Iowa farmer Rand Faaborg, age 67 and father of five, wanted to get out of farming. The CAFO was just too much work and too little income.
Faaborg’s second-oldest son, Tanner Faaborg, 40., had an idea and a plan.
Mushrooms, anyone?
The hog industry has changed a lot over the last thirty years. First came the big hog price debacle in the late ’90s. Prices dropped from $50-60 a hundredweight to as little as about $10. Family farmers went out of business, and corporate farming operations took over about 80% of the business in Iowa.
The farmers who fought back had to get bigger or get out. “Get Bigger or Get Out” was USDA’s only solution. The Faaborgs took the “get bigger” route, growing their operation into a “CAFO” (confined animal feeding operation). CAFOs are dirty business—exhausting work that requires big investments with little financial return and is tough on the environment. Mr. Faaborg still works an off-farm day job to keep everything together.
Tanner Faaborg’s plan to grow mushrooms is “mushrooming,” i.e., prospering. We hope it works. There is a need for change in the Midwest. Find the farm at https://www.1100farm.com/. Maybe buy some mushrooms?
USDA’s big solution, “Get Bigger or Get Out,” has proved unworkable —see CAFOs as an example; USDA’s mono-crop solution doesn’t work either. Poisoned water, worn-out land, and deserted small towns are proof that we need better solutions.
Growing mushrooms is one of them.