LOGAN: As a teenager, Danelle Myer wanted nothing more than to leave her family’s farm in Iowa and become a big-city advertising executive.
Now, the 42-year-old juggles orders for cabbage and deals with hail damage on her patch of land.
After building a career in public relations, Myer returned three years ago to her rural roots in the US farm belt — the tiny Iowan town of Logan, less than 60km north of Omaha, Nebraska.
In the heart of the Midwest, the breadbasket of the United States and known for agricultural productivity, Myer’s story is no longer so unusual.
In the land of industrial-scale agriculture, “truck farming” — small-scale fresh fruit and vegetable production — is booming, encouraged by the rising consumer interest in food grown locally, an industry worth $7bn.
The country has 8,100 farmers’ markets, and nearly 150,000 farmers and ranchers sell their products directly to consumers. Some 44 percent of schools have links to local farms for student meals.
To encourage the trend, the US government on June 9 launched “Local Food, Local Places”, a programme that provides experts in agricultural, transportation, the environment and the regional economy to rural communities to help them build local food systems.
The first year, in 2010, Myer sold $2,200 worth of vegetables. Her target this season is $20,000. Even if she makes that, it will not be enough to pay the bills. She works part-time in public relations to get by.
A jump in land prices in the Midwest in recent years is also a major reason why young people are setting up vegetable and small farms, an official said.
AFP
