Nate,

You touch on a very important topic for the future. If a small farmers does NOT grow an excess that he can trade and barter for goods he does not grow or manufacture himself then the system will not work. None of us are self sufficient unless we are living like the natives did on the Great Plains or in the Amazon. All of our farmer ancestors had a civilization behind them making things that the excess farm products were traded for. Everything from plows to hand tools to rifles.

How do we recreate that infrastructure. We not only need new farmers but blacksmiths. And host of other skills. In my location we are so far from having the critical mass of such skills that it is most difficult to imagine how to even get there.

I have talked with a few of the small local farmers a little about creating a CSA that was supported by a number of us small farmers. then we could each get a little of that economy of scale you speak of and thereby be a little more profitable. There just does not seem to be of us in the area yet to try that either.

Finding farm labor is a really big issue also. One almost has to have a bunkhouse or some such lodging on the farm to be able to find workers. It is far too expensive locally for farm workers to obtain outside lodging. There are some immigrants in the area who will work on farms when they cannot find construction jobs. They normally have some kind of communal living arrangements that allow them to live very cheaply. Farming is not their first choice due to the very low wages, but they are good workers. Almost all farmers I know have a low opinion of the work ethic of the summer high school and college students. But that tends to be all that is available.

The above labor issue is one that will be essential to work out for the future. As farm "families" will probably not consist of large numbers of children like they did for our ancestors (some of my ancestors have 10-13 children) we will have a labor issue to solve. Lots of "hired" men/women will be required.

Wyo