Honestly when I imagine someone in IT getting into farming, I imagine this. It’s really an acreage with a garden and some animals, but they call it a farm, and aren’t really interested in the actual farms.
That, or they do a hipster-bespoke-organic goat farm, which lasts a few years before they run it into the ground because they’re expecting it to be easy or work like IT. To anyone reading this, I would urge you to explore a significant but less radical change first - there’s plenty of jobs not like coding.
I mean, a lot of people do jump in with little or no research and try to spend their way out of problems. That is definitely not good, particularly when animals and animal welfare is involved.
It’s really an acreage with a garden and some animals, but they call it a farm, and aren’t really interested in the actual farms.
I mean… are we gatekeeping farms now? I’m trying to feed my family and hopefully have enough to sell (starting next year, anyway; we moved here too late this year and I’m still learning my land). In my case, no animals for now (though chickens are in the cards for next year and maybe we’ll do something else the following year).
I do plan to commercially farm, though I also plan to keep my day job for the foreseeable future. Market gardeners with a good market can make quite a lot off of the ~5000sqm of farmland like I have, but there’s no market that’s going to be good for that in rural Japan. The best case scenario for being commercially successful in that way would be to network with chefs in the bigger cities, but I have neither the talent nor reputation for that (nor would I want to commit to that until at least another year or two when I can confirm stability). I do have friends who run a restaurant who are willing to pay for some of what I am growing if it works out, and another lead in the nearest big city (~1 hour away), but that’s it.
I’m outside nearly every single day preparing, cultivating, sowing, harvesting, etc. and treat it like a job. I just harvested ~15kg of potatoes this morning (literally one of the first things I did when moving here was get those in the ground) and a few kilos of green onions. Am I not at least a part-time farmer? The local government says I am, in any case (buying registered farmland in Japan is a process, lemme tell ya).
Kind of. I’m not saying that’s bad, but it’s not quite the same thing. People I’ve met like that are really just rich retirees who want the cachet of being “farmers”. If you successfully do subsistence that’s not you.
The farmers where I live have got to be the most gatekeepy group I’ve ever met, BTW. I’m from a non-farming branch of an established farming family, and I get the cold shoulder - in general, not just on agricultural things.
though chickens are in the cards for next year
Do it. I had a backyard flock, they’re pretty easy to manage on small scales, they’ll eat many kinds of scraps and pests as a supplement, and they make more eggs than you personally can use very quickly. Do your homework first, of course, but it sounds like you get that. Honestly the most difficult part is keeping away predators, if they’re in the area.
The best case scenario for being commercially successful in that way would be to network with chefs in the bigger cities
And when people make the bespoke-organic thing work, aggressive and skilled networking/sales is how they do it. It’s just a really difficult, expensive way to make food, and people aren’t going to appreciate that for the exact reason they think it’s NBD as a career plan B. If you want to sell that stuff and make a profit you’ve got to be selling something else more intangible.
In Japan it might be different, though. I can’t say.
The local government says I am, in any case (buying registered farmland in Japan is a process, lemme tell ya).
I bet. I’m guessing you must be ethnically Japanese for it to even be possible. If not, I can only imagine the local scuttlebutt going on about you.
Honestly when I imagine someone in IT getting into farming, I imagine this. It’s really an acreage with a garden and some animals, but they call it a farm, and aren’t really interested in the actual farms.
That, or they do a hipster-bespoke-organic goat farm, which lasts a few years before they run it into the ground because they’re expecting it to be easy or work like IT. To anyone reading this, I would urge you to explore a significant but less radical change first - there’s plenty of jobs not like coding.
I mean, a lot of people do jump in with little or no research and try to spend their way out of problems. That is definitely not good, particularly when animals and animal welfare is involved.
I mean… are we gatekeeping farms now? I’m trying to feed my family and hopefully have enough to sell (starting next year, anyway; we moved here too late this year and I’m still learning my land). In my case, no animals for now (though chickens are in the cards for next year and maybe we’ll do something else the following year).
I do plan to commercially farm, though I also plan to keep my day job for the foreseeable future. Market gardeners with a good market can make quite a lot off of the ~5000sqm of farmland like I have, but there’s no market that’s going to be good for that in rural Japan. The best case scenario for being commercially successful in that way would be to network with chefs in the bigger cities, but I have neither the talent nor reputation for that (nor would I want to commit to that until at least another year or two when I can confirm stability). I do have friends who run a restaurant who are willing to pay for some of what I am growing if it works out, and another lead in the nearest big city (~1 hour away), but that’s it.
I’m outside nearly every single day preparing, cultivating, sowing, harvesting, etc. and treat it like a job. I just harvested ~15kg of potatoes this morning (literally one of the first things I did when moving here was get those in the ground) and a few kilos of green onions. Am I not at least a part-time farmer? The local government says I am, in any case (buying registered farmland in Japan is a process, lemme tell ya).
Kind of. I’m not saying that’s bad, but it’s not quite the same thing. People I’ve met like that are really just rich retirees who want the cachet of being “farmers”. If you successfully do subsistence that’s not you.
The farmers where I live have got to be the most gatekeepy group I’ve ever met, BTW. I’m from a non-farming branch of an established farming family, and I get the cold shoulder - in general, not just on agricultural things.
Do it. I had a backyard flock, they’re pretty easy to manage on small scales, they’ll eat many kinds of scraps and pests as a supplement, and they make more eggs than you personally can use very quickly. Do your homework first, of course, but it sounds like you get that. Honestly the most difficult part is keeping away predators, if they’re in the area.
And when people make the bespoke-organic thing work, aggressive and skilled networking/sales is how they do it. It’s just a really difficult, expensive way to make food, and people aren’t going to appreciate that for the exact reason they think it’s NBD as a career plan B. If you want to sell that stuff and make a profit you’ve got to be selling something else more intangible.
In Japan it might be different, though. I can’t say.
I bet. I’m guessing you must be ethnically Japanese for it to even be possible. If not, I can only imagine the local scuttlebutt going on about you.
I left IT about a decade ago to farm 3000 acres and 300 cows.
It is very much not retirement living.
Good for you. You’re a counterexample then, I acknowledge that.