[BCFSN] Capitalism for Farmers is Broken

[Devon Cooke]

I want to share a blog post I wrote that was inspired by an interview I 
did last week for my film /The Hands that Feed Us/.  One of the 
questions I asked in the interview was about the startup costs for a 
farm.  An obvious cost is land, and land is very, very expensive.  It’s 
so expensive, in fact, that in some regions (especially in B.C.), it 
could take a lifetime to pay for the farmland from the proceeds of the 
farm. I’ve written about this before 
<https://mailer.thehandsthatfeedus.ca/lists/lt.php?tid=LEVfV1FTVlQLBB4OWA0HSVAEAw8fA1UCBxVQVQ8EWlECDF8FBQdJBQkCAAMDWwNJUwAGVx9VVg0BFQNTAgBPU1AIClcEBlACDAcKSwJYUQJUUVAPH1JdBAAVVVJSVk8ABghdS1IFAVQNVgUOWQFUUw>, 
but I wanted to unpack what this means from a business perspective.

In Canada, we take it for granted that starting a business, including a 
farm, involves a little bit of capitalism.  Starting a business 
typically means finding investors willing to put money into the business 
as it gets established, and it’s expected that those investors 
eventually see a return.  The problem is, the price of farmland 
basically guarantees that this model doesn’t work — the startup costs 
are too high, and the expected returns too low.  Capitalism for farming 
— at least farming as an independent business simply doesn’t work.

My latest blog post explores this theme in more detail 
<https://mailer.thehandsthatfeedus.ca/lists/lt.php?tid=LEUOAgYFBQBbUR4OB10DSVBWUQcfAAcHVBVQA1IGBFtQCg1XClRJBQkCAAMDWwNJUwAGVx9VVg0BFQNTAgBPU1AIClcEBlACDAcKSwJYUQJUUVAPH1JdBAAVVVJSVk8ABghdS1IFAVQNVgUOWQFUUw>.  
It spells out exactly why we can’t expect capitalism to invest in 
farming any time soon.

-- 
All the best,

Devon Cooke
The Hands that Feed Us
604-321-9706
devon at thehandsthatfeedus.ca <mailto:devon at thehandsthatfeedus.ca>

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