Sharecropping the long tail, for real

My mom was telling me about a Taiwanese ex-tech-exec. Weary of city life, he packed up and moved back to the family farm. There he came up with an unusual business model for entering the chic but not always profitable local/organic produce market.

He set up a website where he offered parcels of land for lease. Tenants get to decide what to plant; they also have the option to tend to their own crops, or outsource as much work as they'd like. Some spend many hours each day on the farm. Others sit back and wait for emailed photos. Most visit once in a while with friends and relatives in tow. That's my farm, they'd say.

Not all tenant-farmers succeed. Some harvest only a handful of fruits or vegetables, or end up empty-handed. But they're in it mostly for the experience anyhow. The farm owner, on the other hand, makes money either way - with no worries about whether his crops will survive natural disasters, how his produce will be priced by the market, what government subsidies he's eligible for, etc.

Reminds me of TrendWatching.com's notion of the "experience economy". Business is no longer defined by marketing products and services based on their usefulness. Instead, it's all about Curated Consumption for Trysumers eager for Status Lifestyles.  (These people are such masters are coining catchy phrases!)

Comments

[edbot2000]

** the more things change, the more they stay the same **

"".. Business is no longer defined by marketing products and services based on their usefulness .."

I think its always been that way. At least in the past 60 to 80 years.

Come to think of it, when I think back at the "mail order catalog" business, Sears Roebuck, etc.. -- their marketing has revolved around "curating" consumables.

[Jack Brandt]

First I think it is a great idea... They say you can never go home again. I believe it only in the mindset. This man, not living on his family farm for many years probably did not want to break his back tending to the fields again, but was forward thinking enough to re-purpose the land and still allow it to thrive as a farm... Ingenious if you ask me. Oh, and he also gets to preserve his family legacy. Now that rocks.

[john n]

wow this is an awesome idea. I think this would do really well in NJ (it is the garden state after all). The trendy NYC people would love a fad like this. Time to buy some land out west in NJ.