Start Your Farm: The Authoritative Guide to Becoming a Sustainable 21st-Century Farmer

Start Your Farm: The Authoritative Guide to Becoming a Sustainable 21st-Century Farmer PDF Author: Ellen Polishuk
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
ISBN: 1615195130
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
A totally modern, all-purpose handbook for today’s agricultural dreamers—covering the challenges and triumphs of launching any successful farm—from two leading lights in sustainable farming Do you dream of starting your own farm but wonder where to begin? Or do you already have a farm but wish to become more sustainable to compete in today’s market? Start Your Farm, the first comprehensive business guide of its kind, covers these essential questions and more: Why be a farmer in the 21st century? Do you have what it takes? What does sustainable really mean, and how can a small (as little as one acre) to midsize farm survive alongside commodity-scale agriculture? How do you access education, land, and other needs with limited capital? How can you reap an actual profit, including a return on land investment? How do you build connections with employees, colleagues, and customers? At the end of the day, how do you measure success? (Hint: Cash your lifestyle paycheck.) More than a practical guide, Start Your Farm is a hopeful call to action for anyone who aspires to grow wholesome, environmentally sustainable food for a living. Take it from Forrest Pritchard and Ellen Polishuk: Making this dream a reality is not for the faint of heart, but it’s well within reach—and there’s no greater satisfaction under the sun!

Start Your Farm: The Authoritative Guide to Becoming a Sustainable 21st-Century Farmer

Start Your Farm: The Authoritative Guide to Becoming a Sustainable 21st-Century Farmer PDF Author: Ellen Polishuk
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
ISBN: 1615195130
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Get Book Here

Book Description
A totally modern, all-purpose handbook for today’s agricultural dreamers—covering the challenges and triumphs of launching any successful farm—from two leading lights in sustainable farming Do you dream of starting your own farm but wonder where to begin? Or do you already have a farm but wish to become more sustainable to compete in today’s market? Start Your Farm, the first comprehensive business guide of its kind, covers these essential questions and more: Why be a farmer in the 21st century? Do you have what it takes? What does sustainable really mean, and how can a small (as little as one acre) to midsize farm survive alongside commodity-scale agriculture? How do you access education, land, and other needs with limited capital? How can you reap an actual profit, including a return on land investment? How do you build connections with employees, colleagues, and customers? At the end of the day, how do you measure success? (Hint: Cash your lifestyle paycheck.) More than a practical guide, Start Your Farm is a hopeful call to action for anyone who aspires to grow wholesome, environmentally sustainable food for a living. Take it from Forrest Pritchard and Ellen Polishuk: Making this dream a reality is not for the faint of heart, but it’s well within reach—and there’s no greater satisfaction under the sun!

Gaining Ground

Gaining Ground PDF Author: Forrest Pritchard
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762794380
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
With humor and pathos, Forrest Pritchard recounts his ambitious and often hilarious endeavors to save his family’s seventh-generation farm in the Shenandoah Valley. Through many a trial and error, he not only saves Smith Meadows from insolvency but turns it into a leading light in the sustainable, grass-fed, organic farm-to-market community. There is nothing young Farmer Pritchard won’t try. Whether he’s selling firewood and straw, raising free-range chickens and hogs, or acquiring a flock of Barbados Blackbelly sheep, his learning curve is steep and always entertaining. Pritchard’s world crackles with colorful local characters—farm hands, butchers, market managers, customers, fellow vendors, pet goats, policemen—bringing the story to warm, communal life. His most important ally, however, is his renegade father, who initially questions his son's career choice and eschews organic foods for the generic kinds that wreak havoc on his health. Soon after his father’s death, the farm becomes a recognized success and Pritchard must make a vital decision: to continue serving the local community or answer the exploding demand for his wares with lucrative Internet sales and shipping deals. More than a charming story of honest food cultivation and farmers’ markets, Gaining Ground tugs on the heartstrings, reconnecting us to the land and the many lives that feed us.

Making Your Small Farm Profitable

Making Your Small Farm Profitable PDF Author: Ron Macher
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1603425357
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Turn your farm into a cash cow! Ron Macher offers a host of simple strategies for increasing your farm earnings, from purchasing durable equipment to growing economically viable crops. A seasoned expert in farm efficiency, Macher shows you how to locate a lucrative niche market for your products, optimize sales, and minimize costs. Whether you’re buying a new farm or jump-starting an old one, Macher’s savvy tips will help you turn your enterprise into a profitable business.

Starting & Running Your Own Small Farm Business

Starting & Running Your Own Small Farm Business PDF Author: Sarah Beth Aubrey
Publisher: Storey Publishing
ISBN: 1580176976
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Running your own small farm is demanding enough, but making it profitable presents a host of further challenges. In this business-savvy guide to farming on a small scale, Sarah Aubrey covers everything from financial plans and advertising budgets to web design and food service wholesalers. Learn how to isolate your target audience and craft artisanal products that will delight and amaze customers. With a solid business strategy in place, you can confidently turn your passion into a productive and profitable venture.

The Profitable Hobby Farm, How to Build a Sustainable Local Foods Business

The Profitable Hobby Farm, How to Build a Sustainable Local Foods Business PDF Author: Sarah Beth Aubrey
Publisher: *Howell Book House
ISBN: 0470595329
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Turn your hobby farm into a successful business No experience in farming? No problem! The Profitable Hobby Farm gives you all the tools you need to launch a thriving hobby farm business. Based on the author's expert guidance and the motivating experiences of other small farmers, it shows you how to blend strategy, marketing, and money management in order to prosper. The Profitable Hobby Farm provides sound, friendly start-up advice on a variety of topics essential to making an initial foray into a local foods venture. A must-read book for raising and selling local, sustainable foods Includes sample business plan, grant application, marketing and advertising plan, and other forms Lengthy resources section directs you to additional reading Also by Aubrey: Starting & Running Your Own Small Farm BusinessWhether it's growing heirloom tomatoes, raising free-range chickens for their eggs, or making organic wine or cheese, this book shows you how to turn your hobby into a profit.

Building a Sustainable Business

Building a Sustainable Business PDF Author:
Publisher: Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
"Brings the business planning process alive to help today's agriculture entrepreneurs transform farm-grown inspiration into profitable enterprises. Sample worksheets illustrate how real farm families set goals, research processing alternatives, determine potential markets, and evaluate financing options. Blank worksheets offer readers the opportunity to develop their own detailed, lender-ready business plan and map out strategies" --back cover.

Compact Farms

Compact Farms PDF Author: Josh Volk
Publisher: Storey Publishing
ISBN: 1612125948
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Small is beautiful, and these 15 real farm plans show that small-scale farmers can have big-time success. Compact Farms is an illustrated guide for anyone dreaming of starting, expanding, or perfecting a profitable farming enterprise on five acres or less. The farm plans explain how to harness an area’s water supply, orientation, and geography in order to maximize efficiency and productivity while minimizing effort. Profiles of well-known farmers such as Eliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier show that farming on a small scale in any region, in both urban and rural settings, can provide enough income to turn the endeavor from hobby to career. These real-life plans and down-and-dirty advice will equip you with everything you need to actually realize your farm dreams.

The Permaculture Handbook

The Permaculture Handbook PDF Author: Peter Bane
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 0865716668
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
A step-by-step guide to creating resilient and prosperous households introduces permaculture as a practical way to live well with less money, convert waste into wealth, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Sustainable Intensification

Sustainable Intensification PDF Author: Jules N. Pretty
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136529276
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.

The Essentials of Economic Sustainability

The Essentials of Economic Sustainability PDF Author: John E. Ikerd
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565495159
Category : Economic development
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The recent global financial crisis has raised widespread concern for the sustainability of the global economy. Much has been written concerning the negative impacts of economic development on natural ecosystems and civil societies. Unfortunately, few viable alternatives to the prevailing economic paradigms have been suggested for consideration. Those that have been are typically little more than suggestions for fine tuning capitalist or socialist economies. In his new book, John Ikerd addresses the basic principles and concepts essential to economic sustainability. Some of these concepts are capitalist, some are socialistic, and others are general principles validated by philosophy or common sense. What results is a synthesis: something that is neither capitalist nor socialist but fundamentally different; it is sustainable. A special emphasis is placed on the essential, but limited, role of markets in economic sustainability, including the constraints that must be placed on markets to protect nature and society from economic exploitation. Readers of any political and ideological persuasion will find this brief book engaging, informative, optimistic and refreshing. Instead of threats and apocalyptic pronouncements, Ikerd offers possibilities and assurance. Instead of epithets hurled at opponents, Ikerd offers possibilities for reconciliation and a renewed sense of the need to work cooperatively to find solutions to the most urgent problems of our era. The Essentials of Economic Sustainability was written without references or examples to encourage readers to collaborate in the learning process by finding references and examples most appropriate to their particular situation or circumstances. References and examples relevant to the economic and political system of the United States can be found in Sustainable Capitalism, a Kumarian Press book by the same author.