reading (Mini Farming)
Aug. 28th, 2011 11:02 amI finished "Mini Farming" on Thursday evening. First, I must admit I made any number of jokes about how neat it would be to farm Mini Coopers. Just plant a bumper, water, oil, and wait.
The first few chapters of this book drove me absolutely batty. That's because Markham is trying to make the case that farming on a half acre of land can bring in enough money to replace one average earner's salary with only 10 hours work per week. If he had taken the time instead to talk about the environmental benefits and the possible psychological benefits, then I think this book would have come off much better. In the end, he makes it about money.
In order to make the money work, he plays fast and loose with the numbers. He compares gross income on the farming side, with net on the wage earning side. He rounds liberally in favor of farming income at some critical points. Notably, right off he omits walking space from his raised bed equations while including the walking space in "conventional" farming equations. But there are lots of other examples. In these chapters, I feel he completely misrepresents the equation just because he wanted to stress profitability. The funny thing is, he goes on to talk in later chapters about many of the complications that he omits from the monetary and time equations.
He also misses some critical points that I feel need to be addressed. He is writing this book ostensibly for people living on average American 1/2 acre house lots. A big factor in his system assumes his audience can keep multiple compost piles and compost all their organics. I think there are many home owners associations that forbid this. Another big component of his system is keeping chickens for eggs and possibly meat. Forget the homeowners associations, many municipalities forbid that. Some are coming around now, but it's still illegal in many places. If you take away those two processes, one for generating fertilizer and the other for generating protein, you are providing a lot less of your own needs.
Once you get through the first few chapters, then things start to get better. The central section of the book is filled with information. Markham leaves off with justifying his system and digs in and starts giving suggestions, ideas, and knowledge about various aspects of gardening and small farming. His chapter on seed starting alone is worth the price of the book. There is a lot of good stuff here, not present in great detail, but with enough detail to be usable for the most part while still maintaining easy readability. I was really impressed with chapters 3 through 16. There was still very little mention of costs. The only time cost came up was when a recommended method saved money over a different method. The book is silent anywhere expenses can be expected that might change the profitability equation.
The last few chapters felt like filler. The chapter dedicated entirely to the motorized chicken plucker feels like overkill for the stated audience. The reader may have to pluck half a dozen chickens once a year, dedicating a chapter to a device that would take decades to pay off in those volumes is pointless. The chapter on thresher designs seems pointless after in a previous chapter it was made very obvious that growing grain is not particularly viable. In the final two chapters we go back to trying to justify the replacement of one income and returns to the shaky foundation we started on.
So this is a deeply flawed book in its main premise, but it's also a good book in its details. If you can look at the hype with a critical eye, the book has lots of valuable information. I don't for a minute believe that half the working people in America could quite their jobs and go into mini farming based on the advice of this book. I do believe a lot of people could increase their yields, eat healthier and better tasting food, and be better off for using the ideas in this book.
34. Brett L. Markham "Mini Farming"
The first few chapters of this book drove me absolutely batty. That's because Markham is trying to make the case that farming on a half acre of land can bring in enough money to replace one average earner's salary with only 10 hours work per week. If he had taken the time instead to talk about the environmental benefits and the possible psychological benefits, then I think this book would have come off much better. In the end, he makes it about money.
In order to make the money work, he plays fast and loose with the numbers. He compares gross income on the farming side, with net on the wage earning side. He rounds liberally in favor of farming income at some critical points. Notably, right off he omits walking space from his raised bed equations while including the walking space in "conventional" farming equations. But there are lots of other examples. In these chapters, I feel he completely misrepresents the equation just because he wanted to stress profitability. The funny thing is, he goes on to talk in later chapters about many of the complications that he omits from the monetary and time equations.
He also misses some critical points that I feel need to be addressed. He is writing this book ostensibly for people living on average American 1/2 acre house lots. A big factor in his system assumes his audience can keep multiple compost piles and compost all their organics. I think there are many home owners associations that forbid this. Another big component of his system is keeping chickens for eggs and possibly meat. Forget the homeowners associations, many municipalities forbid that. Some are coming around now, but it's still illegal in many places. If you take away those two processes, one for generating fertilizer and the other for generating protein, you are providing a lot less of your own needs.
Once you get through the first few chapters, then things start to get better. The central section of the book is filled with information. Markham leaves off with justifying his system and digs in and starts giving suggestions, ideas, and knowledge about various aspects of gardening and small farming. His chapter on seed starting alone is worth the price of the book. There is a lot of good stuff here, not present in great detail, but with enough detail to be usable for the most part while still maintaining easy readability. I was really impressed with chapters 3 through 16. There was still very little mention of costs. The only time cost came up was when a recommended method saved money over a different method. The book is silent anywhere expenses can be expected that might change the profitability equation.
The last few chapters felt like filler. The chapter dedicated entirely to the motorized chicken plucker feels like overkill for the stated audience. The reader may have to pluck half a dozen chickens once a year, dedicating a chapter to a device that would take decades to pay off in those volumes is pointless. The chapter on thresher designs seems pointless after in a previous chapter it was made very obvious that growing grain is not particularly viable. In the final two chapters we go back to trying to justify the replacement of one income and returns to the shaky foundation we started on.
So this is a deeply flawed book in its main premise, but it's also a good book in its details. If you can look at the hype with a critical eye, the book has lots of valuable information. I don't for a minute believe that half the working people in America could quite their jobs and go into mini farming based on the advice of this book. I do believe a lot of people could increase their yields, eat healthier and better tasting food, and be better off for using the ideas in this book.
34. Brett L. Markham "Mini Farming"