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Episode-1685- Curtis Stone on Urban Farming

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Curtis Stone of TheUrbanFarmer.co

Curtis Stone of TheUrbanFarmer.co

Curtis Stone is the owner/operator of Green City Acres, a commercial urban farm based in Kelowna, BC, Canada.

Farming less than half an acre on a collection of urban plots, Green City Acres grows vegetables for farmers markets, restaurants and retail outlets. After five successful seasons, Curtis has demonstrated that one can grow an extraordinary amount of food in a backyard, and make a good living doing it.

During his slower months, Curtis works as a public speaker, teacher, and consultant, sharing his story to inspire a new generation of farmers.

Today he joins us to discuss his new book titled, The Urban Farmer, Growing Food For Profit on Leased and Borrowed Land.

Resources for today’s show…

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Comments

Episode-1685- Curtis Stone on Urban Farming — 10 Comments

  1. I really enjoyed this podcast. It pushed me a little outside of my “belief” comfort zone. And that’s always a good thing.

    Also, as soon as Curtis mentioned the book “Antifragile”, I downloaded it on audiobook and so far, I’m enjoying it.

    Thanks Jack!

  2. Marconi didn’t invent the radio. At most he assembled it from Tesla’s patents. Tesla knew what he had. He was trying to invent something like cellular television and didn’t want to lose his funding by stopping at just radio.

  3. Thought this was a great show. I’ve listened to many of The Urban Farmer series on Permaculture Voices Podcast.

    I thought this was a great synopsis of the work he’s doing, plus a nice diversion into topics of anarchy, etc.

    I give this one: Two Thumbs Up.

    Great show.

  4. I think a benevolent fiefdom is a very cool way to run a larger farm. It brings accountability and simplicity at the same time. Joel’s farm seems to run very good this way.

    Curtis is very inspiring and has a great message. I just started the anitfragile book and what a challenging book to read. Definite free market book and shows how corrupted our minds are from our dysfunctional our education system and news and media sources.

    • Frankly I am not so sure it really does! I really wonder how well this works in practice vs. presentation.

      If you think about it the reason the fiefdom thing doesn’t catch on heavily is anyone willing to actually do the work necessary doesn’t really need to be part of my personal feudal order.

      The only thing a land owner brings to the table in this model is really land. Yes they may provide some education and a bit of infrastructure but in the end none of the methods are really complicated.

      Why would a person say move to WV to work with us, when they an lease land for a few thousand dollars and work where they live now? This realization is something we had to try to fully accept.

      Joel talks about a lot of these fifedoms but as I listen I hear a lot of “we used to have a guy that”, etc. I am sure he has some real success stories but his funnel is massive, we are talking a farm with a 2 year waiting period to go work on for free.

      That is not replicable, even for someone like me. I feel this fifedom idea has merit but something is missing to make it really work or it would be a lot more common already.

    • I wonder if the fiefdom hasn’t caught on because our thoughts and actions are not on the same level of Joel’s. I think that those wanting to manage larger farm type acreage don’t have the mindset and goals that Joel has. I agree, he has a large funnel to staff his estate, but his desire is market his products as directly as possible and to help others who want to be part of it.

      How many property owners ever sit down with 500-1000 acres and say hay, I want to create something similiar to what Joel’s doing? It doesn’t hurt that Joel’s seems to be a genius that really appears to be benevolent, in his actions.
      I wonder if anyone looked up the first five years of polyface, I’m sure it’s way different than it does today. Most people don’t want the headaches of trying to manage that much land with so many different things going on.

  5. Always great to hear from Curtis!

    I’ve been thinking that I don’t think its so much a ‘fear of success’.

    Instead I would say that we’ve been trained to be ASHAMED to be a WINNER.

    This works well for the standard ‘shame the thing people desire’ control method (you want to succeed, but your ashamed when you succeed… mental confusion ensues, and you’re ready for control).

    The shame message generally being ‘if you have anything (have won) you TOOK IT from someone’ (oppressor! thief! unfair!).

    This can be some deep (childhood) programming.

    societal meme:
    If you’re STRUGGLING… you’re virtuous. If you’re SUCCEEDING, your oppressing/exploiting someone.

    This mental weed needs to be rooted out.

  6. Relatively new to the podcast, so first time I’ve heard Curtis. Love this guy. My own bias had me discounting him at first as I thought he’d be WAY to the left and I almost skipped the episode. My mistake and I’m glad I listened. He’s a capitalist the way it’s supposed to be and fun to listen to. Another lesson to keep your bias in check because you never know.

  7. Jack, you and Curtis really play off each other well. The conversations you two have are always entertaining and profound.

    I just pre-ordered a copy of The Urban Farmer. That’s awesome to hear that it focuses on business – hoping to pick up some relevant marketing knowledge in the small grower space.

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