7 Things to Consider Before Starting a Farm | with Earth Grower Brian Maisenbacher
Earth Grower’s owner Brian Maisenbacher has dedicated his life to becoming the best farmer he possibly can be. He is mission-driven to help others have success in growing food and medicinal crops for their communities and their families.
He is passionate about finding solutions to help farmers become more regenerative and profitable. Brian has wholeheartedly spent over a decade working on farms, heritage orchards, cattle ranches, doing landscaping, and designing home gardens and farms around Arizona, California, and the Midwest.
He has also spent time working in Kenya to help build farms and provide fresh water for children's homes and churches with Love Mercy Organization. Periodically he teaches agricultural classes with Earth Citizens Organization Farm in Cottonwood Arizona.
He studied Permaculture Design at Oregon State University, Korean Natural Farming with Chris Trump, Microbial Density and Diversity Analysis with Dr. Mary Lucero, as well as Microscopy and the Soil Food Web with Dr. Elaine Ingham.
He embodies the philosophy of working with the rhythms of Nature and allowing it to be a conduit to become a better human being. He created Earth Grower LLC to help him achieve these goals in himself, and to help others become stronger, more resilient farmers.
Filmed in Venice Beach, CA with additional in field footage from Grae Biggs
Timestamps and Topics:
00:00 Earth Grower intro, Microbial soil testing, holistic management, lean practices, with ecological goals
01:10 Recent Arizona farm project
03:24 Intro to Brian’s blog post: 7 Things to Consider Before Starting a Farm
05:40 Past farm experience
06:33 Orchard work
14:15 Farms are a set of complex systems working as a whole
16:03 Working and building international farms
21:58 Deep Dive: 7 Things to Consider Before Starting a Farm
22:22 1- Be clear about your goals
37:24 2- What are you good at
40:27 3 What lifestyle do you desire
42:13 Stacking functions with permaculture practices: Animals
46:00 Farming is a business
51:31 You cannot control nature
57:32 Attachment is the root of suffering
59:31 Be prepared to ask for help
Follow Brian https://www.instagram.com/earth_grower/ and check out his extensive resources at https://www.earthgrowerllc.com/