Greenhorn Radio Introduction: BR Shute (10:00)
Tags:
BR Shute, Hearty Roots Farm, Tivoli NY, BR is Sev's neighbor, Redhook, Hearty Roots does CSA for thousands of customers a week, National Young Farmers Coalition, a movement of young farmers from around the country to enact policy reform, BR is trying to figure out how we can be sharing tools through Farm Act, FarmAct.net, Farm Show is a great magazine thats been around for a long time for conventional farmers to showcase their inventions and workshops, Farm Show is focused on rather bigger scale farms than younger farmers may want, hobbey-oriented inventions, you can subscribe to Farm Show so do it--keep it alive!!, FarmHack.net, ways to share ingenuity and ideas, lots of new farms in the Hudson Valley, there is way more of a market for organic farms CSAs and farmers markets in the Hudson Valley, land prices are still really high in the Hudson Valley so its hard to get land, young farmers are renting land or trying other schemes, land issues, land conservancies, land trusts, land trusts being kind to farmers, illustrations from the 1940s explaining soil nutrients, micronutrients, soil without potassium won't grow much, science got rather simplictic during the times of chemical agriculture, a successful operation requirses a certain set of ingredients, you don't just need people who are gonna buy the food or grow the food, you need allies in other places, you need the land trust to prioritize farmers, getting MIT engineering students and young farmers in the same room to invent and engineer things together,More with BR (9:41)
Tags:
human capital, we can't rely on the major institutional players, BR's farm is profitable AND healthy for the land but does NOT have permanent farm land so its still a risk, a 5 year lease, BR's biggest struggle is how to address not having permanent land, BR pays his employees health benefits!, there are 3,000 sustainable ag jobs in the town of Hardwick, mining issues in rural NY and PA, hydrofracking, the economic logic of the frackers is that land is only valuable for real estate and that farming and forestry are no longer relevant, BR farms 25 acres of organic vegetables with 9 people employed in the summer, those 25 acres were originally a hayfield and originally employed less than 1 job, upcoming young farmer events, ADM.com, FarmHack.net, farm credit, it doesnt make sense for ALL beginner farmers to take out loans, discussing tax code advantages to starting a farm, young farmers are allergic to capitalism often but MUST become proficient to the business aspect of farming, knowing WHEN to use credits and tax advantages, Young Farmer Meeting in the Pioneer Valley, lets take advantage of students doing thesis research and help them further the goals of current young farmers and CSAs, The Real Food Challenge is for Universities to spend more of their budget on organic and local food, Organic Farming Association of NY, NOFA, BR came up with a plan with an engineer to build a greenhouse then put the plans on FarmHack so other farmers can benefit from it, open source farming,Download MP3 (Full Episode)
Benjamin Shute & Hearty Roots Farm (13:18)
Tags:
Benjamin Shute, CSA farming, Hearty Roots Farm, Tivoli New York, Hearty Roots expansion, dream farm layout, Hudson Valley land very expensive, second home owners, Hudson Valley land use, purchasing land with revenues from vegetable production almost impossible, community land trusts, agricultural value vs. estate value of land, long term inheritable leases, land access for emerging farmers, Red Hook New York, local bond act, Red Hook appreciates their community farms, taxation of real estate transfers, median house values, any land purchase over median purchase price gets taxed and funds are given to farms, using farmland for high value crops, prime soil, farmers earning equity through land improvements, open use easement,High Value Crop Farms in Hudson Valley (12:50)
Tags:
farms employ workers who then inject money into local economy, Ben's future plans for Hearty Roots Farm, increasing crew size, refining systems, Miriam Latzer, has there been a decline in demand for Ben's veggies, are value crops in high demand?, New York City provides a huge demand for local high-value crops, 3 pieces of advice for new farmers, first complete an apprenticeship with a farm, be bold in starting your own farm don't procrastinate, mechanic cultivation,Download MP3 (Full Episode)
"The main goal of the company is to help people reach their goals... it's no fad based, the company focuses on the latest science." [1:35]
"We wanna get people in the kitchen, we wanna get people cook, because if your trying to be healthy and trying to loose weight, you really need to cook" [2:50]
"Our vision of what a portion of food is is very skewed" [9:30] -- Author Nancy Gagliardi on HRN Community Sessions!







