Page 10 RAIN October 1978 AGRICULTURE Small Farm Marketing: 31 Farms in Maine, _David Vail and Michael Rozyne, 1978, Idea Paper No. 9, 50¢ from: Maine Small Farm Project Department of Economics Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME 04011 The -Family Farm in California, Report of the Small Farm Viability Project, 1977, from:' ' • • Attn: Bill Myers Economic Development Divisi~n State of California 1 Sacramento, CA Take a look at the_se two reports together if you'd like to get a sense of what size and bureaucracy do for solving problems. Admittedly, Californi'a agricultural problems are_far different from Maine's. And the Small Farm Viability Project report contains a wea,lth of valuable information-most notably the results of a study led by Isao Fujimoto at UC-Davis that expanded,t9 130 communities in the San J oaq·uin Valley the classic A_rvin and Dinubia study of Walter Goldschmidt. Vail's group merely went out and talked with 31 successful small farmers fo Maine, talked with •them about the problems they had had to overcome, and shared the insights of other.farmers they had talked with. The significant difference, though, is the form of the recommendations. Vail suggests concrete actions based on specific and real experiences of the people Final ,e1ec11on of pton1tnq oreoi was mode Soulh of lhe heavy 1,ne whoch 1ndocolH thmot,c hm,tohuns ~ Areas sa,101>IP. tor Guoyule productl~n involved. The California report consistently appeals to the bureaucracy-.-for the Extension Service to do this, for the universities to do that, for a commission to be set up here, for the governor's ·office to have a special' small farm representative there. Almost all , ring hollow-they lack a clear sense of the problems and the lever.age points to affect them, and enough sensitivity to people to recognize that such institutional structures and directives alone · are useless and that the crucial element is having the right people with the , right skills, enthusiasm a:nd experience in the right place. The record of bureaucracies achieving that is rather dismal. Together the reports say "Get out in the field, and look to the people, not the government to solve your problems." --TB • Title 4 of the Family Farm Development Act (HR ,10716) was signed into law in August providing FMHA ownership loans for small farmers at low 5 percent · •interest levels, "ballooned" payments for lower initial principal and interest payments,-and funds f~r farm production cooperatives and small farmers otherwise unable to obtain credit through other private and public , sources. This program ·will help to address the credit needs of the 1.6 million farmers with less than $20,000 gross sales. For more information_on Title 4 or the remaining eight proposed titles yet unpassed, 'write to Rep. George E: Brown, Jr., 2342 Rayburn Bldg., Wash-:.. ington, DC 205~5. -SA 10() --=--:~__.:.-. \tAl f o, MIL(t from GUAYULE "A Perspective on Cropland Avail- , ability," AER-406 to ESCS Publications, free from: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Rm. 0054-S Washingt-0n, DC 20250 This recent study identifies 15 million acres of high potential land with no limitation to development which • could be converted to crop production. The study analyzes th'e amount,. location and quality of land with cropland potential, by region, and outlines future research needs for conversion of non-cropland to cropland. -LJ • Guayule: An Alternative So~rce of Natural Rubber, National Academy of Sciences, 1977, NTIS No. PB264170, $5.00 The Winged Bean: A High Protein Crop for the Tropics, National Academy of Sciences, 1975, NTIS No. PB 243-442, $4.00 Single c~pies of both.reports are free if requested on government-, educational or research institutional letterhead, from: Commission on International Relations (J H 215) National Academy of SciencesNational Research Council 2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, DC 20418 Two more of the commendable reports from NAS on overlooke~ agricultural potentials-The Winged Bean is a classic in the series-eas_ily grown, leguminous (producing its own 'nitrogen from the , air), edible and highly nutritious leaves, flowers, roots, seed pods and seeds. An.uncommonly valuable plant for many tropical areas. Guayule has more direct implications for the U.S. A desert shrub that,produces natural rubber, it is a potential-domestic product that can replace our-current (719,000 tons, $500 million in 1974) import of natural ru~ber from foreign countries. Interestingly, more than 3 million pounds of guayule ,natural rubber were produced • in the U.S. during WWII. This report covers resear_ch on guayule since that time-processing techniques, biological research, and a survey ,of condition~ that suggest renewed potential for commercial application: exhaustion of petrochemical sources for synthetic rubber, • limited ecological base for tree-originated rubber, increased poten,tial for political,, economic, or biological restriction of that supply in face of -growing · -worldwide rubber demand, and of course our own import-export trade imbalances. ~TB
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