[Logs and Dogs]

In the latest Yankee magazine........yes we get Yankee, I like some of the recipes and it was a gift, don't hold it against me. Plus occasionally they write a good piece, and this appears to be one of them. I haven't gotten all the way through the article, but so far it provides a little history and some facts on the demise of the Vermont family dairy farm and the real reasons behind it..........

I haven't found anything mentioning flatlanders from New Jersey, but I haven't finished the article.........

[arctichomesteader]

Heh. Yankee Magazine. It actually used to have some good stuff, I have some issues that are I think around 40 years old or thereabouts. Some interesting articles on brickmaking, cooking in a fireplace, caring for apple trees, and so on. Can't comment much on the current stuff.

The flatlanders have a role though...it's too expensive for a lot of farmers to expand and become profitable because the best farmland in the state (admittedly not "great" farmland) is too expensive to buy and getting covered in mcmansions. And then we have energy issues (cost of electricity will become a major issue I suspect if VY is shut down), and infrastructure issues (face it...on our crummy roads, transportation speed to distant markets is often slower...).

[RJARRRPCGP]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

The flatlanders have a role though...it's too expensive for a lot of farmers to expand and become profitable because the best farmland in the state (admittedly not "great" farmland) is too expensive to buy and getting covered in mcmansions.

We don't have a problem with "mcmansions" down here. That sounds more like what would occur in states with big cities, *cough cough* Illinois.
And more like *cough cough* Claremont.

[square peg]

In the 1986 the federal government instituted a nationwide whole herd buyout program due to a surplus in the industry. Many VT farmers sold out and never looked back, selling their land off and making some handsome gains. Some of the non-qualifying farmers burned their barns and collected on their insurance - and then sold their land. In the next few years I was witness to four such fires in Troy alone. To this day I still see articles in the news where farmers are being paid 1980s prices for their milk. I think that says a lot.

There seem to be several ways to maintain farms these days. Diversify, go organic, or become a mega franchise conglomerate member. All three exist in this area and it's hard to find fault with any of them with their choices for survival.

I haven't seen that article, Logs and Dogs, but I'll be looking for it this weekend. I get Yankee for slightly different reasons. I distribute them.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by RJARRRPCGP

We don't have a problem with "mcmansions" down here. That sounds more like what would occur in states with big cities, *cough cough* Illinois.
And more like *cough cough* Claremont.

I'm seeing them turn up here, saw a bunch in Mt Holly a while back (almost every last one with a for sale sign lol), and Chittenden County is full of them. A blight on our mountain sides and on our former farmland.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by square peg

In the 1986 the federal government instituted a nationwide whole herd buyout program due to a surplus in the industry. Many VT farmers sold out and never looked back, selling their land off and making some handsome gains. Some of the non-qualifying farmers burned their barns and collected on their insurance - and then sold their land. In the next few years I was witness to four such fires in Troy alone. To this day I still see articles in the news where farmers are being paid 1980s prices for their milk. I think that says a lot.

There seem to be several ways to maintain farms these days. Diversify, go organic, or become a mega franchise conglomerate member. All three exist in this area and it's hard to find fault with any of them with their choices for survival.

I haven't seen that article, Logs and Dogs, but I'll be looking for it this weekend. I get Yankee for slightly different reasons. I distribute them.

Yeah, that's what my family did (the sell out part, not the burn down the barn part). We were losing money every day. the organic specialty markets weren't really there yet, especially not in the NEK, to take advantage of. The maple syrup and apple business was all that kept the farm half way afloat in the last years, but expanding that would have taken years to get more trees ready. It disgusts me though, that land split up and sold.

[looking4home]

Log and Dogs, I wish you could link the article! I have some nice back issues of Yankee, and one great book set form the '70's called The Forgotten Arts that instructs you how to do everything form creating your own ice skating pond (not as easy as it sounds!) to building a ladder for apple picking to making milk paint. It's a great collection.