Richard writes about the need to make all work creative, but he’s generally talking about the manufacturing or service industries. However, America’s declining agricultural sector is making a comeback in many areas, largely because of the creative class on both the producing and consuming ends.
In many cities, close-in farms are switching to organic methods and raising a wider variety of crops to sell at farmer’s markets, co-ops, or natural food stores. Some large producers are profitably making this switch but much of the growth is small family farms, many run by immigrants. As consumers’ preferences move beyond just organic to buying local, the smaller close-in farms start to have an advantage. And even in recessionary times, growers selling at farmer’s markets can price competitively.
The creative class component on the consumer end is obvious, the demographics for both Whole Foods and farmer’s markets lean toward creatives. Both “exotic” (bok choy) and “heritage” (beefsteak tomatoes) produce are popular with creatives, although the heritage also has an attraction to the farmer’s market bargain shoppers who remember their parents’ gardens.
On the other side of the equation, producers are also increasingly creative in their approach. I got to thinking about this the other day when a friend had a piece on a NY Times blog about his brandy business, which was launched partly to market the pears from his family orchards.
In this story he mentions the growth of local cheeses, wines, and other products which have taken underperforming crops and made them profitable products. Another friend who used to have a Bonsai business outside Boston would come to Oregon to buy nursery stock. There are undoubtedly thousands of examples, each one showing creative thinking in this oldest of industries.
One often mentioned but little analyzed aspect of Obama’s budget is the cuts to agricultural subsidies for farms with annual sales of over $500,000. Like the tax breaks for the rich, these benefit only the top 5 percent of farms and have contributed to the growth of agribusiness and squeezing out of family farms. While the political future of this proposal is uncertain, it might cause “rent-seeking” corporations to leave farming and open the field for the little guys, who are agriculture’s creative entrepreneurs.
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Supporting a smaller scale and more local agriculture (farming and gardening really) has many benefits. It can play a role in low income community development by enhancing youth employment, improving nutrition and food security. It helps the environment to the extent it reduces shipping costs for food and small scale organic gardening can improve the soil and trap carbon. There are opportunities in more production of lots of basic truck crops, plus the opportunities to meet niche products for restaurants, bakeries, breweries and preserving industries (fruit, dairy, etc.) Strengthening the farming economy can also help improve the balance between urban and rural areas and strengthen the position of rural economies. For creative consumers, local food also fits perfectly into the experience economy from pick your own to new local products and restaurants.
March 4th, 2009 at 12:21 am
A New Menu for Ontario’s Food Economy
http://martinprosperity.org/insights/insight/a-new-menu-for-ontarios-food-economy
March 4th, 2009 at 3:52 am
It also means starvation and hunger for many people around the world who rely on cheap food.
Yes organic, local, heritage and small scale farms can charge a premium and make ends meet for a handful of dedicated stewards of the environment. Fair play to them. But they’re never going to feed the world.
I bet the “creatives” who buy the occasional pot of organic local honey and jam at farmers’ markets probably do the bulk of their grocery shopping at major supermarkets, with a bajillion food miles, grown by slave children paid in whiplashes to sprinkle carbon intensive fertilizer on it. No amount of local organic honey can “offset” the damage that intensive farming causes.
Again, this talk of “what the creatives do” just turns into bourgeois nostalgic nonsense that at time verges on apartheid against blue-collar/traditional/working class communities. As the first part of the post points out, creativity is about innovation in new products, efficient systems, better ways of doing things. It’s not about buying local organic honey in a farmers’ market once a month. In fact, that’s just slavishly following sunday newspaper fads – surely the antipathy of creativity?
March 5th, 2009 at 12:33 am
Robert,
The point I was trying to make is that my friend’s Clear Creek distillery and many small farms’ products are creative innovations finding solutions to problems. The distillery used 500,000 pounds of local pears last year, in the process creating a market that was instrumental in keeping the Hood River Valley’s orchards from being bulldozed for subdivisions.
Ten years ago Portland had one farmers market in the summer. Now there are at least thirty, including some in lower income neighborhoods where yes, poor people shop. Many of the immigrants and refugees growing and selling produce in the markets don’t fit your stereotype of creatives, but they are definitely engaged in creative work, trying out and finding new markets for their products. And their prices are competitive with Safeway.
A byproduct of this grass roots farming and buying is that Safeway and WalMart now carry organic produce.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Good comments, I’m from Wales,UK and my main interest is in how the creative economy can be applied to country (outside the city/town) economy. I’ve witnessed over the past few years declining agricultural incomes (seems consumers prefer to purchase imported food, or rather the Supermarkets find it more profitable to sell imported foodstuffs due to exchange rates and the need to maximize profits),excessive government control over the countryside (which they usually are completely clueless about: even though we have some excellent MPs who live and support the countryside),an extremely hostile view by townies for country people, banker’s excessive control and leverage over country business and finally the escalating property prices putting houses, farms, businesses outside the reach of young country people. This has resulted in the depopulation of young people from the country to the cities.
Since the crunch, or as I prefer to call it the realignment, we have “sensible” creative businesses establishing themselves in country locations (designers, architects,specialized production, musicians etc.), local people are able to afford property again, we have a resurgence of specialized food producers (cheese, confectionary,preserves etc.) Farmers are once again being paid a more realistic price for their produce and the holiday sector is looking forward to a bumper 2009…….
However there are signs that once the realignment is complete and the economy starts to grow again we will slip back into a downward spiral for the countryside economy. This is my “field”: how do we hold on to what we have and don’t loose it again to the townies? Any comments will be read and studied with interest.
March 5th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Neal,
Interesting to get another vantage point on this. The often mutual distain of what you call townies and country folks is a major problem and it has to break down for this to work. The other issue is changing consumer tastes. Both of these take time.
In the NY Times article that’s linked here, my friend Steve talks about local products being driven out by distant growers (today imported) in the 1980’s and before. I think the key for Steve was he had family in the country and he was a city boy, so he could make the link easily. But others have done it, the key is establishing a connection between rural growers and urban wholesalers or groceries.
For farms close to cities, farmers markets are a tool in the U.S. They give a place for rural and city people to get to know each other. I’d say the mix of growers in Portland’s farmers market is, VERY roughly, 30% hippie, 30% regular farm families and 30% immigrants (largely Asian & Slavic). In addition to talking to city folks, the farmers market is a place for these rural cultures to meet.
Further from the cities, creative farmers are doing things like going organic, switching to new crops (nursery stock has become Oregon’s biggest agricultural crop, replacing wheat). For many, its going beyond just growing crops to value added products like cheeses, wine, etc. Southwest Oregon is one of the few places outside France that grows Truffles, and mushrooms are becoming a crop.
I think another piece will be deciding what parts of traditional life and practices are important to retain and what to let change. I doubt you can “hold on to what we have” without figuring out how to adapt it — that’s where the creative part comes in. The key is to initiate the change on your own terms, not have it done to you.
Good Luck!
March 12th, 2009 at 2:30 am
Thanks for post. Interesting points. Everything you say is completely valid, I have friends who farm both in Canada and Australia and New Zealand. NZ seems the most tolerant to country life: not surprisingly. Canada and Australia seem to have the same friction as the UK. We have thriving Farmers Markets, specialist producers, diversification (nursery stock, tree nurseries, holiday locations etc.etc.) and farms being sold to outsiders who work in the cities (bringing $ into our country economy). We seem to be adopting the continental model more and more: tiny farms where the husband/partner goes out to work:lorry driving, stacking shelves in the supermarket…. or massive farms run as factories, supplying the multiple stores. I personally run a Garden Centre which supplies locally grown shrubs, herbs etc,etc machinery, fertilizers and so on. Right next door is a massive DIY chain store with mass produced goods, right across the road is a Supermarket (one of the most aggressive UK retailers) selling everything, food, electrical, hardware, garden and 100 yards away is a German chain selling everything. This town is 10000 population!!! with a local trade being trawled in from 30 miles. Because we specialize these big stores actually help our footfall (although all the electrical shops,hardware shops and small DIY shops have closed in the last 2 years). The planners are proposing yet another Superstore on our town’s outskirts!The point I’m trying to make is us country folks don’t show the same resentment to Townies as they show to us as we need their $, we need their perceived image of the country (they all want to become country gentlemen with a few fruit trees,an acre or so to play on, a quad bike, garden tractor etc.etc. and the shopping style they’re used to in the city: supermarket deli, a wide range of wines, flat screen TV and so on).It seems that Government (local and National) are oblivious to country matters.
Change has to take place, unfortunately most genuine country folk don’t want this change, but you’re absolutely correct. We need to change it on our terms, not have it done to us. To this end I’m involved in a number of projects to promote farming, small rural business, culture,computer services, start ups etc. (But it’s an uphill task).
Good talking with you and thanks again for the comments.
Neal.
March 12th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
My colleagues from various African nations indicate that it is cheap imported food that prevents African villagers and small farmers from growing food and developing local businesses around locally grown food.
October 1st, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Many of the immigrants and refugees growing and selling produce in the markets don’t fit your stereotype of creatives, but they are definitely engaged in creative work, trying out and finding new markets for their products. And their prices are competitive with Safeway.
November 2nd, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Capitalism has always this biases. The bigger ones will always get better privileges while the smaller ones gets squeezed until nothing is left of them. While on the other hand smaller ones due also to less resources are less capable of getting the technology and innovations that may be needed to enhance their production and so have become less competitive.
February 10th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
TV Industry optimistic about automotive spending coming back this year. Last year in super bowl there were little automotive advertisers.