I think these already exist, in the form of communes.

I do not know if they exist as a mental half way house.

I live on a small farm (croft) after decades in new york city, los angeles and chicago... and your idea is healthy... Small farms are inevitably notfor profit. Animals and feed are expensive. Tractors are expensive... only in a nuclear war or something would i actually consider growing food.

I think your idea is really touching on the momentum that has turned farming in to a massive industry, and killed off family farming, as were that healthy, your idea would be working all over the place. Methinks, if there is to be a production subsidy, that it only apply for farms below commercial size. This would at least prevent farming for asset-stripping.

Putting the old beasts out to pasture is a very old idea, and a good one.

I agree with all of this , and I know of two such places. This lifestyle works! It's a blast. My best friend quit engineering to become a small farmer, and his mother's friend is at one which was once a school and home for feebleminded and stressed students. Now a commune because it is no longer meets new standards for schools or group homes. These places stay afloat and sail smoothly, frugally, self-sufficiently, and not an image of poverty but to me rather a model of paradise comparable to islands in the south pacific! When the days work is done they fool around and have a merry old time, sometimes making music, singing and dancing and maybe having a feast! God bless this lifestyle!

I think it's a good idea too, and I enjoy the lifestyle of farming. But ya'll are dabbling in the very questions that prevail politically at this time. Try to define the family farm...try to define the "non-commercial" farm. The idea that we should not have subsidized farms went from the idea being supply, to security. After 9/11, there is no safer place to get your food than where you can control it. As for the subsidy, it's for political leverage, just like the EU and the Pac Rim is using GM foods against us. The cheaper your food, the more disposable you'll have. If we can't control our supply, another country will, and after that, you'll be paying more for it. Raising your own food is fun, that's why gardening is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the USA.Pic

The Emperor Has No Clothes.

(Why dabble in discussing them?)

In other words, Real Success is blind to Imaginary Limits.

Non-profit. The only thing that bugs me about this, is that there should be some focus to it. The commodities grown should be for something. The monies generated should serve some purpose after the bills are paid, and the opperational costs are met. I don't have answer to what those two should be now, although there are a lot of worthy, causes in need. On a side note about farms: I once heard that beer makers in the US make enough grain to feed the world. Perhaps these farms can be the opposite of that.

Here's another angle: Imagine there were no People on this planet. Just smart monkeys. Mother Nature cooperates in this case, and everything works without artificial arbitrary imaginary things like money and government and national borders and stuff. The monkeys don't have to pay the trees for their bananas! People are so screwy that we can't even imagine whether there would be more or less chaos if we suddenly lost our ability to maintain this collective fantasy world, the one that keeps poking at this idea, the one "normal" People call REALITY!

Try any small local organic farm. They are usually struggling to make ends meet and would certainly call themselves "non-profit". There is a alternative vacation style emerging where these farms offer B&B. If you want to put in manual labor, that is always welcomed in the form of internship at the farm. Look up organic volunteers.

Yes, farms need not limit their products and services to agriculture. Many other kinds of business can be done on a farm also, especially kinds which are usually done off a farm. But this idea as I imagine it is about farms that serve as a refuge for people who are too weak to meet a minimum baseline of obligation to society, and would tend to otherwise be unemployable and homeless, but are able to be and want to be somewhat cooperatively productive.

The "non-profit" thought is wrong. There is a difference between "not-for-profit" and "no profit". Revenues generated by any small farm operation from the sale of natural products and/or B.& B. income is usually relatively small anyway and should be used to enhance the farm(house) etc.

Israel's kibbutz'es, the Mennonite and Hutterite communities are your comparable sources for further inspiration. For (re)tired city dwellers, these "dream" farms should become an annual retreat.It requires a business plan of sorts to create a sourcing and supply information platform.Please people, help on a great idea. Gordon Max