Talking a square land rent deal

Jeff Caldwell 04/12/2011 @ 12:00pm Multimedia Editor for Agriculture.com and Successful Farming magazine.

Prices for about everything tied to raising a crop these days are as volatile as they've ever been. It can make it tough for landowners and tenants to reach a square land rental agreement. So, how do you do it?

"Market volatility also may contribute to an uneasiness between landlord and tenant in setting a rental rate," says University of Nebraska Extension educator Allan Vyhnalek. "Prices are moving more in 15 minutes, than they did over an entire year when I was growing up. These wild market swings can be overwhelming and stressful."

As a general rule of thumb, regardless of the structure of the rental agreement, the most accurate figure for rent is 25% to 30% of the land's gross income or its equivalent. But, when crop prices are falling, landowners may be reluctant to follow the market down and cut rental rates.

"Cash rents are going up rapidly, 75% to 90% over the last 6 years, and will be slow to go down if/when commodity prices fall," Vyhnalek says. "When landowners get used to having that income, they are not going to want to give that up."

Though that's a natural dynamic in the farm land rental game, Vyhnalek says the best way to avoid issues that can arise from market volatility is to keep communication open, clear and ongoing. "Building a successful landlord-tenant relationship is beneficial to both parties and can lead to a fruitful long-term arrangement. Clear communication will be the key to keeping this relationship strong and cash rents at the proper level," Vyhnalek says.

Here are a few things he recommends weighing when considering such open communication between landowner and tenant:

• Tell the truth
  Telling the landlord the yield for the field or whole farm average, then telling the coffee shop the biggest number observed on the yield monitor can lead to misunderstanding. Your credibility may be questioned.
• Communicate expenses (tenants)
  In many cases, landlords are former farmers. Depending on how tuned in they are to current production costs, they may know how much current expenses have risen.
• Communicate intentions and expenses (landlords)
  Landlords need to communicate too. Tenants cannot possibly know how the landlord wants the land to be managed if that information isn’t communicated. Expectations for fertility management, tillage, mowing ditches, and weed control are examples of information that should be shared. It’s also appropriate for landlords to tell tenants how much land taxes have changed.

"Many tenants may question why they need to share information about their expenses, yields, and the farming practices and choices they've made," Vyhnalek says.

And, don't forget the communication works both ways. In the typical landowner-tenant relationship, most consider the landowner the side with more questions for the tenant regarding how the land will be cared for, what will be planted, etc. But, if you're a renter, don't be afraid to ask questions of your landlord, especially if your future viability depends on it

"I would ask the landowner if they had any questions for me about my methods, etc. I would also ask what they would be expecting from me in the way of upkeep on the land, how long they would rent it to me(indefinitely or a period of time after which they might solicit bids from other farmers and myself), and if I were to improve the land with say tiling would they pay for part of the tiling or not?" says Farmersforthefuture.com member Aaron Braunschweig. "Would they even allow such improvements in the first place?"

Ecuadorian Capital Promotes Urban Farming

By Nuria Segura

QUITO – Filling the city’s rooftops with vegetable gardens or small chicken-raising operations is one of the things that the city authorities of the Ecuadorian capital are doing to combat poverty and preserve food security.

The initiative was started in 2002 so that lower-income people could grow food at home or even organize with neighbors to create communal gardens, according to the coordinator of Urban Participative Agriculture, or Agrupar, Alexandra Rodriguez.

The project grew and in 2005 it passed into the hands of the municipal development agency, known as Conquito, which is pushing for the creation of more small urban producers who sell what they grow.

“The idea is to generate jobs, as well as improve the incomes and productive activity of small farmers so that they don’t depend on the ... government to subsist,” Rodriguez told Efe.

The project is directed particularly at single mothers, disabled people, the elderly, unemployed youth, alcoholics or recluses, whom Conquito helps with technical assistance, training and micro-loans.

Conquito practices what it preaches, at its downtown headquarters – an old metal shutter factory – and had 500 hectares (1,250 acres) on which the graduates of its courses cultivate assorted vegetables, including tomatoes, lettuce and cauliflower.

“This same garden is a demonstration of what urban agriculture really is. We still find bricks and stones in the subsoil,” Rodriguez said.

A graduate of the garden workshop, Aida Proayo, said that the course is designed to help people “practice organic agriculture without using chemicals or synthetics to create a healthy product.”

So far this year, some 1,900 people have passed through the Conquito classes, and they are also being taught to make jams and jellies or cookies, and even to raise poultry on their rooftops.

Proayo and Diana Duran, another student, sell their products from their homes or at a farmer’s market, where they also offer jam, pureed fruit or salted beans.

Duran learned how to grow food at home to provide healthier meals for her family because, in her opinion, the products one buys at the market “are contaminated.”

Rodriguez said that a person who wants to learn about this activity needs an initial investment of $100 per year for seeds and fertilizer, a sum that one can recover almost immediately.

According to Conquito figures, in just one month, a small producer saves $35 by consuming what he or she grows and earns $65 from the products they sell.

“In this way, they get themselves out of a vulnerable situation with their own hands,” emphasized Rodriguez, who added that one of the other objectives of the project is to improve eating habits.

“According to the World Health Organization, each day a person must consume 460 grams (1 pound) of fruits and vegetables, and in Ecuador they don’t even eat 100 (grams),” she said.

Another of the advantages of urban agriculture, Rodriguez said, is that it fosters better environmental management because it increases the biodiversity within the city, ensuring that it’s “not all asphalt” there.

The production of the urban farmers has been growing gradually and now they not only sell their products at food fairs or to their neighbors, but also to restaurants and supermarkets.

“They have been able to create local brands with their own identity and with the prestige of selling organic products,” Rodriguez emphasized.

Quito has wanted to foster urban gardens as an alternative to the current industrialized ways of life in the big city and now, Rodriguez says, the capital authorities want to expand the initiative to other cities around the country. EFE

News flash: Organic food can still make you fat

A new study suggests people think organics have fewer calories. Here's what organics can and can't do for you

By Ayala Laufer-Cahana

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Salon

A version of this story originally appeared on Dr. Ayala's Open Salon blog.

We like to eat. We especially like indulgent foods: desserts, snacks and tasty treats. We'd love to believe it's OK to heap our plates with foods we perceive as "healthy." Studies have shown time and again that foods perceived as healthy or foods with a health aura drive us -- if only subconsciously -- to eat more. Foods with "low fat" or "low calorie" claims lead to overconsumption of snacks. A study using hidden cameras at Italian restaurants showed that people dipping their bread in olive oil will eat more fat and calories than if they instead spread some butter.

But organic food labels can lead to overeating, too. In presenting findings from their new study, Jenny Wan-Chen Lee and Brian Wansink of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab showed that the organic seal appears to make people believe their organic snacks have a lot fewer calories than they do. For example, people who ate cookies labeled as "organic" believed that their snack contained 40 percent fewer calories than the same cookies that had no label.

Now, I'm a huge proponent and an early adopter of organic produce, but the organic seal, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with calories.

The benefits of organic food

The organic seal promises that the food and its ingredients have been farmed according to the organic standards, which are about sustainability, how we grow food, and how we treat our environment. These practices also tie to our personal health, given that the multitude of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides used to produce conventional food actually remain in the food. While it's hard to prove that any single one of them, in small amounts, causes disease, it's impossible to prove that they don't; personally I'd rather minimize exposure to what's clearly not meant for human consumption (read more about why organic matters in my post here).

The jury's still out on whether organic produce has more measurable nutrients than conventionally grown produce.

What organic food isn't

Organic produce isn't necessarily clean. All too often I see people skipping the washing of organic produce, forgetting that it comes from a field, and has been handled by many hands. Organic produce does need to be washed -- thoroughly. While organic food isn't sprayed with chemicals, microbial life is teeming on and between the leaves. Wildlife visits the fields and can contaminate produce in any number of ways we don't like to consider when we think of food. There's also the bacterial mixture from a multitude of human hands that have touched your produce before it gets to your table.

Organic food isn't automatically healthy, or something we should necessarily consume in large quantities. Organic candy, organic soda or organic French fries -- while a tiny bit better for us because they're free of pesticides -- are still junk food, and should be eaten infrequently.

Bottom line

The temptation to believe what we want to be true -- especially when it comes to diet and lifestyle choices -- sometimes overcomes the prudency of healthy skepticism. It would indeed be nice if there were a way to give an overarching seal of approval to foods -- especially to those foods we'd like to eat lots of. But the truth is that most foods are neither "good" nor "bad," and to make better decisions relating to nutrition and health we have to accept that nutrition and health issues are rather complex, but well worth digging a little deeper into.

If you want to have a clearer idea of what you're eating, read the ingredient list and nutrition facts, regardless of the atmosphere created -- or the claims to health -- on the front of the package.

Read the labels on organic foods as carefully as you'd read any other food label. If the food is full of sugars, fats, salt or calories, it should be viewed as a dessert, and should be eaten in moderation.