Pfizer Lays Off Scientists
It’s getting bad out there. My options lessen with every news cycle. The bail-out plan, the oh shit plan, to turn when the farm finally went under was to join the rat race. Banking seemed choice. I would join the legions of out-of-work farmers eking out a living on Wall Street. The option, it is now clear, has been cruelly removed from my plate. The back-up was to retreat to a laboratory. I would invent things. Or, better yet, research things. This still seems to be a possibility, but it’s not looking good. Scientists are showing up in bread lines in astonishing numbers. They’ve probably put it into an equation.
More and more, it is becoming clear that this farm has to make it. That means I have to make at least as much as I spend. And sometimes I have to make more than I spend. And no where, from Virgil’s Georgics to The Grapes of Wrath to the oeuvre of Micheal Pollen do I find an example. No matter. It’s not the first time I’ve been thrust into the lead. I’m no stranger to blazing the trail.
It’s only January and I’m in the hole three figures. Seed, potting soil, fertilizer. Odds and ends. It’s the odds and ends that get you. A new shovel. A case of oil. A new tire. It adds up.
CSA money should start trickling in soon, and that will defray some of it. Markets start in April….
I calculate the season’s expenses with the case of lettuce method and it does not look good. I need to grow five cases of lettuce to pay for this, twelve cases to pay for this, eight cases for that. I run out of field space before I pay for the necessities. I run out of time to take care of all the stuff I need to grow just to pay for the stuff I need.
A new business model is evolving. The form is still nebulous and undefined, but it is starting to take shape and its encouraging. Out of the ashes of the economic meltdown rises the bird of a new agriculture. It’s going to happen here. Need a case of lettuce?
It’s getting bad out there. My options lessen with every news cycle. The bail-out plan, the oh shit plan, to turn when the farm finally went under was to join the rat race. Banking seemed choice. I would join the legions of out-of-work farmers eking out a living on Wall Street. The option, it is now clear, has been cruelly removed from my plate. The back-up was to retreat to a laboratory. I would invent things. Or, better yet, research things. This still seems to be a possibility, but it’s not looking good. Scientists are showing up in bread lines in astonishing numbers. They’ve probably put it into an equation.
More and more, it is becoming clear that this farm has to make it. That means I have to make at least as much as I spend. And sometimes I have to make more than I spend. And no where, from Virgil’s Georgics to The Grapes of Wrath to the oeuvre of Micheal Pollen do I find an example. No matter. It’s not the first time I’ve been thrust into the lead. I’m no stranger to blazing the trail.
It’s only January and I’m in the hole three figures. Seed, potting soil, fertilizer. Odds and ends. It’s the odds and ends that get you. A new shovel. A case of oil. A new tire. It adds up.
CSA money should start trickling in soon, and that will defray some of it. Markets start in April….
I calculate the season’s expenses with the case of lettuce method and it does not look good. I need to grow five cases of lettuce to pay for this, twelve cases to pay for this, eight cases for that. I run out of field space before I pay for the necessities. I run out of time to take care of all the stuff I need to grow just to pay for the stuff I need.
A new business model is evolving. The form is still nebulous and undefined, but it is starting to take shape and its encouraging. Out of the ashes of the economic meltdown rises the bird of a new agriculture. It’s going to happen here. Need a case of lettuce?
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