Young Farmers & DIY Crafters

What do the eager, fresh faced young farmers of today have in common with the clever artists of the DIY craft movement? Everything. 

I've been ruminating on this topic for the past few weeks, spurred by my enrollment in the pasture-based dairy and livestock business planning class and an overdose of DIY holiday arts and crafts. Somehow, from the outside, the idea of being a farmer or crafter is very appealing, and attracts a certain type of person (myself included, on both fronts) - but doesn't always live up to the expectations when you cut to the nitty-gritty of running a small business.

I began noticing the similarities after Thanksgiving, when we headed to Milwaukee for the annual Art vs Craft extravaganza. This craft show is hailed as the end all be all of craft fairs and holiday gift hot spots for people who appreciate local, handmade, crafty home wares, jewelry, posters and letterpress stationery...you get the picture. Housed in a humdrum, beige conference-center-like space at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, this event was teeming with your trusty craftacular favorites: woodcut prints of vegetables, letterpress stationery, scrap fabric goodness, jewelry made from typewriter keys, clever handscreened t-shirts, and much much more. Tables and tables full of unique displays, one-of-a-kind handcrafted projects and eager artisans promoting, selling, hawking and highlighting their wares. There is sometimes a certain desperation. I've made all this pretty stuff. I know you like it. Please like it enough to buy it.

This was no small event either. It was just us and over 3,300 other lovers of crafty goodness who visited this one day craft fair. How's that for a big show of support for small, local artisans? And this is not only a Milwaukee phenomenon, there is a surge of crafty love across the country. There's the Renegade Craft Fair in various locations, Crafty Wonderland in Portland, and the vast internet craft fair on Etsy...just to name a very small sliver of the action. Professional crafters and their DIY counterparts alike (kind of like farmers and their corresponding home-gardeners) are a culture all their own.  

Perusing the tables and tables of inspired crafts, I felt an enormous parallel between these homespun crafters and the wave of new and young farmers taking over the nation. A growing movement of young, motivated, creative, idealistic folks desiring to create their own path in life. And to meet them, a paying consumer base making deliberate purchasing decisions to support the small, the local and the handmade. Sounds like the enormous, and still growing, support for small, local farmers, no? 

Maybe you are catching my drift here. Without referencing the 2007 Census of Ag or the 2010 Census of Craftiness (which I just made up), there has been a growth in both of these industries in the past handful of years.

The parallels between the craft and young farmer populations are significant. These are groups of younger folks drawn to a self-designed lifestyle cultivating seeds and soil or thread and needle into a fulfilling meaning for each twenty four hour day. Energetic self-starters (I hate that term) desiring to engage with the world on their own terms, motivated to carve a niche outside of the existing system. No daily desk routine, no working for someone else, a willingness to live without a steady paycheck and with a certain uncertainty. All with a vision of molding natural resources and personal skills into a sustaining income stream, and with a life-encompassing passion. Read more from last week's NPR piece on attendees at the Stone Barns Center's Young Farmers Conference for an accurate picture on the farmer side. Sure, these are generalizations, but I can say this because I've been there, and I want to be there again - this time on the farm, not in the studio.

From the outside, the lifestyle of the professional crafter and farmer seem appealing - somehow simple and idealistic. You are your own boss, your life is in your hands, it's all about the art of growing or making and you dedicate your time to being lost in your art. Mornings in a heavy flannel shirt, coffee in hand, soaking in the panorama of the fields. Mornings straight to the studio, coffee in hand, to immerse yourself in the creative process. Yes, both are wonderfully sumptuous visions - and also rarely true. 

This is because the truth behind both of these endeavors is that they are small businesses. And the bottom line about a small business is that it has a bottom line. And for the individual who wants to be the solo-act in a small crafty or farm-based business that means being a jack-of-all-trades and dedicating a significant amount of time to actually running the business. There is little to find creative or pleasing in administer the sinister and often forgotten aspects of running a business, like dealing with credit card processing companies, keeping the books, paying taxes, advertising and promotion, insurance, food safety regulations (well, that one's not pertinent to crafters), permits and on and on and on. It can quite quickly put you back behind a desk and away from the things you truly love.

And that seems to be the biggest piece that new farmers miss, and maybe crafters too. The big difference between these two parties is that farming (depending on how you do it) requires a hefty up front investment in either land, equipment or operating costs and it takes a bit longer to raise a pig and get it to market than it does to make an adorable note card on a vintage letterpress and sell it on Etsy. Many going into this field ignore, forget or are oblivious to the fact that farming is more than a lifestyle, it's a business. And a business, especially one as complex as a farm, requires lots and lots and lots of planning. The USDA is throwing money at agencies and non-profits to provide business planning classes for new and young farmers. The classes, which are wide spread and easily accessible in person or online are a wonderful resource, but ultimately only effective if students actually write a business plan...which requires research, sitting behind a desk, running lost of numbers, playing with Excel and feeling a bit disheartened to see a bottom line that is not profitable, at least for a while. But that's what the planning is for. Planning is not sexy, it's not the same as being in the fields, planting tender transplants, creating new designs or perfecting your craft - but it's important. Very, very important.

So here's a toast to the new farmers and crafters that are creating local economies and personal economic opportunities. Thanks for being brave enough to go it alone and create beauty and tastiness and self-fulfillment. Just don't forget about the less-palatable stuff along the way.

On our end, we're preparing as much as possible for our venture-to-be. Business planning, time working for other people, being smart about investments, networking, conferencing and researching - a lot. It's hard to balance the impatience of wanting to farm now, especially during these winter months away from Dreamfarm, and finding a contentedness in where I am now. I guess patience, and planning, are key!