Archive for June, 2010
Minnesota Family Farms Take on the Law.
Recently Eckert AgriMarketing discovered a disturbing lawsuit in Lake Elmo, Minnesota that is hurting several small family farms. Currently farmers in Lake Elmo can only sell the products they grow at their farm. If they do not grow the crops inside the city limits, they cannot sell it.
This law goes as far as saying even if the farmer owns a parcel of land just outside Lake Elmo, they cannot sell the crop within the city limits. If you disobey and sell agricultural products that are not grown in Lake Elmo, you could spend 90 days in jail and fined $1,000.
Institute for Justice is teaming up with the farmers affected by this law to help bring on a federal lawsuit which the small farms couldn’t bring about themselves. Institute for Justice believes this law violates a protection Americans receive in the U.S. Constitution: Right to free trade. Meaning Lake Elmo does not have the right to restrict the sales of agricultural products because they were grown outside the city limits.
City officials say they support this law because it will make farmers grow the products that they sell, keeping Lake Elmo a rural area and keeping out products grown elsewhere. But actually this law could end up hurting many small farmers here and everywhere and has potential to put these farmers out of business. Because when farmers in Lake Elmo have a bad season, they rely on small farmers in other states to grow products they would want to sell at their farm markets. This law ends up hurting not only local farmers, but out-of-state farmers who rely on selling crops to the small farms in Lake Elmo.
Is this law fair? Should farmers in Lake Elmo be restricted to sell only what they grow in the city limits? Or does Institute for Justice make a valid point by saying this violates our constitutional right? I welcome your comments.
Watch this video clip to learn more.
Crop Mobs Begin To Grow
Have you ever heard of crop mobs?
Until recently I was not aware of this phenomenon that is popping up all over the country. But an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, opened my eyes to this recent trend. Basically a crop mob is a group of people pulling together to help accomplish tasks on small farms. Typically this happens at the beginning of the season and some of the chores include pulling weeds, patching up fences and planting crops.
Crop Mobs started in North Carolina over a year ago and have been expanding across the country. So who participates is in a crop mob experience?
Crop mob volunteers consist of a wide variety of people who want to help small farmers and learn farm chores. A lot of these people are city dwellers who are looking for a different experience. Many consumers are making very proactive choices in eating locally grown food and this experience lets them get their hands dirty and see firsthand the hard work involved in growing this food. Some of the volunteers are people who are looking to start their own farms and desire a real hands-on experience to see just how much work it does require to be a farmer. The best part for the small farmer is crop mobbers work for free and for many small farms that can mean the difference of losing or making money with the crop.
The word about crop mobs is growing so quickly because of the Internet. Crop mobbers are using a variety of techniques to get the word out about what farms they will be helping and how others can sign up to volunteer. Right now, crop mobs use social media and e-mailing as their main method of communication.
So does your small farm need an extra hand? You might be surprised at the people willing to help you perform your ordinary farm chores. The crop mob experience could be a great marketing technique to expand the customer base! By offering this experience for your customers to learn how the farm works could spike an interest. People like trying new things and this could offer a great learning experience that would also increase your farms productivity and bottom line.
