[Perris]

This may be of interest to those who think about this topic; I certainly found it informative 
https://ourworldindata.org/farm-size

[chrismahon]

I found it informative as well- thank you Perris.


There are a lot of small producers here who grow veg for the local weekly markets. Here, what you produce depends a lot on your water supply, because mains water is expensive and contains a lot of Chlorine which isn't good for the flavour of your product.

[Fleecewife]

That's an interesting point about Chlorine in the water affecting the taste of veggies.  We use rainwater or our well water in an emergency so if we were producing veg for sale that would be a good selling point 
However I decided a while ago that working myself into my grave to feed someone else who could easily grow their own and was a third of my age wasn't for me 


I shall read the link later - this is certainly something I am interested in.

[Wannabeesmallholder]

Very interesting link thankyou. I feel many smallholders have been put out of business or priced out by big industrial farming.. To be honest its a system that doesn't even benefit the big producers anymore. Oddly it really only  seems to benefit supermarkets.. Producers or customers don't really.
One thing Britain does have over other nations  is a abundance of natural rain water our veg should be perfect 😄

[Kiran]

That was interesting, speaking personally as someone who is new to this, we have space but the capital investment is massive to produce pretty much anything on a meaningful scale. We have space but I very much doubt it's enough to give up work to farm full time to maximise our output. We're in Swansea and I'm pretty sure we got into this too late to benefit from things like Glastir and even if we didnt from the documents I read online it wasnt all that clear about how you applied for it. Planting or fencing, for example, per m doesn't seem that expensive but when you work out the about you need it very quickly mounts up. The result of that is that I have some empty fields that I have been trying to bring back into some kind of reasonable condition but it's unlikely that they'll be producing food for anyone anytime soon however much I might like too.

[Perris]

That was interesting, speaking personally as someone who is new to this, we have space but the capital investment is massive to produce pretty much anything on a meaningful scale. We have space but I very much doubt it's enough to give up work to farm full time to maximise our output. We're in Swansea and I'm pretty sure we got into this too late to benefit from things like Glastir and even if we didnt from the documents I read online it wasnt all that clear about how you applied for it. Planting or fencing, for example, per m doesn't seem that expensive but when you work out the about you need it very quickly mounts up. The result of that is that I have some empty fields that I have been trying to bring back into some kind of reasonable condition but it's unlikely that they'll be producing food for anyone anytime soon however much I might like too.

Have you thought about offering them to a CSA Kiran?

[Kiran]

 We did start making initial enquiries about grazing some of the land with the meat share schemes, didnt really get any real traction with that. I hadnt thought about it for the purposes of growing crops,

[Perris]

Tom O'Kane at Cae Tan is training young people who want to go into horticulture all the time Kiran; he would know if your fields would be suitable and who might live close enough to want to cultivate them. http://www.caetancsa.org/en/

[Kiran]

Thank you for the tip, I'll take a look.

[Steph Hen]

I’ve just finished an online course with him. Incredibly informative and inspirational.
It’s often about grant funding to get such ventures off the ground. He and all the other CSA people will likely be pretty flat out just now but would be a good person to try. He has other contacts, and previous students who’ve set up further CSAs in Swansea/Gower region. (I’m from Bridgend so know the area but live in Scotland so no use to you as a contact).

Most of these schemes seem pretty marginal in terms of profits. I think the quality and health benefits are small and difficult to value. Once roasted and blended into a sauce with herbs, most tomatoes taste about the same, none will make you ill. Except that the local, organic ones are more sustainable and over 1-25 years will impart better health. But it’s very hard to measure that.