Thursday, January 31, 2013

Paddling upstream on a river of hops

As one might imagine, paddling upstream on a calm waterway might not be too difficult but trying to drag a canoe the wrong way up rushing rapids is not only exhausting but also dangerous.  You're more likely to drown than make any progress.  One could say the same thing about new ideas in a river of convention.

Buddha said "An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea."  

I think that says more about the will of the individual and their conviction of their beliefs than the implementation of the idea.  Maybe Arthur C. Clarke struck a chord closer to ideas in real life; "New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!"  

I think that sums up my experiences while instituting new ideas into the world of hop production.  On the surface it may seem somewhat egotistical but I think it speaks more to the actual conviction of one's beliefs while traversing those crazy rapids of "conventional" wisdom; about implementation.

So where is this going?  Have you ever known something so thoroughly, felt it to be true and balanced at a very basic level, yet been unable to explain it to anyone?  Frustration doesn't begin to explain the experience.  The only outlet is to demonstrate the this truth outside of yourself, allow the idea to evolve outside of the isolation of thought.  

Next thing you know this idea is now a physicality.  You can demonstrate the idea, understand the idea, others can witness the idea, yet the idea is so different from anything else even remotely comparable most people disregard it (Stage 1).  As the idea continues to bloom and evolve the demonstration of it causes the commentators from Stage 1 to become confrontational and reluctant to admit that this idea has some right to exist amongst convention (Stage 2).  If the idea is robust enough and sought after, nurtured, allowed to evolve without any preconceptions or misdirected passion it can reach something altogether different at which point it will be difficult to find anyone who patently objected it to begin with (Stage 3).

Convention is the current and paddling against it is very difficult.  The current is pulling against you at every single stroke making it a point to show you are acting against it.  Just give up and let it take you...why fight?  What if you saw something others have missed simply because they chose to "go with the flow" and ignore signs that there may be trouble ahead?

Yup...that's exactly what it feels like.  Good thing I have a strong back.
 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Irrelevant Rural America?

Straight from our esteemed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack as reported in December 2012.  Granted, the Secretary was speaking about the apparent loss of voice that rural Americans are experiencing in the political arena and not whether or not rural America actually exists (although I'm sure for much of our representation...it is the vast emptiness between airports).  Secretary Vilsack was speaking about the shrinking of the rural population and rural economy over the last 25 years as the socio-political clout of urban centers take control of the soap box.

That would have been all fine and dandy...but I kept thinking about his observation (right or wrong) and soon enough I found myself looking through his lens at my own observations specifically in regards to our nation's food supply chain.  Couple that with the announcement that the Golden Guernsey company would close its doors and allow entire warehouses of dairy products to expire and you have yourself a whipped-up James.

It all goes back to the notion of control and our need to feel like we have some...at least in our choices.  When it comes to food we definitely do not.  Okay, okay...some do.  Those who live in progressive urban centers have quaint farm markets and maybe even a green grocer but most are subject to the supply chain gods.  

So right about now you're saying "Damn it, James!  Planning to bring this back to hops sometime?"  Yes I am and it relates directly to hops and our grower value-share system.  I was approached by a social support group for at-risk and homeless teens with an idea to use hop production as a means to teach life skills and generate some income for their program.  They wanted to know what I thought.  I thought they missed the point of their idea entirely.  What evolved was a cross-functional group from several social agencies all thinking something similar: "can we use agriculture in a urban setting to teach life skills, provide mentorship, reduce food island effects, and present communities with a new option for their sustenance?"

Yes, we can.  I have always been drawn to urban agriculture for the challenges it presents and I am looking forward to designing a community production system that demonstrates what can be done on the food island.  I find the irony in the fact that people choose to live in cities or are trapped in urban areas with so many resources being consumed that they are nearly starving to death on poor quality food almost too much to handle and people mistake my quiet chuckling for a bit of social anxiety.  The idea that urban centers are becoming more and more powerful socially and politically is just a cruel joke to me.  If it wasn't for low-cost, low nutrient, fast-fast-fast processed food those socio-political movers and shakers would starve to death.

Is the hop the savior for the food island cast-aways?  Uh...no.  Try some tomatoes and lettuce.  

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Acres mean nothing...let's talk about YIELD

Maybe it's just human nature to exaggerate...present an augmented image of one's self in an attempt to seem more attractive, more successful, more intriguing.  It is pervasive in our culture and many others.  Some believe it is a marketing tool and others just can't help themselves.  Whatever you call it and however you justify it...it drives me CRAZY!

So as always we will bring this rant back to hops.  the craft beer industry is experiencing a second "boom" and a new category for brew has emerged; the nano brewer.  I would imagine they are in a similar position to small hop growers in that the only comparison is to the larger brewer on the next block and so they might find themselves inflating, obfuscating, or inveigling their true production.  In all honesty it's probably just a "guy" thing but nevertheless it diminishes an opportunity to set themselves apart from their inevitable comparison.

So let's talk about appropriate measures for our industry and acres is not one of them.  Well, unless we need to know the physical area dedicated to hop production the acres is a perfectly fine metric.  However, when anyone wants to know how much production your growing operation has the first thing most people reach for is the acre.  Pardon?  I didn't ask you about how much lad you have focused on hop growing...that metric alone means nothing.  It must be accompanied by a true measure of productivity (i.e. pounds, kilos, bales, ounces, stones, etc).  As a grower, when you engage a brewer do you ask him/her how many acres of Cascade they use?  How many acres of Nugget per barrel?  See where I'm going here?

As a grower and the director of a growing collective acres is only relevant to the mass of product produced.  We project our expansions and directives on more accurate metric: pounds/acre.  That number tells us quite a bit in a single glance such as productivity, maturity, intensity of operations, etc.  Our state agricultural statistics love to report acres of corn, beans, alfalfa, etc.  Those crops have established norms for yield.  But hops...they require quite the baby-sitting to hit long-term viable commercial yields.  For hops...the acre metric alone is worse than meaningless, it is misleading.

I think this issues bothers me so much because it is counter productive to the greater advancement of our industry.  We allow the individual or committee reviewing data to draw their own conclusions by giving them only half of the information.  Moreover, exaggerating the perception of acres as a measure of success completely pushes the idea of quality into the shadows.

So next time someone asks you "how many acres do you have" in hops...maybe you can take the opportunity to enlighten them on the topic.  If they want big impressive numbers they can look to the Pacific Northwest.  Honestly, do they really care?  Not likely.  But the 30 seconds it takes to answer will give them a much better idea about where to find quality.