I got a very strange comment about a week ago, about why we were "green" in our farming, that we were there to feed the elite and that our "green agenda" was destroying the middle class.
I wish I was kidding!
First, and we've made it clear from the very start that we became farmers to make money. We saw farming as a very profitable business mainly because it is "unsexy". As a fund manager, I observed how clients would want to invest in sexy businesses that were generating minimal cash flow, but boring stuff that was massively profitable they would not even consider.
We became organic farmers for one reason; the hotel and restaurant business that is at the core of our clients demands organicly grown fruits, vegetables and meats. In addition, because we employ humane procedures and can prove this, they are more than willing to pay for it. This is exactly the opposite of the high street trade, they want bio chicken raised in liberty at the price of broiler chickens. In other words, they do not stand behind their principles economically.
We invested in biodigesters because we had two problems; our production cycle requires that we operate more or less 365 days a year in growing fruits and vegetables. We produce a lot of manure from our goats and cattle and a lot of polluted water (from the same source). At the same time, we saw that the price of LPG (propane in the US) was volatile (it moves a lot). Our polluted water from our cattle operations was something that we needed to address. Only biodigesters provided a solution to our pollution problem but also generated usable biogases.
We are organic farmers because it pays better. We have our own slaughter operations because we quadruple the price of our meat. Our polyculture fruits and vegetables command a premium because we use no pesticides or herbicides, and suit our clients' demands. Several times a year, we will receive calls from our distributors because chefs want to visit our farm.
To all the haters, just know that our business thrives because we decided to fulfil real demand in the United Kingdom. Granted we got a few "freebies" through the absolute and egregious incompetence of Whitehall and 10 Downing Street, but even without this economic windfall our farm would have generated excellent profits not only for us but also for our employees.
We don't share with employees because we love them (although we do like them) we share our benefits because they are integral to our success. We need our pickers to show up every morning at 6 am to work hard to the benefit of the farm. Are they all perfect, of course not, but we are more than satisfied by the work that they accomplish every single day -- including this week when the thermometer was gravitating around zero. We need them to tell us when they think that have seen lame animals when they walk around.
Only an idiot treats his workers poorly, without them we have nothing to offer. All our staff is British, not because we are jingoists, but because are picking is not restricted to a particular time of the year. We are not "good" out of principle, we do what we do because it really is the only logical solution to our farming operations.
Finally, in the 21st century farming is not a bucolic affair, it is an industrial business, and it requires evolving skills. Our biologist and ecologist are busy every day of the year. Our Formen and our farm manager spend hours a week seeking and applying more knowledge to the farm. We do not live in an episode of All Creatures Great and Small, we live in the real world of British industrial farming.
Note: The skiing was excellent, my thighs are killing me tonight
Note2: I don't understand the rude comments. If you do something and generate losses, eventually you will have to stop. It is far better that we pay our staff more because they deserve it and add to the farm's profitability than through some kind of namby-pamby bullshit feel-good. Where I have an objection is where owners don't share the benefits of the workers' upside and keep it all for themselves as their due! When we look at profit distribution, we have an item which is a return on capital (it's scaled but it's about 18%) the rest is for our employees. Our farm manager did the analysis, the minimum wage in the UK is ￡11.44, and we pay no less than ￡ 15.50 but when taking bonuses into consideration hourly wages for our farm are over￡18.00. So we pay our employees 62% above minimum wages.
BTW these are declared wages, so we also pay all the additional expenses usual for employees. What I want to stress is that we pay all our employees legally, there is no off-the-book employees on our farm.
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