I selected Liz as my Stakeholder because she is a new farmer with an eco-conscious, sustainable mindset that uses horizontal relationships with customers and other farmers to sell and trade her products (Chase & Grubinger, 2014, p. 61), working on becoming a full-time farmer whose primary source of income and food security will come from the farm. Having the dream to one day become a small-scale sustainable farmer myself with no goals of selling more than I need to break even, choosing instead to farm for self-reliance, Liz was a natural choice to interview.
I created a list of twelve formal questions with multiple parts but used them mostly as a guide during our 2-hour long video chat. The conversation was very natural and evolved on its own to cover my questions. I sent her the questions ahead of time so she could prepare, but it ended up just being a friendly conversation about her, her life, and farming, which I really enjoyed.
My first question asked about the history of the farm and her background with regards to farming. With Liz being a new farmer, having just started Fox Run within the last two years, I felt it was important to find out how she ended up deciding to become a farmer full-time. Liz explained that she’d developed a passion for living off the land at a very young age so it was natural for her to transition from city life in California to rural East Texas, and that in doing so, it ignited her passion for becoming completely self-reliant. Her family has a history of urban homestead farming, “instilling the pioneer spirit” in her while living in California. Her dad has also become a new farmer, taking over operations of a mid-sized cattle ranch that is quickly expanding, and teaching her how to manage cattle in addition to her schooling.
I had to ask what made her decide to farm and what were her goals. She explained that, once she was on her own as an adult, farming became her means of healing. Starting Fox Run enabled her to apply the visions in her head into practical reality, deviating from traditional farming methods in her own way, and developing her own individual sense of purpose through farming. Though she still works as a nurse as a source of income while she builds up the farm (which Chase and Grubinger (2014) mention as common among new farmers), she spoke a lot about the differences between working with people and animals, mostly about how working with people can be draining, while working the farm gives her a real sense of purpose in the world. Chase and Grubinger talk about new farmers “simply start growing crops or raising animals and let their markets evolve (p.206).” This is basically what Liz is doing. Though she wants to keep it small and self-sufficient, primarily as a source of food for herself, she is also still navigating the marketing of her goods and services, figuring out what sells, to whom it sells, and what doesn’t. I asked if she ever plans to become certified organic, which she said wasn’t one of her goals, since she doesn’t plan to sell to the public. She also said that she doesn’t ever plan to try to compete with Big Ag because her focus is primarily on being self-sustaining and trying to compete with Big Ag would force her to deviate from her vision of the farm.
We talked about some of the challenges and rewards about working the farm, as well as discussing the practical matters involved and how that has affected her vision. She spoke about how bookkeeping and time management are some of her biggest struggles but that being able to create her own little slice of paradise in the middle of nowhere has really impacted her overall well-being. Between all of her obligations, I wondered where she found the time to manage everything. She joked that she doesn’t date or watch TV anymore, “So I have a lot of free time.” She also spoke about how having a strict routine has been critical. Liz said that she can just zone out and think about her classwork while performing her tasks from muscle memory.
I asked for the current head count of her animals and her plans for expansion, if she even had any. Right now, she has 4 beef cattle calves, 20 goats (with 4 of them pregnant), 46 chickens, 7 geese, a dozen ducks, a dozen guinea fowl, “and two squirrels that keep coming around to rob the chicken feeder.” She also has two dogs (Deeks and Katie), two housecats (Mischa and Purrcival), and her bottle baby, a Nigerian Dwarf goat named Navi. She surprised me by telling me that expansion is actually not one of her goals, and that she’s actively looking to reduce her head count to better afford her more time to devote to the restoration of the land and effectiveness as a farmer. I was curious how she manages so many animals and found out that most of her animals are completely free range. She’s trained the chickens to roost at night, the guinea fowl hang out in the trees or go into the coop when the weather is bad, and there are dog kennels out for the geese and ducks. But by and large, except for the property fences, her animals just go wherever they want. This could potentially cause a problem as she lives near a waterway, and her animals all have free access to it. The possibility that there could be too much animal waste and fertilizer in the water, creating threats to marine wildlife and even her own fowl (pp. 92-93) is a definite issue. We didn’t discuss this in this conversation, but I think that if the waterway started to be affected, it would affect her own flocks, and Liz would be the first one to put up fencing to keep the animals out, alleviating at least some of the problem. She’s already mentioned to me that she’s hyper-aware of the impact on the waterway, so at least she’s keeping an eye on it.
Then we talked about the agriculture, both her animal agriculture business and her utilization of native vegetation. It turns out that her biggest challenge with animal agriculture on such a small scale was deciding not to sell food products to the public at large. She went into great detail about the high cost of processing and selling animal products but has enough of a close relationship with a few customers that she’s been able to exploit some loopholes to sell them processed meat and dairy. Most of her farm customers are either new farmers themselves, or seasoned homesteaders who invest in the farm for mutual gain (as in the case of one customer who gave her two free goats, intending that, when one came of age, she would slaughter and process it for them). “Social capital goes a long way,” she said to me. Her biggest moneymaker is selling livestock outright, which was also a surprise. When she was unemployed in the spring, she said she made enough by selling the animals to keep her farm afloat for a little while. Coupled with the money she makes selling her quilts and soap, she was able to break even until she could find new employment. When it comes to the use of natural vegetation, she went on a rant about pesticides in your food and commented that she doesn’t need to go to the store when she has violet greens and curly dock in her backyard for a salad. I asked her how that started, and she commented that she turned to foraging as a way to stay off of social media and overstimulation. It has become one of her favorite tasks, saying, “What can I say, picking flowers makes me happy.”
She discussed plans to install a vegetable garden in Spring to lessen her personal food costs, so that more money can be diverted back into the farm, but says the hardest part is setting up the fencing to keep the goats out. She currently grows brassicas (mostly turnips and mustard greens) and clover with the native grass that the cows pasture on, using a homemade fertilizer pellet invented by her grandfather, and other native vegetation as a way to fertilize the ground without contaminating the nearby waterway, but doesn’t plan to grow crops specifically for the animals beyond what she already has growing and will plant for herself. To her, this is a waste of natural resources to farm crops over existing edible vegetation. She also went into great detail about her plans to acquire a better vehicle to help her handle the intense demands of farming in a rural area.
That led to a discussion on her non-food items. She talked about how she was inspired to create the deliciously moisturizing goat milk soap working as a nurse. Sadly, they are her lowest sellers, but her beautiful, heirloom quality quilts (which she has been making for almost 20 years now), usually made from thrifted or scrap fabric, are her biggest sellers, and almost all done by commission. She talked about how marketing has been a huge challenge for her, mainly because of time constraints, so much of her sales have been by word of mouth. She knows she’ll have to expand on that and plans to start selling at farmer’s markets in the future, as well as online, but right now, her current methods of sale are paying the bills while she focuses on other aspects of her life, so she’s in no rush.
For my last question, I had to cover the tech arena. For a 21st century farm, Liz likes running it the old-fashioned way, using electrified fencing, incubators, and heat lamps, but preferring to be as low tech as possible. She still vaccinates her animals and utilizes antibiotics when the goats injure themselves. But she spent a good while explaining to me the various herbal remedies that you can use for minor problems.
In our almost 2-hour long conversation, I learned a lot more about Liz, about small scale farming and homesteading, holistic remedies for everything from acne and psoriasis to poor blood circulation, intestinal parasites, and mild infections, and especially about goats. Liz discussed many of the challenges listed in our textbook’s chapter on new farmers, having inherited the land, but also being a first-generation farmer who is still learning the ropes. She has worked out some mutually beneficial horizontal relationships with other farmers and is trying to find a niche for her commodities for the larger market. Right now, though, the sense of pride she has in her farm, and the complete transparency she has with her customers is enough to keep the farm breaking even, which she considers a success.
References
Chase, L., & Grubinger, V. (2014). Food, Farms, and Community: Exploring Food Systems. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England.
Spiva, E. M. (2020, 11 22). Owner of Fox Run Farmstead. (K. J. Kagan, Interviewer)
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Grade: 96/100
Comments:
Me (to the professor) - Had a hard time chopping this down to 3 pages. Sorry it's late. I had two finals yesterday and hadn't slept.
Professor (to me) - Yes, synthesis can be quite challenging! But such a wonderful skill to possess (and practice). As ever, a few comments on the rubric.
Rubric:
Page Count: 5/5 - (no comments)
Interview Questions: 20/20 - Almost always best to let conversations (especially interviews) 'evolve' naturally. Reading this, it sounds like you guys had a wonderful conversation & covered a lot of ground.
Introduction: 15/15 - (no comments)
What did you learn?: 20/20 - (no comments)
Sustainability Issues: 26/30 - Certainly not a superficial discussion! However, a few more connections to course materials would have strengthened this. You guys touched on so many of the topics that we have covered in class!
Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation: 5/5 - (no comments)
APA Citations: 5/5 - (no comments)
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