What was world-changing last year will continue to dominate this one. AI. It’s everywhere, all the time, and it’s creating new customers for SPIN farmers. Because the more people swarm to use it, the more weight it gives to what can’t be AI-generated. Like wandering through a bustling farmer’s market on a Saturday morning, pumpkin spice oat latte in hand, and picking out the one Sucrine du Berry squash that speaks to you.
People are on the hunt for more than heirloom vegetables though. They’re after proof that, in a world where events are pushing society backwards and technology races ahead, people from all walks of life can still come together and find pleasure in doing the same thing. Amid all the market’s freshness, the main products are good will and human connection.
What’s ironic about living in an AI-steeped culture is the extraordinary effort it now takes to achieve things that were once straightforward. Feeding people has become a complicated and contentious “food system.” Ask AI what the controversy is and here’s a reply:
The controversy surrounding the food system involves several major issues: its environmental impact, such as pollution, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions; its role in public health crises like obesity and chronic diseases due to overconsumption of ultra-processed foods; social and economic problems like the decline of small farms, concentrated corporate power, and inequitable access to healthy food; and a lack of food sovereignty, animal welfare concerns, and complex debates over agricultural policy and GMO labeling. These issues are interconnected, creating a complex web of challenges that require systemic changes to address.
That’s a lot to chew on. Figuring out how to create systemic change can get pretty abstract. On the day we enlisted AI for suggestions it gave a neat 5 point summary:
Social movements and activism
> Cultural shifts and media influence
> Education and learning
> Political and legal reforms
> Economic factors
This pretty much sums up everything that has been happening on the farming scene since SPIN-Farming started 25 years ago. Against this backdrop, we’ve focused on how to take practical actions with concrete results, like this: setting a revenue target of $10k gross on 5,000 sq. ft.
Numbers have a way of making the abstract real. For SPIN farmers that means using them to work with, around and in spite of the system, whatever stage of change it’s at. The numbers we’ve been able to prove out have become benchmarks. They’re either encouraging or a total turn-off, but it gives new farmers a realistic reference point for how much money they can expect to make. More importantly, benchmarks provide a mindset and method for figuring out how much more money can be made.
The more farmers who are focused on improving the business of farming, the more ways they will actually find. The most fertile ground for doing that is where the largest and most lucrative markets are - in and near urban areas. That’s where SPIN-Farming has most often been applied and where change has been happening slowly but surely. The 3 useful developments we have seen over the years:
> Significant and growing demand for local food, which according to AI is now sized at $9 billion
> Rebuilding supply chains that connect small-scale farmers to institutional buyers like schools, prisons, hospitals and universities; restaurants, food processors and retailers; non-profit service agencies and food banks
> Re-directing some municipal food procurement to local producers
Whatever momentum we now have has taken decades to build. In the words of AI, changing a society’s value system is “a complex and multifaceted process.” We’d add that it is never-ending. If you ask us, the simplest way to feed people works like this: the costs to grow food are paid directly by the farmer who grows it and the consumers who eat it. Policy debates, subsidies, labels and intellectual wordiness are replaced by two words. “Trust me.”
What we’ve observed working with farmers for over a quarter century is that there is no one-time fix. Progress does not happen by fiat. It’s a process involving thousands of new farmers, each pursuing their individual interests. It only happens by open mindedness, continual trial and error and tradeoffs. What we tell them is to start wherever you are, use what you have and do what you can. Part-time or full-time. Seasonal, or year-round. On plots measuring 1,000 sq. ft., borrowed or owned.
While many continue the hard work of systemic change, we bring it back to more mundane questions, like size of growing space, land base allocation, revenue target, number of marketing weeks, weekly cashflow, number of units and sales channels. Because one of the ways to make farming do-able for more people is to figure out how to make it pay.
LEARN HOW TO MAKE FARMING PAY HERE.