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The Business of Farming
A new program on business systems for farmers and small scale businesses is being spearheaded by Claire Thomas, 21 Acres Board member and owner of Root Connection.
Serving western Washington as the largest CSA for many years, the
Root Connection was aware that some aspects of the business were
actually losing money. Thomas wanted to go beyond notebooks with
smudges and rain crinkled pages, taking the beginning steps to learn
about gathering data including real costs. In collaboration with
Andreas Kolshorn, software engineer and small farm advocate, the
process began with hours of volunteer time researching universities and
other programs for an existing farm data calculating program. With none
in existence, Thomas, Kolshorn and apprentice farmer, Erik
Gibson-Snyder, have put the new program into motion.
Highlights of the Business of Farming program include:
- using data collection as a base to project profit and expense
- insight as to where a farmer or business owner will see product revenue or loss
- the importance of collecting data
- and support material for the process of collection.
A farm owner can determine exactly how much it costs to grow a bunch of carrots with analysis of land impact, labor, etc. The program is in it’s initial phase and will be offered as part of the on-going educational curriculum planned for 21 Acres.
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