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Dear New Farm,
I am a graduate of Evergreen State College’s wonderful
sustainable ag program and since then (over the past 7 years)
my wife and I have been living in Bali, Indonesia, where we
own and operate an organic farm and sustainable ag training
center for local Indonesians.
Our vision has always been to help develop a model of viable
eco-ag for marginalized farmers in the humid tropics, and
while it has been a tough road, I think we’re having
some great successes. Farmers come from all over Indo to work
with our farm...Folks who want to enter the training program
are paid the same as those who aren’t yet interested
in a focused training, the only catch is that those who enter
to train agree at the outset to leave after the first year.
So many locals are tempted to just stay and farm with a steady
paycheck, so it actually becomes tough to search out those
individuals with higher aspirations.
These are the gems that are going to lead the way in local
agriculture here. After a year, they agree to leave the paycheck
and we help them set up a small farm elsewhere (usually back
in their own village). Then, once they’ve reached succession
with their harvests and plantings they are free to utilize
our distribution channels, sales team and cold box truck to
get to market. Usually they offer their products at prices
far below ours, which essentially shoots us in the foot, but
that’s the best part! That means its working. The end
game for us is when we’ve got a large enough group of
growers started up that we can’t even begin to compete
and essentially aren’t needed anymore! Then we can return
home and start our own little place!
So that’s my little blurb on our farm project in Bali.
We also have a similar program we started last year to help
build economic viability into other aspects of culinary cultural
heritage. We search out artisan producers, help adapt their
production systems and final products for new markets, and
then introduce them to niches that can potentially save aspects
of their culture (or at least give them the power of choice
to whether they continue these traditions). We currently bring
a number of products to market in the U.S. under our farm
name, Big Tree Farms, Bali—handcrafted Balinese sea
salts, wildcrafted long peppers, traditional honeys from Java…and
we’re about to introduce a fabulous new sugar product
from a few incredibly obscure, marginalized islands in the
Moluccas! It is all so much fun…sorry for digressing
but just wanted to share! You have a wonderful clearinghouse
of information!
Thanks,
Ben Ripple
Big Tree Farms, Bali
farm@bigtreebali.com
www.bigtreebali.com
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