The Very Real Barriers Between Artisan and Commodity Farming

I guess the ayes have it with regard to Joel Salatin’s fee-for-tour approach. Ecologically oriented farmers are in business to do good, but also to make money, is what I hear.

I actually believe there is a larger question growing out of this discussion, which is as follows: Is it realistic to think that Joel’s approach of using mobility and pasture feeding of animals, could become the norm in American agriculture, replacing existing factory farming techniques?

I asked Joel whether he thought corporate farms would be either capable or inclined toward his farming methods, given their potential for improving product quality, while not necessarily increasing costs. Probably neither, he said.

The way he explained it, what the corporate farms do is commodity oriented. What Joel and increasing numbers of small farms are doing is artisan oriented.

“The artisan approach has never been applied to food in our culture,” he said. “The problem is when a commodity-oriented operation tries to be artisanal, and an artisanal operation tries to be more commodity oriented.”

What I got from this perceptive analysis is that an artisan is focused first and foremost on quality. The commodity-oriented farm is focused first and foremost on quantity. Just as there are furniture makers who handcraft small numbers of chairs and tables that last for generations, and factories that turn out huge numbers of chairs and tables that tend to fall apart within a few tears,

So an artisan farm, even as it becomes increasingly productive, as Polyface Farm has done, will inevitably cut corners once it seeks to ramp production up beyond a certain point, and will in the process compromise quality. Similarly, a factory farm likely doesn’t have the commitment to stick with humane animal practices or to keeping animals eating grass if the managers know they can save a few dollars by cramming extra animals into a facility or substituting feed for hay in the winter. Suddenly grass fed becomes “partially grass fed” or “at least 30% grass fed” (much like “fruit drink” that really contains only 10% fruit juice, with the rest sugar and water).

Based on Joel’s assessment, I think it’s reasonable to expect more small farms adopting his techniques. But look for the big guys to find ways to capitalize on the “artisan” vocabulary, much as they have with “cage-free” eggs and “organic” milk. In other words, look out for the marketing word games.