Download or read book The Lean Farm written by Ben Hartman and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2015 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical, systems-based approach for a more sustainable farming operation To many people today, using the words "factory" and "farm" in the same sentence is nothing short of sacrilege. In many cases, though, the same sound business practices apply whether you are producing cars or carrots. Author Ben Hartman and other young farmers are increasingly finding that incorporating the best new ideas from business into their farming can drastically cut their wastes and increase their profits, making their farms more environmentally and economically sustainable. By explaining the lean system for identifying and eliminating waste and introducing efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation, The Lean Farm makes the case that small-scale farming can be an attractive career option for young people who are interested in growing food for their community. Working smarter, not harder, also prevents the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter in the face of long, hard, backbreaking labor. Lean principles grew out of the Japanese automotive industry, but they are now being followed on progressive farms around the world. Using examples from his own family's one-acre community-supported farm in Indiana, Hartman clearly instructs other small farmers in how to incorporate lean practices in each step of their production chain, from starting a farm and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. While the intended audience for this book is small-scale farmers who are part of the growing local food movement, Hartman's prescriptions for high-value, low-cost production apply to farms and businesses of almost any size or scale that hope to harness the power of lean in their production processes.
Download or read book Bet the Farm written by Beth Hoffman and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Eloquent and detailed...It's hard to have hope, but the organized observations and plans of Hoffman and people like her give me some. Read her book -- and listen." -- Jane Smiley, The Washington Post In her late 40s, Beth Hoffman decided to upend her comfortable life as a professor and journalist to move to her husband's family ranch in Iowa--all for the dream of becoming a farmer. There was just one problem: money. Half of America's two million farms made less than $300 in 2019, and many struggle just to stay afloat. Bet the Farm chronicles this struggle through Beth's eyes. She must contend with her father-in-law, who is reluctant to hand over control of the land. Growing oats is good for the environment but ends up being very bad for the wallet. And finding somewhere, in the midst of COVID-19, to slaughter grass finished beef is a nightmare. If Beth can't make it, how can farmers who confront racism, lack access to land, or don't have other jobs to fall back on hack it? Bet the Farm is a first-hand account of the perils of farming today and a personal exploration of more just and sustainable ways of producing food.
Download or read book Come Back to the Farm written by Jesse Stuart and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of sixteen short stories that reflect the hills of Appalachia, the pioneer spirit, and the people of Kentucky by American author and poet Jesse Stuart.
Download or read book The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables written by Ben Hartman and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At Clay Bottom Farm, author Ben Hartman and staff practice kaizen, or continuous improvement, cutting out more waste--of time, labor, space, money, and more--every year and aligning their organic production more tightly with customer demand. Applied alongside other lean principles originally developed by the Japanese auto industry, the end result has been increased profits and less work. In this field-guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even more detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximize land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency. From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable. These methods include: Using Japanese paper pot transplanters Building your own germinating chambers Leaning up your greenhouse Making and applying simple composts Using lean techniques for pest and weed control Creating Heijunka, or load-leveling calendars for efficient planning Farming is not static, and improvement requires constant change. The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables offers strategies for farmers to stay flexible and profitable even in the face of changing weather and markets. Much more than a simple exercise in cost-cutting, lean farming is about growing better, not cheaper, food--the food your customers want.
Download or read book Farm Land s Back to the Land written by Freddie Pikovsky and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spectacular treehouse suspended above a lush forest. A cozy cabin perched on a mountainside. A small farm growing heirloom vegetables in the high desert. These are the extraordinary stories of the modern-day back-to-the-land-movement, a movement that embraces slow living, sustainability, and the value of doing things with your own two hands. Here are remarkable narratives, essential how-tos, and hundreds of breathtaking photographs from people who have embraced lives of adventure in wild places. Delivered in a handsome volume that inspires feelings of wanderlust, this book is a must-have for outdoor enthusiasts and anyone who has ever dreamed of escaping to a simpler way of life.
Download or read book Start Your Farm The Authoritative Guide to Becoming a Sustainable 21st Century Farmer written by Ellen Polishuk and published by The Experiment, LLC. This book was released on 2018-09-10 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A totally modern, all-purpose handbook for today’s agricultural dreamers—covering the challenges and triumphs of launching any successful farm—from two leading lights in sustainable farming Do you dream of starting your own farm but wonder where to begin? Or do you already have a farm but wish to become more sustainable to compete in today’s market? Start Your Farm, the first comprehensive business guide of its kind, covers these essential questions and more: Why be a farmer in the 21st century? Do you have what it takes? What does sustainable really mean, and how can a small (as little as one acre) to midsize farm survive alongside commodity-scale agriculture? How do you access education, land, and other needs with limited capital? How can you reap an actual profit, including a return on land investment? How do you build connections with employees, colleagues, and customers? At the end of the day, how do you measure success? (Hint: Cash your lifestyle paycheck.) More than a practical guide, Start Your Farm is a hopeful call to action for anyone who aspires to grow wholesome, environmentally sustainable food for a living. Take it from Forrest Pritchard and Ellen Polishuk: Making this dream a reality is not for the faint of heart, but it’s well within reach—and there’s no greater satisfaction under the sun!
Download or read book Going Over Home written by Charles Thompson, Jr. and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Booklist Editors’ Choice “Best Books of 2019” An intimate portrait of the joys and hardships of rural life, as one man searches for community, equality, and tradition in Appalachia Charles D. Thompson, Jr. was born in southwestern Virginia into an extended family of small farmers. Yet as he came of age he witnessed the demise of every farm in his family. Over the course of his own life of farming, rural education, organizing, and activism, the stories of his home place have been his constant inspiration, helping him identify with the losses of others and to fight against injustices. In Going Over Home, Thompson shares revelations and reflections, from cattle auctions with his grandfather to community gardens in the coal camps of eastern Kentucky, racial disparities of white and Black landownership in the South to recent work with migrant farm workers from Latin America. In this heartfelt first-person narrative, Thompson unpacks our country’s agricultural myths and addresses the history of racism and wealth inequality and how they have come to bear on our nation’s rural places and their people.
Download or read book Get Back to the Farm written by Virginia. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and published by . This book was released on 199? with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Future Proof Farm written by Steve Groff and published by Advantage Media Group. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR FARMERS! WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE EARTH IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS Steve Groff's message to his fellow farmers is profound and prophetic: they are in danger of becoming obsolete. Major market changes are forcing them to make difficult decisions. Farmers who adjust have an opportunity to thrive. Those who do not are likely to fade away. Consumers increasingly demand that the food they eat and the clothes they wear come from producers who observe responsible farming practices such as cover crops and reduced tillage. The major corporate players are positioning themselves for a profitable future. Farmers must do likewise to ensure they will have a continuing market for their goods. To future-proof their farms, they must heal the live-giving soil that sustains their livelihood. Steve Groff knows that what is good for the earth is good for business. He has taken his message across the nation and to the corners of the world, promoting a new mindset that could save the family farm from extinction. This book is his wake-up call.
Download or read book The Black Farm written by Elias Witherow and published by . This book was released on 2017-06-09 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the loss of a child along with a slew of agonizing misfortunes, Nick and Jess decide to end their lives. But nothing could prepare him for the nightmares he found...nothing could prepare him for The Black Farm.
Download or read book Back on the Farm written by Harold W. Sullivan and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2023-01-05 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Back on the Farm is a collection of 176 humorous stories Harold Sullivan wrote for his grandchildren about growing up on a farm in Comet, West Virginia, during the '30s and '40s. The moments that were the basis of the stories were frozen in time for the author, and his fond retelling--"When I was a boy, back on the farm"--recreates that life in the reader's mind too. His stories are of small triumphs, giant failures, and a few in between. They are funny tales of his relationship with his younger sister, whom as one story recounts, he convinced to let him shoot her with a homemade BB gun. This sister then pretended it didn't hurt so she would shoot him too! Many of the stories are about his hardworking mother, such as the time Harold and his sister made mud pies with eggs from the farm (a huge financial loss in the Depression) and Momma spanked them twice--once for the act and again when she found they had taken all the eggs. The hero of many of his stories was his father, a "big man" in many ways, whose battle with the "pushy cow" showed the personality of the man--and of the cow. Harold's stories are of a way of life that doesn't exist anymore in the tiny community of Comet, West Virginia, which doesn't exist anymore either. But for the people who lived there, or for anyone who has lived on a farm, the tales from Harold's memory bring back a simpler time worth revisiting. These stories, of a boy growing up among hardworking and close-knit family and community, are a love song to life, Back on the Farm.
Download or read book Getting Back to the Farm written by OAC Review Index and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Annual Conference written by and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Independent written by Leonard Bacon and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book State of New York written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 1328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Giving Back Life and Leadership from the Farm to the Combat Zone and Beyond written by David Nordel and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2022-06 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Giving Back! Is a compilation of real-life events from a life lived in rural America and over a 30 year military career. It encapsulates the lessons of those times that have shaped Dave and helped him develop as a leader and mentor. Giving Back! shows lessons of how to effectively navigate in life, family, and friendships. The book outlines many stories and shares many nuggets of Dave’s life and lessons learned from each. The intimate stories are his way to give back, just as those people and experiences that shaped him along the way gave to him. This writing will drive introspection and thought to hopefully leave you a few treasures to apply to your life, love and leadership journeys.
Download or read book Young Folks Library Farm and forest written by and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
