Be A Farmer

Most people prefer working to sitting around. I have to wonder if America should do what Japan has done and start training the unemployed in how to farm. It sure isn't doing its part to bring manufacturing back to America, not with us so beholden to China, probably under implicit threat of economic retaliation.

The USA itself has a huge population and is land rich, but needs proper irrigation to use more of it for its primary export: food. Specifically grains like Wheat, Corn, Soybeans, and Rice. That can't happen as long as there's no money in agriculture, which is why the higher prices in food are a good thing for farmers. Of course, Farmers are huge users of petrochemicals: diesel fuel, pesticides, fertilizer, and transport fuel. The smart ones factor in the oil price to their selling price so they can stay in business. Organic farming avoids most of the petrochemicals. Solar power to charge up battery powered electric tractors (don't laugh, they exist) is starting to become a real way to do business in desperately rural locations, ones where the cost of delivery of diesel fuel for a conventional tractor just wasn't economical. I can see these becoming a common thing. With cheap solar panels, a lot of things start to make sense again. Like pumping from deep water wells. It would be better if the aquifers were full, but that's a big project that will take decades to complete. A topic for another post.

Many of the people who are unemployed today would probably welcome the long hours of labor if they were trained in farming and deposited on an abandoned farm for a reasonable mortgage. I couldn't be a farmer straight out of nothing, myself. I don't know when to do what step, what to prep for, how to do field repairs of machinery, or the consequences of screw ups that aren't painfully obvious. I'd need training for that. The local college has Horticulture classes, but they aren't farming oriented so much as how to be a landscape contractor and compete with Mexicans with a lawnmover and leaf blower.

That's not the same job. I'm talking about managing 1000 chickens at an egg factory in a shed built or converted for the purpose, with humane sized cages, ventilation, feed delivery, limited climate control. I'm talking about learning how to set up delivery contracts for the local restaurants and markets. Hiring or making the deliveries daily so fresh eggs are served at breakfast at every greasy spoon in town. And doing it cheap enough that no competitors ruin the egg farmer. Who trains that? I can certainly tell you that you won't make enough to pay off student loans from UC Davis at that scale of operation, and small operators are what the nation needs, not another giant.

How about training as an Orchardist? Learn what special trees should be chosen for your soil type and climate. How to plant and care for them the 3-5 years they need till they start producing fruit. How to identify and protect them from disease. How to prune them back properly every winter so they keep putting out fruit annually. And calculate having enough acreage of fruit trees to support yourself and pay the mortgage on the land etc. And do it cheaper than imported fruit can. The investment of those first 3-5 years with no income from the fruit, that's going to add to the interest on the loan too. Managing the money from good year to bad, when frost or hail can wipe out your crop, this is why people gave up farming and moved to the city. If you can only get poor farming, why do it? That's a big problem. Never get into an industry that has rock concerts to raise money to keep it going. Unfortunately, farming is what America is good for.

So are we all going to end up farmers eventually? Probably not. But many of us will either be farmers or part of their support structure. All that really buoys up our currency is farming. The rest are shares in companies that are offshored into countries with unstable structures and just as likely to fail for many reasons. Who needs that? Farming is a growth industry.

• If you hate being dirty but love to shop, be a wholesaler with a truck (or a boat). Buy direct, do the transport, sell it on for a profit.
• If you like metals, work in the welding and machining industry, fixing or making all those agricultural implements. There's work in that. If farming expands like I think it will, lots of work. A real growth industry. 
• If you like to cook, run the cafeteria or catering company feeding the farm workers, or run a greasy spoon in a farm town. Those still exist, you know. 
• So do the pubs for after hours. People good at brewing beer or distilling booze or making wine have a bright future for all those tired farmers. No sense being miserable just because you work 18 hours a day covered in dirty and dooky. 
• There's also crucial jobs for preserving and packaging the food harvested, and maintaining the equipment that does that job. Its seasonal, so have something else to do the rest of the year.
• Throw in the transportation of those packaged foods via train (again a growth industry) and barge and ship, internationally. If China seizes the Panama Canal, you'll get to either go around the horn or do runs along the Pacific coast, trading back and forth, avoiding pirates and storms. Adventure!
• There's also unconventional farming, fish and shellfish on the coasts and on the open ocean. Perhaps very boring, but its a job and it will make for a lot of cheap protein (that isn't eggs) to eat. Might be okay for couples, as its a Lighthouse Keeper kind of job. Good profit too, provided you can keep it running through the various conditions. Farmed salmon is the primary kind sold to restaurants and the public these days. Same with oysters and mussels. 
• Traditional fishing is going to come back once the diesel goes away. All those diesel fishing boats are going to be obsolete. It will take years to train crews and build boats good at fishing via sail and so catches will be disappointing, giving each species of commercial fish a chance to make a real comeback. This means tuna and herring and cod and sardines will make a big return to their natural numbers. The central California coast used to be teeming with sardines. Picture catching those with sailing vessels instead of big diesels dragging nets. Very macho. 

This is our future. These jobs have a future. As our "information economy" evaporates into the smoke and dreams it always was, we'll be left with the above. What are you going to pick?