer’s most important asset. But farming is .also a service business, and that is why cities are such fertile ground. Urban man-made environments are designed to provide needed products and services to a large number of people. Their infrastructure and density of population are much more vital to a new bootstrapping farmer than land is. “It starts with the soil” is still a good mantra. But there is another one that is worth remembering. “Without people you don’t have anything.” No people, no business.
For farmers, man-made resources are as vital as natural ones
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