Farmers' Retirement Plan
Thinking about farm succession . . .

Who will be farming here after we are gone?

Slowing down is part of growing older. While many farming operations can be cut back to some degree, there comes a point where any further cut backs result in a quantum reduction in farm viability. Thus many farmers reach the point where they either force themselves to keep going full tilt until they drop, or give up and stop farming altogether.

The preferred choice, however, is to do neither, but to slowly shift the work onto a new farming generation who are gradually learning the ropes from the old farmers, and who will continue the old farm while weaving in their own personalities and preferences.

On an intergenerational family farm, this preferred choice is the norm. However, a plan which doesn't use family ties is called for on farms without farming offspring. This includes both farms without offspring and farms whose offspring have chosen not to carry on the farm.

There is a bit of folk wisdom that says the desire to farm skips a generation. This means that children of a farming family often do not want to farm. The glamour of the outside world with its many opportunities call them away from the family farm. On the other hand, children who have grown up amidst the glitz and alienation rampant in the world of selling your labor for cash are prime candidates for a wanting to live a more authentic way of life. Therefore we who live such lives are not only models for their dreams, but can be magnets for their lives, if only we had a plan to integrate them into our farms.

As small organic farmers, we have created a way of life where many of the barriers to finding people to carry on simply disappear. We are not a vegetable factory cranking out tons of chemically dependent, genetically modified produce from depleted soil while contaminating the surrounding environment and relying on giant corporations for both inputs and markets. Yet this is the "normal" type of farm in America today, and it is why so many "traditional" farm pundits bemoan the fact that almost no one wants to start farming anymore. What we have created is our own personal brand of the ideal life with a work/leisure blend of activity. We love what we do and how we live—regardless of the fact that the mainstream false economy fails to see we are well paid for what we do. And it is precisely this way of life which does attract the young "unspoiled" idealist who would be a farmer. In fact, we need to be careful about choosing the right people for grooming our replacements. We are not looking for exact duplicates of ourselves, but we do want to find folks who appreciate what we are doing and want to do it, too.

A true apprenticeship program is needed. One in which the apprentice at first serves primarily as farm labor and over the years gradually adopts more management responsibilities. Eventually this develops into a middle phase of a partnership between apprentice and mentor, where the farm is operated on a consensual basis. Later develops the final phase where the former apprentice is now running the farm and the old farmers continue to be available for light labor and know-how.

Relieved of the major management decisions of the farm, the old farmers can now enjoy the rewards of the operating farm they created without the requirement to operate it themselves. They can putter on the farm and maybe travel to exotic places.

The entire process might take five to ten years and can be adjusted for differences in personalities, abilities, and needs to transfer farm management.

At several points in this multi-year program, there needs to be points at which either party can opt out, for whatever reason. Thus there is a possibility of several "false starts", although the likelihood of either a mentor or apprentice calling it quits is greater in the beginning than it is later.

Not every apprentice who starts the program will finish it, for a variety of reasons. Apprentices might begin the program while other apprentices are in an advanced stage. It is as though your apprentice had an apprentice, too. Variations on this plan are endless, and will ultimately be designed to suit the needs of the farm.

The number of people required to operate this farm is at least two, and preferably three or four, mostly during the May thru November season at the present time with our current set-up.

During the apprenticeship stage, the apprentices will be these third and fourth people, but later in the post-apprenticeship period when the old farmers wish to do less on the farm, or have passed on, a new pool of apprentices will probably have to be considered.