Comments on: What’s Organic Farmland Worth? Or Is It A Pearl Without Price?

By: Jan Steinman

Jan Steinman — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:30:03 +0000

One solution to high land prices is co-operative ownership. Can’t afford the payments on a $900,000, 100 acre farm? What about if ten people went together to do it?

Personally, I think good quality farmland will not go down in price, or at least it won’t go down as much as suburban McMansions. Food is going to get more important Real Soon Now as the price of oil whipsaws up and down. Oil is food! At least in conventional, fertilizer/pesticide farming, which is still the vast majority.

People are relieved that oil, once nearly $150 a barrel, is now almost down to $60. Some day, they’ll be happy to see it return to $500 a barrel, down from $850. They ain’t putting any more dead dinosaurs in the ground! The world has never seen more than 85 million barrels pumped in a day — and that was in May, 2005! We’re on a plateau that can’t continue, and soon, oil production is going to start dropping, perhaps as much as 7% a year, which means we’ll have half as much in just ten years.

How are we going to feed everyone as oil becomes more and more scarce? The answer may well be organic farming, but that means more land in most cases, which means farmland will remain valuable.

By: Gene Logsdon

Gene Logsdon — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:08:07 +0000

To Mike S from Gene Logsdon I will be signing books at the Buckeye Book Fair in Wooster Ohio (on the campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center on Nov. 1 all day. I think that’s the last one this year.

By: Mike S.

Mike S. — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:57:16 +0000

I love these articles, they are great. I’m trying to pick out a nice plot of land to enjoy someday and the whole proccess is overwhelming. The more a learn, the more I feel I don’t know. You have been a great help. Also, I just finished reading The Contrary Farmer and really enjoyed it. I would love to meet you some day, so please let us know if you do booking signings or workshops anywhere.

Stuck in an office,
Mike S.
Dayton, OH

By: Gene Logsdon

Gene Logsdon — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:38:55 +0000

Kerri from Gene, I think you’ve got it right on the button. Here’s a true example of what the future could bring. In Belgium over the last 40 years, land has become so precious that in some instances towns pried up their sidewalks to make more garden space.
Granny Miller from Gene, Ditto the above. Thanks to both of you for writing.

By: Kerri

Kerri — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:50:15 +0000

I sure hope you’re correct that land prices will tank. Or, at least, tank in Alaska. Got my eye on a couple of vacant properties in my urban neighborhood that aren’t built on. One was farmed up until about five years ago and the other had a ramshackle rental building torn down about a year ago. The rental building lot has had For Sale signs on it with no takers. The other lot was growing birch seedlings until a month or so ago when someone came through and cut them down. But no action on either lot since then. I’m looking to expand my garden space in the near future with nearby lots if possible. The city has community garden space but nowhere near where I live. Yeah, I suppose I could partake in guerrilla gardening on vacant lots but I’d rather be safe and own the land myself.

I suspect that the land is “valued” somewhere up where unrealistic residential land values are but the housing market has slowed in Anchorage. Housing is being sold extremely slowly and very little new construction has been done in the last year. The new construction I’ve seen in the neighborhood is still up for sale. So I’m hopeful that the lots up for sale won’t sell at the price asked and will slowly come down. I’d love to have the opportunity to create some urban organic farmland less than two miles from downtown. I could make it look pretty and produce food at the same time. What do you think??

Kerri in AK

By: granny miller

granny miller — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:53:22 +0000

Very well said Gene.

The current economic “crisis” has given me a renewed hope for small family farms, little homesteads and even folks living on 1/2 acre suburban lots.

I expect to see a renaissance in backyard chickens, bunnies, milk goats, vegetable gardening & home canning.
I also expect a national and collective reevaluation of basic life assumptions and the shunning of Madison Avenue.

Hopefully affordable land & a sustained downturn in the money economy will be an opportunity for young people to get started with their own small farms & little places.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see “rent to own” and “article of agreement” deals popping up all over the countryside between big petroleum farmers and small farmer wanna bes.
When mortgages can’t be had & big ag debts come due it will seem like an attractive alternative.

Hopefully people will begin to see the foolishness of certain zoning restrictions and/or “convenants” and demand repeal.

Clotheslines, wood piles, small livestock, vegetable gardens etc. will bring a greater sense of security to many people who now are prohibited from taking care of themselves.
Snobbery and middle class TV aesthetics won’t put food on the table or keep the pipes from freezing.