Here’s part of the insanity that I wasn’t aware of:

Case in point:  The Environmental Protection Agency classifies milk as an oil because of its animal fat content. It therefore subjects dairy producers to the same costly rules that are designed to prevent oil spills. As part of the new Obama administration initiative, the EPA is moving to exempt the dairy industry from the federal Spill, Prevention, Control and Countermeasures regulations.

Did you know that spilling milk required “Countermeasures”? Amazingly stupid. The only “countermeasure” you need are thirsty kittens to lick up the spill!

But what this means is that only larger and larger businesses are able to financially comply with increasing loads of such regulatory manure.  While you may be saying “I  don’t care, I don’t run a dairy”, the reality is that rules like this are destroying family farms and the ability of small farmers to make a living.  What takes their place, large corporate “agribusiness”.

Just a few decades ago, a family in my county could operate a small dairy farm, have a small herd of 20 or 30 cows and make at least a plausible livelihood. Regulations like this, on top of everything else going on in farming, have made this impossible.

I’m not a fan of Newt Gingrich’s Presidential candidacy for mancy reasons. But one proposal of replacing the “Environmental Protection Agency” with an “Environmental Solutions Agency” makes sense, especially with idiotic regulations like this!

How about producing things that are commonly considered to be “manufactured” items?

Are economies of scale really beyond the home business person’s grasp?

What is the biggest “cost” of doing business that could be eliminated in many cases?

All these questions are considered in a very old book that I’ve found available for free on the Internet.

The book is called:  Flight From The City – an experiment in creative living on the land (1933)

You won’t want to follow all it’s ideals. The author was an eccentric but brilliant man who said lots of insightful things but was an impractical utopian in some ways.

BUT – if you’re wondering if you can produce items on a small scale that can be profitable to sell (and you consider that you have Etsy.com and other outlets to cut down on the the hidden cost of doing business Borsodi writes about)… this may open your eyes!

Of course the main start up cost is the capital investment of a professional kitchen space that will pass local health ordinances. It might cost $10,000 but it may be more or less depending on where you are.

Once you have that and the appropriate business licenses and insurance, you can go to work.

The idea of course is to build up a clientele and expand enough to earn a living.

If you do have a clientele though, getting additional expansion capital may be easier than you think. See my article on that: Can you use this technique to fund your businesses expansion?

Start & Run a Home-Based Food Business

Are you one of the many people who dream of making a profit selling your own homemade foods? Now, with this one-of-a-kind, easy-to-follow guide, you can realize your home-based food business dreams! With over 25 years’ experience, author Mimi Shotland Fix takes you step-by-step through the process of starting and running a food business. Whether you’ve always envisioned yourself with a home-based food business, need a second source of income or want to stay at home and be your own boss, Start & Run a Home-Based Food Business offers dozens of tips, examples and advice for you to run a profitable business from your own kitchen! The CD-ROM includes resources and forms in PDF and MS Word formats, for use on a Windows-based PC. The CD-ROM includes: – Lists of books, websites and trade magazines – National and regional suppliers – Sample contracts, invoices and accounting forms – Tried-and-true recipes And more!

Rating: (out of 7 reviews)

List Price: $ 21.95

Price: $ 13.77

Local family farming operations go organic

In central Illinois, folks are fairly accustomed to seeing cattle grazing in the fields, but the Bowmans are one of a few area farm families who are raising their cows differently these days. Within the past five years or so, they have begun to raise organically produced cattle and sell them through their business, known as Sangamon Valley Cattle Co.

“We had all this ground and grass — it is the perfect place to do this,” Stacy says. “Plus, we wanted to know where our food was coming from.” At first the couple just raised a few cattle for their own personal use, but as more people began to ask about buying the meat, they began to slowly increase their business.

Every year or so, the Bowmans buy about 20 steers from a certified organic cattle dealer in central Illinois. The steers are about 11 months old and weigh approximately 500 pounds at the time of purchase. They grow to about 1,050 pounds to 1,100 pounds before they are sent to market.

HT Small Biz Survival

From the ChristianObserver.org:

The National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association reports that agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at 9:40 a.m. on 4 February 2010, ignored “No Trespassing” signs, and drove up to a barn on Amish farmer Dan Allgyer’s property in Kinzers, Pennsylvania, near Lancaster, telling the farmer that they were there to conduct an investigation, as the agent told Mr. Allgyer, because “you produce food for human consumption.” Allgyer asked the agents why they believed that, to which they replied: “Well, you have cows. You cannot be consuming all the milk you produce….If you get a milk truck in to move all this milk you sell milk to the public, therefore we have jurisdiction.”

Mr. Allgyer called his attorney, who advised that the FDA agents should call him. The agents refused, and drove to a neighbor’s property where they continued to watch Mr. Allgyer. A visitor to the Allgyer farm soon left the farm in a truck, and the FDA agents followed the visitor forty to fifty miles before the visitor called 911.

Pennsylvania State Police pulled over the FDA agents and the farm visitor stopped to talk to the policemen, who told the farm visitor that the FDA agents thought he had human food products in the truck. The farm visitor showed theFDA agents that the truck was empty.

An FDA spokesman associated with the agents refused comment, citing an ongoing investigation.

+ National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, Post Office Box 239, Bowie, Maryland 20719, info@nicfa.org

+ U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue,
Silver Spring, Maryland 20993, 888-463-6332, Contact Page

+Ministry of Silly Walks

Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program (LPLP) provides up to $10 million in low-interest loans to small, local producers. Why? Because we believe in supporting local farmers and producers. We want to make it easier for them to grow their businesses and bring more local products to market. That’s good for us and it’s good for you.

Loans range from $1,000 to $100,000 and can be for things like purchasing more animals, investing in new equipment or converting to organic production. We minimize the fees, interest rates and paperwork that can often get in the way of a small local farm or business taking the next step to expand its operations.

Here’s the Loan Application Page

Perhaps you can relate to this. Probably one of the most enjoyable thing for gardeners is watching new plants grow. I love it when one of my plants I grew from seed or cutting starts to grow, then flowers for the first time. I’m a vegetable gardener so I’m looking for results I can eat, but flowers count too!

The only problem with growing new plants is we get to many, our gardens get crowed and we end up throwing some out, or we stop growing new plants. One solution for this is to sell some. Not only does it provide you with some space in our greenhouse, it also allows you to finance our gardening hobby, for free.

That’s why many people believe that the most enjoyable business in the world is making money from growing plants, and if you have a few spare plants, you can start right away.

Now’s the time to get into this. First, there’s a boom in the plant market. Seed companies like Burpee are selling at all time highs. People believe they can get more from their garden than the stock market.

How do you take advantage of this? The first thing you will need to do is to start growing some plants. The best way to do this is to either, sow some seeds, Take some cuttings or divide some perennials.

Sowing Seeds

To me this is a easy way to grow plants. There are lots to chose from, to start with its probably best to grow some perennials such as Lupins, delphiniums, campanula, poppies ect. We want to chose plants which are easy to grow and flower quickly. Check out a seed catalogue and look for first year flowering.

Sow the seeds in a seed tray, wait for them to germinate and within a couple of weeks that can be potted. Once potted wait a for them to flower (six to eight weeks), then sell them.

Taking Cuttings

This is a little harder than seeds, but it opens up more possibilities. You can grow most plants from softwood cuttings, but our aim here is to grow and sell quick, so chose fuchia, geraniums, Phlox ect. You can grow shrubs also this way but we want quick results to start with so if you search the web for plants to grow this way, we want plants which will root in a week and flower young.

The easiest way to take cuttings is softwood cuttings, just cut out the tips of a stock plant, put them in a small pot, 5 cuttings per pot with seed compost and wait for them to root over the next 3-4 weeks.

Dividing Perennials

This is probably the fastest method. To do this you will need some large perennials in your garden (or a friends garden). Basically we then dig the plant up, split it into as many as you can, depending on the plant you can get up to 100 small plants out of a big plant.

That’s the easiest way is to dig up your large perennial in February, then cut it up unto small pieces with a piece of the crown and a root attached. Pot this into a small pot and wait about a month for it to grow. It should be saleable with a flower in a matter of months.

This covers the basics of growing plants to sell Hope you can see what I see. The chance of a great lifestyle business.

For more information check this out…

Then you may want to check out the resources at The Modern Homestead site!

I was just looking for some information on how to build a greenhouse (a cheap one!) when I ran across Bob Senz’ article on how to get the job done for about $140!

I look forward to reading more of Bob’s material in the future, and I’m sure you will too!

Related article: Living Off The Grid

Chuck's Square Foot Gardening Boxes

Yes, it’s time to think about your garden. Where I live people are tilling space for their gardens right now. I’m planning to go out and clean up my square foot gardening boxes with their “special mix” of ingredients.

Where I live, it’s time to consider setting out onion sets right now… and thinking about setting out cabbages.

What are your garden plans this year?

Related Link: My Organic Food Garden

You can see the video about it at this You Tube link

According to the Buckeye Institute who filed a legal complaint over these criminal antics, noted in their press release that:

“The use of these police state tactics on a peaceful family is simply unacceptable,” Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said. “Officers rushed into the Stowers’ home with guns drawn and held the family – including ten young children – captive for six hours. This outrageous case of bureaucratic overreach must be addressed.”

The Buckeye Institute argues the right to buy food directly from local farmers; distribute locally-grown food to neighbors; and pool resources to purchase food in bulk are rights that do not require a license. In addition, the right of peaceful citizens to be free from paramilitary police raids, searches and seizures is guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 14, Article 1 of the Ohio Constitution.

“The Stowers’ constitutional rights were violated over grass-fed cattle, pastured chickens and pesticide-free produce,” Buckeye Institute 1851 Center of Constitutional Law Director Maurice Thompson said. “Ohioans do not need a government permission slip to run a family farm and co-op, and should not be subjected to raids when they do not have one. This legal action will ensure the ODA understands and respects Ohioans’ rights.”