An Interview With Sean Freedman
Demonstrate your passion with collaboration: Your fervor, stamina, and passion are in themselves a form of credibility within your community. Farming is a communal business. Their communities are composed of well-meaning and generous people. Therefore, every farmer thrives, so long as the community thrives. With that in mind, always remember to demonstrate your passion for farming to your community. The most successful farmers are passionate collaborators.
Modern farming is actually very different from common conceptions. Farming today is dramatically different from the farming done a few decades ago. In this interview series called The Future Of Modern American Farming, we are exploring the modern technological changes that American farms have been making. We are also exploring how farmers are adjusting to the supply chain challenges, the challenges of climate change, and the challenges of sustainable farming.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Brad Biren, Esq., LL.M., LEED AP.
Brad Biren, Esq., LL.M, LEED AP provides legal, taxational, estate planning, and business & land-use consulting to his community in Central Iowa. He lives in Des Moines, location of the World Food Prize, also known as the Nobel Prize in Agriculture, operated within LEED Certified platinum building. Brad is a trained landscape architect, plant scientist, and operates a demonstration farm on his land to provide insights to members of the community and to provide fresh food for his family and neighbors. His favorite area of agricultural research, quantum biology, looks to answer how plants and animals utilize quantum physics to optimize their internal systems.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Farming, agriculture, and the life sciences are a robust field with many opportunities. I am an attorney by trade that offers business and land-use consulting, tax, and estate planning. Every farmer wants to optimize their profit margins, tax liability, and identify how to protect their land. I am also a small-operation farmer. This may sound like a strange combination, but I remind you of many historical American figures that were both farmers and attorneys. For reference, look at the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Half of those people were in the legal field, and all were, in some way, farmers. Farming and the legal profession complement one another well both professionally and personally.
It is important to know that the agriculture sector is enormous and after human medicine, is the second largest component of the life sciences industry. Life sciences is generally referred to as biology and its related interactions with the other discreet sciences. Agriculture is the part of life sciences that focuses on food production. Agricola(ae) means farmer in Latin. Most people fully embrace the panoply of agricultural systems from hydroponics, aeroponics, and in vitro fertilization of cattle as a part of the definition of agriculture — although a few decades ago those ideas were all considered fringe. The difficult idea to embrace is that farming’s amorphous breadth and depth of opportunity for engagement allows for it to include nearly every discipline — including quantum biology, consulting, the law, and land-use planning.
I attended Cornell University and initially majored in landscape architecture. Then, I took on another major — plant sciences. Next, I focused my specializations within both majors on sustainability with a focus on ecological restoration and high-performance design. Also known as LEED design, high performance design refers to long-lasting, efficient, and ecologically restorative construction practices. My specialty within that specialty was green roof design. Through various scholarships and sponsors, I was able to travel to places like Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and throughout the United States to then study and analyze vegetated roofs.
The goal of my undergraduate research was to prove that it is more profitable to leave land partially intact, versus developing it all and starting from nothing. My research was able to prove that with just some simple arithmetic — which made the topic annoyingly simplistic at first. For example, a large, specimen quality oak tree typically costs about $10–15,000 to take down and haul away and then an extra $500 to replant a similar tree in its place. If instead, the developer kept the original, mature tree intact, the property had a valuation that was on average 20% higher than similarly situated new construction. That research was fascinating to conduct — let us be honest, I was yet to turn 22, and traveling to far flung places meeting fascinating people and visiting incredible locations.
The true joy of my research was being able to mathematically quantify the value of a tree as a function of distance from an urban center. In short, a tree growing in Brooklyn, is worth much more than a tree growing in the Poconos. The same exact tree. The axiom — location, location, location — was certainly true. It appeared that location had an extreme effect on the value of a tree and by extension the land it was growing. That seemed puzzling to me as a scientist, but as a human, it made sense. To prove the point, I recommend readers look up the value to ensure their mature, specimen quality trees. Be prepared for sticker shock.
During my senior year in college, the then Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department, Prof. Peter Trowbridge, had asked me to “audit” the vegetated roofs installed on the new dormitories on “the Slope.” Prof. Trowbridge is an award-winning landscape architect and was also one of my advisors for my undergraduate research thesis. My research focused on leveraging free ecological services to maximize profit within the context of land-use and development. He wanted to know why the vegetated roofs were failing.
Broadly speaking, the vegetated roofs covered many acres in their totality. Vegetated roofs can be so large that they are bigger than some suburban family farms. For example, the Ford Rouge River Facility has several vegetated roofs, with one measuring 10.4 acres. Vegetated roofs have limited water, are exposed to high wind, and must not leak, all the while growing the plant varieties you desire. The parallels between a farm and a vegetated roof are manifold.
My professor wanted me to figure out why a veritable farm in the sky had partially failed. There were two big issues: 1.) why were there so many leaks; and 2.) why were none of the grass species growing? Both would require costly repairs, but first all parties wanted to know what had gone awry. I spent several weeks auditing the installation process, the plant species, the soil makeup, and plant pathology. During the analysis, I was able to identify two simple solutions that solved both issues and then some. First, I recommended that the contractors to not wear cleats or leave loose nails and screws on the unprotected roof membranes. Second, I recommended that the contractors and nursery personnel remove as much of the greenhouse soil prior to planting all the way up on the roof.
Gypsy moth larvae were eating the roots and rhizomes of the grasses planted there. The larva were not present in the soil samples from the original grass plugs. Rather, the succulent plants that were later planted next to the grasses, were grown in soil that was ideal for incubating gypsy moth larvae. Once the two collections of plants were planted in a common area, the larvae destroyed the juvenile grasses. Removing the excess soil on all plants also had the added benefit of increasing the speed of repair, due to decreased crane operations.
That type of problem solving, and land-use optimization led to my first job out of college with an engineering consulting firm. Before I even began work for the consultancy though, I had the incredible experience of visiting Petra in Jordan. It was there that I suddenly understood how much broader my sources of inspiration and innovation would need to be in order to advance. Petra is home to the famous Nabothian trade metropolis whose entrance is immortalized on celluloid thanks to Indiana Jones. As you approach the Treasury, you must walk through a narrow pathway abutted by two red hued sandstone cliff faces. Yet on one side of the path, there was a peculiar indentation that ran along the entire path. When you put your hand in it, it felt like a channel or a gutter, it was not level, but rather maintained the exact same pitch for over a mile. That is precision engineering older than Kleopatra. Those gutters originally held ceramic tubes of a specific length and angle so as to allow water to flow down into the city at a high velocity, without any bubbling or gurgling you might get like when one pours out a beverage too fast from a bottle. Bubbles and gurgles cause disruption and 25,000 depended on that water — so, precision was a necessity.
Understanding the importance of water in a desert is the spirit of farming. Knowing how to manipulate it is power.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
While visiting and touring organic farms on the South Island of New Zealand, I visited a ranch with 20,000 head of wagyu x angus cattle. These were F1 hybrids created for the Japanese market. Wagyu is of course known for its remarkable level of marbling and angus is a robust variety that the farmers were already familiar with raising to market. On that ranch, there were only four animals listed as seriously ill. That is such a shockingly low count, that the owner of the ranch was beyond excited to give tours of the facility to officials, researchers, and dignitaries.
The ranch was built into the hillside of land overlooking the ocean. Yes, the cattle had an ocean view. The land naturally formed a type of amphitheater structure that funneled waste towards the ocean. Cattle effluence cannot be dumped into the ocean under any circumstance in New Zealand. The place is like Fern Gully, and they plan to keep it that way. There was a large catchment basin that collected the very toxic runoff and remediated the cow residue using lotus (Nelumbo sp.). Lotus plants are vigorous plants that thrive in waste. This is where much of the mythology of the lotus originates. It grows in cow patties, caked in mud, and then suddenly see magnicient, plate size blooms emerge and open. The transformation clearly has layered meanings.
The rancher had a vastly different purpose in mind for choosing lotus as the remediating species for the wastewater and effluence. The shrewd businessperson had realized that every shipping container was climate controlled, similar to floral shipping containers. Lotus, while in bud, will remain in bud for several weeks if refrigerated and kept out of light. The lotus buds on the ranch were harvested and sent along with the beef and then sold as a secondary income stream. The rancher had turned sh!t to gold.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
This industry requires successful candidates to demonstrate a strong work ethic, integrity, a willingness to collaborate, and expertise. It is important that new entrants into the field not only have those three traits, but they also have to be able to demonstrate them to their peers within the field. That is a unique part of farming, land-use, and life sciences that differentiates it from other professions. The following is how I have seen myself and others successfully demonstrate these qualities:
Your peers within the ag community want to see that you have a strong work ethic. A strong work ethic can be defined as a willingness and comfort with prioritizing tasks over personal comfort. To demonstrate this, consider creating a work regiment for yourself. Begin that regiment outdoors if possible — let people see you there examining the soil at 5:45 a.m. on a Monday morning. Let the older generations see you smelling and rubbing the soil between your fingertips.
Farming, requires integrity. Integrity can be defined as doing the right thing when no one is looking. In a world of cat-fishing and ghosting, show-up. Be a person of your word and follow-through with even the simplest promise. If you make an error or forget, immediately apologize, and offer to make amends. Your neighbors and community will get you through even the worst situations in farming, so long as you have been a stalwart beacon of integrity.
The life sciences, land-use planning, and farming all require collaboration. This can be defined as working with others towards a common goal, where everyone contributes some amount of work. The etymology is collective + labor = collaboration. This is different from synergy, which can occur during collaboration. Synergy refers to the sum being greater than its parts. In collaboration, one hopes and usually achieves synergy. Collaboration in the context of farming is more or less showing up ready, willing, and able to help knowing full well that you personally are not in charge. That last part is a challenge for many people. Therefore, look at collaboration as a chance to also demonstrate humility, respect, and a passion for the community.
You may be an expert in something or a jack of all trades, but farming requires some amount of expertise. Expertise is defined as the ability to properly identify an issue, solve the issue, or at the very least know someone that knows how to solve it. In New Zealand, the average degree for a farmer is a Bachelors. That same country is the largest dairy solids producer second only to the State of California. Also, it has only two non-organic large-scale farms in the country. Much like Israel, they are a country of experts and innovators.
That level of education and expertise has brought remarkable innovation to a country with no known natural sources of phosphorus. At this point farmers may be picking their jaws off the floor because phosphorus is the second most important macronutrient for plants to grow. It also allows livestock to grow to maturity with fewer congenital defects.
Imagine trying to solve that problem with no expertise.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“You can’t rush August.”
Minnesota rice farmers use this maxim to temper the dreams and visions of the youthful farmers that just planted their first plot of wild rice. The experienced farmers knew that nearly anything could go wrong between planting in May and harvest in August. Yet, they would hear young people discuss how they were going to spend their money after harvest. Over the course of the season, impatient farmers would pump the wise farmers for information and insight as to the expected harvest’s date and size. Many inexperienced wild rice farmers wanted the process of farming, of land management, and business to happen faster.
We all want instant gratification — even success without work. But, that is not the way nature, land, and especially farming, work. Farming, food production, and land management are an ongoing process. Maximizing return on invested capital [ROIC] requires patience. That knowledge that some things take time is known as nature. Successful farmers appreciate time.
Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?
While living in Bethel, New York, home of the Woodstock Festival, I was assisting with the town’s environmental committee. The local elementary school had an enormous field that required mowing. It costs about $1,500 per acre per month to mow if you consider labor, equipment, and fuel. That is a lot of time, effort, and resources that the town and school wanted to use inside the classroom.
The field was not mown yet and luckily was filled with milkweed bursting from the ground (Asclepias tuberosa). Milkweed is the main food source for Monarch butterfly larvae. The science teachers and the community loved the idea of a massive butterfly and wildflower garden. I recommended a plan of only mowing the rights of way, less than 2.5% of the total area and letting the rest grow. We placed a large sign identifying the land a monarch butterfly refuge.
It was an elegant solution that cost little to nothing but helped the community gain so much.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about Modern Farming. It seems that most industries have all converted to tech and modernized their old ways. Can you share with our readers a few of the ways that modern farming has modernized? Can you share how tech has improved your business model?
Farming is generally divided into what is being raised and grown and the related resource demands. For example, the consumer may view porcine and bovine husbandry as the same or at least similar. That assumption has a reasonable basis as both have four legs and we consume both. Yet, the realities of farming and agriculture are more divided and have even encamped themselves into opposite ends of hot button issues. Every animal and nearly every fruit and vegetable represents its own industry and interests. The only commonality they all share is the Department of Agriculture and the Internal Revenue Service.
Once we accept and understand that the needs of each agricultural sector are different, then we can answer the question about tech and modernization more effectively. There are three gigantic leaps in modern agriculture that all occurred in the last 25 years:
- Integrated pest management;
- GPS; and
- CRISPR-Cas9.
Integrated pest management [IPM] is defined as pathogen mitigation and reduction using advanced data collection, analysis, and pathogen-specific interventions. Around the time of the Dustbowl, about 100 years ago, farmers used about one ton of pesticide per acre. That is about one Asian elephant’s mass of pesticide added to the environment every 42,000 square feet or so for thousands of miles in every direction. Farmers today apply less than one ounce of pesticide per acre.
This use of such high levels of broad-spectrum pesticides within our lived environment sparked many books, with Rachel Carson’s, Silent Spring, at the tip of the spear of change. The book connected several pesticides with human illness and environmental degradation. This book affected consumer understanding of agriculture and the use of broad-spectrum pesticides. As the consumer dictates the market, the industry did change.
IPM solved nearly all of the issues related to the over-use of pesticides. Yes, the apiculture (honey) industry is suffering. But, without the reduction of broad-spectrum pesticides, we would likely have even fewer bees. There are parts of northern China, where you can see people on ladders holding a long pole with what looks like a feather duster. Those folks must pollinate apples, cherries, pears, plums, peaches, almond, and other Eosaceous plants because there are no native bees left in some areas. We are not close to that level of environmental catastrophe because of IPM. This method asks: what is the pathogen and how do we most efficiently target just that pathogen? The effect is obvious if you enter a garden center today. There is a specific pesticide for nearly every individual type of pest or pathogen. That did not exist 100 years ago.
The use of Global Positioning Systems [GPS] increased resource efficiency logarithmically nearly every year since it was introduced into row-crop farming. This would include corn, soy, rice, sorghum, cotton, rye, barley, alfalfa, sugarcane, sunflowers, wheat, etc. These crops are typically grown on large and non-contiguous parcels of land. Prior to GPS, farmers were required to hire at times, hundreds of people, on a rotating basis to “walk rows” throughout the season. This means people had to go out and examine the health of each acre, corner, and edge of land separatelu. That information was then given back to a farmer, and they would make scientific guesses as to what was occurring and how to fix those issues. What those surveys mostly revealed was underutilized farmland. Typically, farmers want to maximize the efficiency of the land they are tending. GPS created a way for farmers to identify and develop strategies to use their land more effectively while simultaneously decreasing their waste and impact on the environment.
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, “CRISPR-Cas9” [CRISPR] is the single most important human innovation of the last ten years. It is a method of genetic manipulation that mimics the use of bacterial genetic “snipping” to alter genetic material. For example, most scientists criticized the movie, Contagion, because of one detail in particular: the creation of a vaccine for a pandemic within one year’s time. CRISPR clearly turned that unlikely outcome into reality during the COVID-19 pandemic. For reference, it took us several thousand years to tackle smallpox, plague, and typhoid.
In terms of agriculture, CRISPR created a more precise method of genetically modifying our crops. Humans have been genetically modifying organisms since we invited a now extinct species of wolf to share our scraps in exchange for an extra set of eyes and ears. That method of genetic manipulation is called domestication. It can take an exceedingly long time to domesticate animals; with many unfortunate deormed and injured mothers along the way. It took several thousand years to turn the auric into the modern cow. The reason for this time delay is reproduction. To do this, took eons to identify which traits or suite of traits we needed all packaged up into one specific specimen. Before CRISPR, if you created a cow that could produce less methane, you had to use sexual reproduction to attempt to pass on a gene. If you were working with plants, you would use a pressurized air cannon that would have random pieces of DNA coated dust particles shot at a target leaf. We would then clone tissue samples and bring them to maturity, test their phenotypes, then if “selected” we would analyze its DNA using gel electrophoresis.
After CRISPR, we are able to reduce suffering in animals. For example, beef cattle are “social” for the most part and females will not grow horns. Yet, strangely, dairy cows like Holsteins produce horns. To prevent them from injuring themselves and their pasture mates, dairy farmers must remove those horns at the base surgically. Now, with CRISPR, we have the first dairy cows that do not have to suffer through the brutal practice of removing their horns. Before CRIPSR, farmers attempted to cross-breed beef cattle and dairy cattle leading to stock that was neither great for meat nor dairy production — but it did not have horns!
Part of my business looks at ways to identify, utilize, and foster ecological services using sustainable technology. Ecological services are all the free resources nature provides to us. For example, pollinators provide a way of maximizing fruit production from melons to cherries. Other than apiculturists moving beehives, nature provides that service for free. This requires a balance of utilizing the no-cost ecological service in a way that allows for sustained use. Other free services include oxygen, sunlight, rain, etc.
Bees in particular, require an extremely high variety of plants to obtain all 21 key amino acids. Most street trees are dicots and therefore, flower. Those flowers are like snacks and supplements for bees. IPM, GPS, and CRISPR have allowed this form of consulting work to explode. Every farmer, land holder, and community leader is tripping over themselves to obtain the latest technology.
Do you think modernization for farming is a slower process than for other industries? Can you explain what you mean?
Agriculture could be the most advanced and modern business sector in the world.
That concept of slow modernization within agriculture is a total and complete myth. If we define modernization as the invention, implementation, and mass-dissemination of a novel technology, farming would beat all other sectors handedly. Consider this one fact: farmers can choose from a catalogue of new strains of almost every variety of crop every growing season. Each vendor creates thousands of new varieties of plants each year with new traits to reduce resource consumption. Those strains may provide greater carbon absorption, more seed, and greater tolerance to environmental stress. That is a requirement of the industry just to begin the process of farming.
There are several reasons for farming’s extreme level of modernity. In particular:
- Profit margins are at times slim;
- The government incentivizes innovation;
- The government prepays the cost of most seed prior to planting;
- Every state must have a land-grant institution to further agricultural research according to federal law; and
- Farmers readily share information among one another.
When profit margins are slim, any reduction in cost or increase in production can drastically increase the overall profit of a farming system. For this reason alone, farmers are oftentimes the earliest of early adopters of new technology and practices. The federal government offers farmers specialized loan and tax treatment for most innovation-related investments. If you want to start growing corn or soy, you can go to a seed supplier, and they will help you fill out the paperwork to receive a percentage of that cost upfront — paid for by Uncle Sam. The Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 established the land grant university system. Land grant universities, like Iowa State University and Cornell University, do more innovative research than some of us could even fathom. Lastly, if you have ever been to a rural community, you will notice that everyone knows everyone else’s business. Farmers want their neighbors to do well because then their community and land is worth more.
Are there farms resisting the “tech bandwagon”? Why do you think this is so?
There are two groups that counterintuitively avoid innovation. The first are people who decide to become farmers and open a B & B on the land, with zero experience in either sectors of business. The second group tends to be experienced farmers that have sworn off reason and decided to take Ptolemaic-style farming to an extreme. Farming is a business. Whether or not you open a coffeeshop or a medical practice, the principles of business determine more decisions than your professional degree ever will. Therefore, before entering the ag sector, become an expert in the process of becoming a farmer. That means learning about technology, advancements, automation, production, resource management, etc. Those that are new to the field appear to be initially biased against technology.
At its most basal, one has to appreciate that agriculture is itself a technological advancement. With that in mind, it is a science, generally speaking, and therefore, behooves the farmer to solve questions waiting to be answered. Perhaps it evens obligates the farmer to do more than feed our community; but to also progress it forward. Progress of any form requires technology of some type. Organic farming is one method that is excellent for advanced farmers. Achieving USDA Organic certification is a minimum two-year process and requires some amount of cash reserves not already tied up in the farm.
If you have already invested several hundred thousand dollars into that certification, one would assume that same farmer would want to see their ROIC, ASAP. For many people that have succeeded in achieving this status, the fear of losing it prevents them from considering almost any form of new technology. Their fear is enormously unreasonable as the USDA works hard to assist farmers to stay in compliance and organic agriculture offers higher profit margins. Higher profit margins without proper business planning, like investing in technology, will likely result in a higher tax bill for that stubborn farmer.
The idea of farming has a very romantic and idyllic character to it, especially to some people living in a busy cosmopolitan context. Do you think now would be a good time for younger people with no farming history to get involved in the farming industry? Can you explain what you mean?
This is an absurdly good time to enter the farming industry. The population of the Earth is expected to plateau at around 10 billion people within several decades. We currently share this planet with seven billion other inhabitants. We must solve the issue of how to feed those extra three billion mouths. That requires a minimum 45% increase needed in food production and supply-chain efficiency. The future security of our food supply coupled with existing food insecurity has created innumerable pathways for people to enter the field.
Whether or not you decide to enter the field just depends on your interests. At its most simplistic, everyone is already a part of the farming industry, either on the demand or the supply-side. Interestingly, every farmer is part of both sides of that economic equation — as farmers both consume and produce food. I mention this as a segue to a threshold question for anyone interested in the farming industry.
Before considering the farming sector, ask yourself the question: “What can I offer the field?” (both the profession and the land itself). Earlier in our interview, I mentioned the Latin etymology of the word agriculture. The word has an even older root. The Greek word, άγριος, (agrios) means “wild.” Agriculture, then by its origins implies engagement with the wild. Therefore, are you prepared to engage both with the wild and to engage wildly in terms of your fervor?
The farming sector is the most innovative sector of life sciences. Every day, new technology, research, and information is produced that accelerates the efficiency of the field. But there are still giant issues that require innovative thinkers and more people to enter the field. These issues include the following:
- How do we reduce waste in the global food supply chain (we are currently at 30% waste);
- How can we more efficiently regulate nutrient absorption and cycling to prevent runoff issues like the “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico;
- How do we make cattle that produce less methane;
- How do we preserve arable land for food production in the face of urban sprawl and desertification;
- How can meat production reduce the use of antibiotics without reducing nutrient absorption;
- How can we make existing crops more drought and halotolerant;
- How can we make pesticides more pathogen-specific to rehabilitate and incentivize such practices;
- How can we prevent zoological-vector transmission of pathogens to humans;
- How can we reduce the distance of food production to end user, as transportation accounts for about 1/3 of the cost for food; and
- How do we increase crop yield for novel crop species such as amaranth/quinoa, so as not to push indigenous consumers out of the market due to high cost?
All of those issues are related to farming and if you have even an iota of a solution — farming, land-use, and the life sciences may be for you.
Where should a young person start if they would like to “get into” farming?
This is kind of a funny question to think about in hindsight because I grew up in New York City. My yard was 23’x23’ and it was considered large. I also happened to be morbidly obese and generally preferred plants and animals over people. And so I concetrated on my backyard garden, my side garden, my front garden…notice the number of planting spaces increasing…my parents were on to my shenanigans. I am also fully aware that they enjoyed seeing hummingbirds and black-eyed-susans growing alongside potato plants and saffron crocus. We had frogs and fish in our ponds that would kiss the water’s surface on hot days. The elderly would pause their walk to smell the peonies in the summer.
This stroll down memory lane was intentional and nostalgic. If you want to “get into” farming, first ask yourself, do you feel that same sense of wonder when you are around life? When you see an earthworm on the concrete, do you feel compelled to help it? If you do not feel variations of either of those feelings, then go no further along your path to farming. If you did smile and feel a little homesick or just a tinge of happiness, then keep on reading.
If you want to get into farming of any kind, learn how to shovel sh!t. That is not hyperbole. I can wax poetically about having the coolest first job in existence — zookeeper of mammals under 50 Kg. But in reality, 90% of my job was shoveling excrement, cleaning excrement, and sometimes, if I was really having a good day, actually get sh!t on while giving a tour to people I knew. If at this point you are asking why I bothered to put up with so much actual sh!t, it is because deep down, I loved that job. That love was present in every cell of my being. When my friends asked me why some of my shirts suddenly had holes in them, I would laugh and reply, “we are still weaning the twins (lemurs).”
Farming requires you to love the land and the air (and even the excrement) more than you can fully explain to anyone.
To get into farming, you need to farm. Spend time with farmers, show them your interest, and respect their work. When I was in college, during the Pleistocene, I became a backpacking farmhand in several countries. I purchased a WWOOF book for each of several countries. WWOOF stands for Worldwide Opportunities in Organic Farming. My goal was to learn how to optimize farming systems. The WWOOF book gives you a listing of farmers in each town that operated sustainable farms and would be willing to provide secure room and board in exchange for several hours of work.
Besides learning about farming itself, you also learn how to be a farmer. You learn to do your part because everyone else is depending on you. Although, that might sound idyllic, but it is how farming works. If a farmer does not work hard, your dependence on the invisible hand of the dairy aisle that restocks the shelves, will be tested. We depend on food and to be a farmer, a land-use planner, or working within the field of life sciences, you can and should only get into it if you feel that obligation to the future. If you do, the business will welcome you with open arms.
How does inflation affect farms? What steps have you taken to keep costs down?
First, let us define inflation narrowly to just petroleum, labor, and microchip supply-side issues. The cost to run a combine that runs on diesel is not cheap. A 16-head 540 horsepower combine requires $55.60 per acre to harvst corn based on an Iowa State University 2022 projection. That projection was based on the cost of diesel fuel staying at $3.33/gallon. As of April 1, the price for diesel fuel was about $3.871/gallon. If we multiply that by 2,000 acres of land, the cost to harvest that corn without petroleum inflation is $111,200. With this year’s additional inflation the cost only increases by about $1,000. Therefore, it is not fuel prices that are having the highest impact on harvesting costs. Rather it is the labor shortage and equipment shortages.
The above estimates were based on an average combine price of $586,700. The combines are expensive because, if you have never seen or been in one, they are oftentimes larger than the average urban home. (About a third of the cost is attributable to the corn head and grain platform.) These gorgeous behemoths are marvels of technology. They are climate-controlled, utilize precision steering using GPS, harvest the cobs, remove the kernels, and only use about 0.9–1.0 gallons of diesel fuel per acre. Farming is a modern marvel!
Keep in mind that the information above only focuses on harvesting. It does not consider planting, growing, managing pests, walking rows, detasseling, and all the other hard work farming requires. (Please, Google “corn detasseling” if you do not know what it is.) The cost of fuel affects drying, transportation, maintenance, shipping, and anything that uses a fossil fuel. Yet, its persistent, versus occasional, variability in price makes it a poor determinant for identifying the most difficult hurdles attributed to inflation.
In this instance, we will focus on inflation due to the microchip bottleneck coupled with the labor shortage. These two factors do not fluctuate in price persistently, but rather indicate a general trendline upwards over the last decade. In other words, the variance in the change in microchip prices per day is much lower for these two resources compared with fuel costs. Put differently, technology’s ubiquity and the shortage of rare earth metals will continue to drive the price of microchips upwards. The same is true with labor. Therefore, we will continue to examine inflation through a less fuel-centric lens.
In order to increase the microchip shortage to help farmers, the President can utilize the Defense Production Act to increase microchip production and provide compensation. This is the same mechanism that Presidents use to release fuel from the Strategic Oil Reserve. As, we are not the President, contact your representative and advocate for this measure. Currently, nearly all microchip production has to pass through a single factory in Taiwan. Soon a Tesla factory opening in Germany will help reduce that supply-side issue. But alas, that means the only thing a farmer can do is to maintain their existing equipment better so it last longer; thereby delaying the need to purchase anything with a microchip. Personally, I am fixing, maintaining, upcycling, and sharing equipment. This is not the time for our operation to purchase anything with a depreciable life over five years.
As for increasing labor costs, the options to keep costs low and employees happy is nearly endless. For example, under ERISA, corporations can offer an employee benefits plan that includes an Employee Stock Ownership Plan [ESOP]. Under IRS Code, cafeteria to provide meals. The first provides a cash-free method of providing incentivization and bonuses to an employee’s retirement plan. This means that your employees that are vested with stock become part owners in your corporation. Second, the cost of providing food can be reduced if multiple farmers utilize the same kitchen and cafeteria system. It spreads the cost and provides a way for employees to interact, collaborate, and feel a sense pf comradery that only food can bring.
There are of course different revenue streams that can be generated from a farm. What are your current avenues of profiting from your farm? What would you suggest to other farm owners to add to expand their revenue streams?
As a consultant within the farming industry, I primarily use my land to demonstrate novel cultivation, horticulture, floriculture, and permaculture practices. The land in many ways acts as a form of marketing coupled with research and development for my consultancy. Historically, the professional work supported the farming system. Our goal this year is to make the system achieve cost-neutral status and enter profit-generation.
This is an important concept within land-use and farming. Not all farms have to generate profit to be part of a longtime profitable business venture. Farming systems can be offset as much or even more revenue via allowable deductions, expenses, and credits through the IRS sometimes than land being actively cultivated. For example, farmland adjacent to wetlands or a riverbank are preferable for their ecological utility than for their productivity. But, rather than growing crops, you could be paid to manage the land, not farm at all, or even rent it out to Pheasants Forever or Ducks Unlimited for hunting. Of course, there is also the beauty of depreciation for those that grow fruit trees with limited productive life like avocado and apple.
To reduce overhead costs, I am introducing higher value crops and experiences to our revenue stream. In particular, we will be establishing hops in difficult to grow areas, such as along large portions of southfacing structures. Hops is a vine that smells heavenly and is high in value when sold as small batch varietals. The other crops will include growing sunflowers and pumpkins. The value of the latter two are based in the “experience” of picking your own pumpkins, taking photos with sunflowers, and giving people a chance to touch soil. We are also opening the space for wildlife photography, bird-watching, and life science classes.
Farmers must always offer a way for people to engage with the earth.
Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share your “5 Things That Need To Create A Successful Career In the Modern Farming Industry”? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
- Expertise: A formal education is not required to gain expertise. One can become an expert through experience, apprenticeship, and training. No matter what your expertise is though, make sure you can gain a credential, a certification, or some other form of recognition for your hard work. Think of expertise as your foot in the door. Let the community be able to readily identify your credibility and credentials.
- Follow a strict work regimen: Farming can produce immense wealth. That wealth does not come out of thin air. It comes from working harder than you have ever worked in your life, especially in the spring and fall. Your body will adjust to the rigor of your lifestyle if you help lower stress. A strict work regimen is excellent at reducing stress because it reduces the number of unknowns in your life. The life of a farmer is a life of calculated decisions that cause their own stress. So, do what you can in the morning to make your wealth generation less stressful.
- Understand business: At its very core, every farm is a business. Businesses only succeed if they generate profits for their shareholders. Do you know if your farm should be an LLC or an S-Corp? Do you understand why a certain resource fluctuates in cost so much? Have you developed a business plan that factors in both optimal outcomes and more realistic outcomes that include risk? Farming is complicated and that is just the business side.
- Diversify your experience: It is imperative that you try as many things at leasdt once as possible in order to help you cross-pollinate your ideas. Farming is the business of cultivating the wild. That means you will encounter wild things very often. You will be faced with crazy issues at a moment’s notice with few to no resources at your disposal at least once a week during the growing season. Do you know how to tell if a raccoon that your dog keep lunging at has rabies or is she just protecting her babies?
- Demonstrate your passion with collaboration: Your fervor, stamina, and passion are in themselves a form of credibility within your community. Farming is a communal business. Their communities are composed of well-meaning and generous people. Therefore, every farmer thrives, so long as the community thrives. With that in mind, always remember to demonstrate your passion for farming to your community. The most successful farmers are passionate collaborators.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Dr. Temple Grandin is the first known autistic person to have obtained a Ph.D. and to go on to serve as a college professor. Like Dr. Grandin, I too am autistic. I want to thank her for being an unabashed trailblazer. Although Autism is more readily entering the American zeitgeist, there does not seem to be another person willing to accept the baton. Dr. Grandin showed so many of us that our unique perception of the world has a place and a utility within the greater American story.
She reminds me daily that, above all others, we are merely the stewards of the future.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Feel free to follow me on IQmop.com and LinkedIn.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
Brad Biren Of IQMOP On The Future Of Modern American Farming was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.