Growing food is easy, selling it is hard. This is one of many reasons why there are no small farmers any more. As the food processing industry and retail buys only huge quantities. The only thing left to a large extend are big industrial farmers that sell huge amounts. In order to make profits, economies of scale is the motto; quantity over quality. When only making cents on a product, you have to be big or grow really fast. That is the reason why a lot of farmers are heavily in debt, with little room do innovate or to do things different. A small wheel in the big value chain machinery of food production.
However, if we want to change agriculture, this change will start at the consumer level, and it already has begun. There is more and more awareness that at least some agricultural practices are simply not good. And it is not only about soil erosion, climate change or the heavy use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides. Even more important is health, both our physical health and psychical health. It is evident now that xenohormetic molecules produced in stressed plants have a positive effect on the human body, even longevity-conferring effect. Plants stressed due to heat or cold, funghi, bacteria or predators or any other circumstances might help against the three most common causes of death in our western society’s (even cancer).
Consumers will ask for that, which opens up opportunities for new small farmers (Read more about healthy plants-heathy soil later here). Most important we have to connect theses farmers with the consumers and provide effective logistics solution so that farmers easily can sell B2C (business to consumer). By doing can make a decent profits even with small farms.
But most important, we might change as a society. More than 1-2 percent of people will and maybe should work in agriculture. There is not much more satisfying in life than grow food. People buy directly the farmer they trust, products that make us healthy and improve our quality of life.