THE OTHER HALF OF FARMING.

The other day a local logger stopped by the cabin to see if we had any timber we wanted to sell. I pointed to our forest of tiny cedars and said, "Sure, have at it!"He laughed, but then his eyes lit up and said, "Well, you got a nice white oak down there at the road––wanna cut that?"It is a nice white oak. It's one of the nicest in the area, in fact. It's on the border of our property with Bugtussle Farm and could be worth $3,000 or more––$1,500 per family if we cut it. But when I told the logger we wanted to keep the tree, he laughed in that way someone does when you're being idealistic.Trees are an important part of maintaining the environment, though, and that's why we want to keep it. We want to keep it because it keeps our hollow nice and cool, because it creates oxygen, because someone has to keep trees. We want to keep it precisely because it is a nice white oak. Sure we could use the money, but we have to say no sometimes. Idealistic or not, we have to keep some good trees around.But it is this part of the job that we cannot charge anyone for––we cannot charge money for all the carbon we trap in our soil, all the soil we build, all the runoff we prevent, all the trees we keep. No one pays us for when we make a environmental decision that costs us $1,500 or more. We charge money for vegetables, sure, but we can't charge for the less tangible, and arguably more difficult, part of farming. We can't charge for all the good we do, even if it's the majority of the job.And perhaps this is why larger farmers don't care. Because no one––sparse government subsidies aside––is going to pay them for caring, for maintaining forests,  for rotating their animals frequently, growing a diversity of vegetables, for turning down fracking opportunities, or mulching their gardens. Farmers get paid for what we produce, so in turn conventional farmers produce as much as possible, and we unconventional famers just accept the pay cut.So is there a solution? Not sure. Perhaps there's an investment opportunity in it. Perhaps small farmers could offer carbon shares, and every year or so measure the organic matter increase of their soil––the carbon capture––and report that to their shareholders who could then write it off. Perhaps we could sell shares in keeping certain trees alive. Or just in the farm itself. Doubling the price of our vegetables to reflect their true cost is an option also, especially if we want to sell zero vegetables. Or maybe we small farmers could just stop being so idealistic and cut the trees. But I didn't get into this farming thing to be part of the problem. I got into it because of all the good a good farmer can do, even when, at least for now, we have to do most of it for free.- Jesse.