Farms With A Future

As communities seek greater resiliency in the wake of economic upheaval, job loss, climate change, and global food shortages, local farmers are seen as a key resource to help reinvigorate (or create) a diversified, regionalized, ecologically based food system. Farms with a Future explores the passion, creativity, and entrepreneurship needed to help family farms find their niche and remain sustainable and successful in an age of agribusiness and consolidation. What is a farm with a future? What will make it sustainable and resilient? And what key qualities and skills do a farmer need in today's climate to be successful? Rebecca Thistlethwaite addresses these and other crucial questions in this must-read book for anyone aspiring to get into small to mid-scale market farming or who wants to make their existing farm more dynamic, profitable, and, above all, sustainable. A growing interest in locally grown food is evident: In 2008, local food sales (direct to consumers or restaurants/retail