Niches and appropriate strategies

It was interesting to see two pretty different approaches to organic farming on the week 16 field trip. After seeing Rods 12 acres of diverse out door vegetable production on red krasnozem soils, Avi's indoor monoculture was a bit of a shock to some. However, I think that its all about finding a niche, which Avi has done really well.

First though, lets look at the similarities between the two operations. They both rely on high inputs of organic compost sourced from Triton in Lismore, which utilises urban waste products to produce a pretty nice looking compost. Personally, I like the idea of taking the urban peoples waste, composting it, then feeding it back to them via well priced organic produce. The only disadvantage from an energetic perspective is that the compost is being transported fairly long distances, as opposed to being produced on site at either of the farms. Actually, Rod uses a lot more compost than Avi does, and at $20k/yr it is one of his biggest financial outlays. I think that while this urban resource is available, and while oil is still cheap enough that transport costs are not prohibitive, this is a perfectly Ok strategy for the current climate. The other similarity is that they both grow tasty, healthy organic produce which is sold at the farmer markets every week.

In terms of building healthy soil, it would seem that Rods operation is a winner- his soil had beautiful structure and texture and was deep and rich looking- however this is largely due to a constant input of compost, and if this were stopped, it would revert to the red clay soil surrounding the site fairly quickly. In contrast, Avis soil was relatively shallow- concentrated in small trenches- but this seemed to be all he needs to achieve good growth rates. The beauty of Avis soil was - No Weeds! Which leads to the advantages of having a very controlled environment- weeds and pests can be controlled with minimal effort, which compensates for the lack of diversity in the system ( ie lack of beneficial insect habitat). However, this may leave the system open to pests that prefer a more controlled environment such as mites etc.

Avi has found a niche in the market in that he is able to produce tomatoes and cucumbers several weeks earlier than other farmers- thereby gaining a competitive advantage. Although both high capital input and high embodied energy are associated with the system, by being a unique operator and finding a niche, the system more than pays for itself- and I doubt anyone complains about the high embodied energy of the infrastructure when they get cucumbers and tomatoes at the market out of season!