Under the guise of a Western liberal economy, the Russian authorities are introducing something that does not and cannot exist in the West. Agricultural degradation and correspondingly

rural population of Russia is an undeniable fact. There is debate about what to do about it. Academician of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (formerly VASKHNIL) Vladimir MILOSERDOV claims: there is a panacea - cooperation.

Forgotten experience

– Why do the peasants themselves and everyone else, that is, the country, need cooperation? – Rural cooperation is an association of peasants to carry out joint work. She rids agriculture from resellers.

There is an objective pattern: whoever sells does not produce, and whoever produces does not sell. A small-scale producer cannot look for markets on his own, and therefore needs an intermediary. The reseller bites into the small commodity producer like a tick. He imposes low prices on him, and the peasant has nowhere to go. As a result, the reseller is on horseback, and the peasant drags out a miserable existence. The peasant’s share of costs in agricultural production is more than 50%, and the share of his revenue is only 16–18%. “Tick” gets all the margin. Accordingly, the peasants have no motivation to increase their production, and the economy is withering away.

Within the framework of cooperation, peasants elect a board and create all the necessary services: processing of products, storage, transportation and, finally, sale (if necessary, specialists are hired for all these tasks). That is, from the field to the consumer’s kitchen table, the product goes without any intermediaries. The peasants receive all the money they are entitled to, and they have an incentive to work harder and better - the country’s agriculture is developing. In addition, within the framework of cooperation, it becomes possible to “chip in” and invest in the common economy, build enterprises, or spend money on social needs. One cannot exploit the other within the cooperation, because it is based

– It originated with us almost 180 years ago. Then in Transbaikalia, at the Petrovsky plant, the exiled Decembrists created the consumer society “Big Artel”. Cooperation developed most dynamically in Russia during the Stolypin reform: by 1917, 50% of householders, that is, 50 million people, were members of cooperatives. In the early 20s, the peasant economy, weakened by the war and the events of the revolution, lay in ruins - it was halved. The new government understood that the illiterate peasantry could become a victim of intermediaries. Therefore, she promoted cooperation, helping the cooperative movement with budget money and other measures. For example, state-owned enterprises were encouraged to purchase mostly through cooperation. As a result, within five years, by 1926, the economy had surpassed the pre-war level.

It is known what happened next. The smell of war was in the air. Stalin decided: we must prepare, and as soon as possible. Just as the West carried out industrialization through the plunder of colonies, Stalin took a supertax and tribute from the peasants. Cooperation took the form of collective farms, which lasted until the end of the Soviet era.

And then came the 90s. Our reformers parquet specialists did not know agriculture, but they knew how to talk. Instead of professional issues, their heads were occupied by ideological dogmas: the transition of agriculture for small goods production, removal of the state from regulation industries, free prices, etc. The cooperation was destroyed: it lost more than 83 thousand objects. A significant part of the property of the cooperative, under the pretext of corporatization, was transferred to a private owner. In large settlements, cooperative stores have closed, not used

capacity of enterprises, area of ​​wholesale trade centers.

- Result?

The standard of living of the rural population has dropped monstrously, young people are fleeing the village, the village is dying out. Every year, a thousand villages disappear from the map of Russia, our territory becomes empty. And as you know, a holy place is never empty.
Cooperative is a locomotive

– What is the US experience?

– Now in America, not only the majority, but almost all rural producers are covered by cooperation. In 1990, at a meeting of the Soviet-American Food Commission in Washington, the then US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture personally told me: “If cooperation suddenly disappeared, our farming would collapse within six months.”

Having returned from America and being very impressed, I went with proposals to the Minister of Agriculture V. Khlystun.

He told me: “We gave the peasants freedom so that they themselves could choose the markets that are acceptable to them, profitable buyers, and you are dragging us into the State Planning Committee.”

That is, he somehow connected the American (and Russian pre-revolutionary) experience with the Soviet State Planning Committee. Probably because I used to work at the State Planning Committee.

Last spring, Deputy Minister A. Petrikov said that cooperation should be developed, but “it has limited significance,” and it is much more important, they say, to do other things. You can't cook porridge with this kind of thinking.

– Why can’t peasants organize cooperatives without the help of the authorities? “You have little idea of ​​the poverty they live in.” What can a Russian rural resident invest in a cooperative? income. And they will not join a cooperative, reasoning that a bird in the hand is better than a pie in the sky.

To implement cooperation, you need not only funds, experienced personnel and working laws. It is necessary for the authorities to radically reconsider their attitude towards rural residents, whom they secretly consider to be second-class citizens. This, by the way, is a quarter of Russians.

A matter of life and death

- So, no hope at all?

- Well, where can we be without hopes? It is clear that many people in power are biased by large retail chains, but I was encouraged by the appointment of N. Fedorov as Minister of Agriculture.

This year the First All-Russian Congress of Rural Cooperatives (not numerous) will be held. A concept is being developed that proposes measures to revive cooperation.

We should start with the merger of large enterprises, agricultural firms, and JSCs. But large enterprises cover a relatively small part of the rural population, and without universal coverage the problem cannot be solved.

Therefore, it is necessary that large enterprises enter into agreements with nearby commodity producers, supply them with young animals, seeds, feed, provide transport services, technological and veterinary services, process and sell their products. Over time, small commodity producers can unite into first-level cooperatives.

The state must help cooperators. You have to understand that a lot of money will be required. But in five years we will get the result. - Is there any money?– Do we have the money to pump one and a half trillion into state-owned companies? And where is the result? I would say that cooperation is one of the first tasks that can be compared in importance with industrialization 30s. It's a matter of life and death. Moreover, action must be taken immediately.

Because of the entry

in the WTO, our agriculture risks dying in just a couple of years. The current government does not intend to protect it, while all developed countries subsidize their agriculture. In the USA 24% from cost products are subsidies. In Germany – 50%, in Sweden – 70%, in Norway – 80%. Japan buys rice at eight times the price from its producer. The United States invests $130 billion a year in agriculture, the European Union – 45–50 billion. And Russia – less than three. – The last question is political. Is cooperation a phenomenon of the right or the left? regulation. Under the NEP, it was believed that this was an ideal system, since the peasant simultaneously worked for himself, being interested in income, and for society.

There are forecasts: in the near future, cooperation in developed countries will cover the entire economy, and not just agriculture.

Frankly, in the current geopolitical situation, I thought for a long time - is it worth writing about this? This article: “What’s it like in their village? American Farmers."

And then I realized that it was worth it. Still, all of us (or most of us) are adults, sensible and, as practice shows, kind and generous. And we will talk about people like us. About villagers and small farmers on the other side of the globe. From the country of bison, Indians, cowboys and Coca-Cola. About ordinary Americans.

Several years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to travel for a long time through the territory of a potential enemy. And although we visited a considerable number of large American cities, such as Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and St. Louis, we still spent most of our time in the small towns of that same one-story America. Well, like towns... Many of our villages are larger. And in America, all settlements in which there are more than two or three houses are proudly called town - a city in our language. We visited more than two dozen states, including Texas, Arizona, California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin... In general, the entire Midwest and the entire west coast. We tried to stay only in small towns, with the most authentic way of life, since large cities in the USA are not much different from Russian ones - the whole spectrum of nationalities, mutual indifference and disgusting lifestyle. Endless consumption and the desire for “Hollywood success.” In general, everything is the same as ours. But small towns are another matter. Often no one has ever seen Russians there, and in general, strangers rarely drop by. So communicating with many of them brought real pleasure and invaluable knowledge and experience. How are our fellow rednecks doing in the American outback?

Marvin Straw, town of Cumberland, Wisconsin with a population of just over two thousand people. My good friend, with whom we lived for a whole week. Now he works as a truck driver, and at the time of our arrival he worked as a tractor driver on a farm. The farm raised meat turkeys and belonged to his father-in-law. Marvin's wife, Mandy Straw, worked as a school teacher in the nearby town of Shell Lake, population 1,314. By local standards, they are strong middle peasants.

(Marvin and Mandy's house)

(The Straw family's home park)

(Country American Road)

Americans are not poor, but they are not rich either. They work a lot. Marvin's working day began at 6 a.m. and sometimes ended after midnight. But this is in season. In the off-season it’s easier. Weekend? What is this? Well, except that on Sundays you were allowed to go to church and then spray the fields again. Family business, after all. The farm had 10,000 turkeys and only two workers, not counting the farm owner. The veterinarian and Marvin himself, who was a tractor driver, a truck driver and just a farm worker. Feeding, watering, removing waste, maintaining temperature and humidity - everything is automated, so there is really no need for a crowd of workers there. And when needed (cleaning and preparing feed), seasonal workers are hired for a week or two. Marvin also has two wonderful children - Marshall and Morgan. Children, like their dad, love to fish, ride a snowmobile in the winter, and swim for hours in the lake in the summer. However, Morgan has already grown up and will soon go to college. Or maybe she has already done so. Marvin enjoys watching American football, fishing and walking in the woods. True, with a rifle. Because there are a lot of grizzly bears in the area. There are a lot of weapons in the house, despite the fact that Marvin is not a fan of hunting. In addition to the rifle, two shotguns and a pistol. In addition, in the car (a brand new Chevy Silverado pickup) there is a carabiner constantly hanging on the back wall. At the same time, Marvin considers himself a pacifist. Marvin's house, like almost all Americans, was purchased with a mortgage. If payment is not made, the family is kicked out into the cold without a second thought. But at the time of our acquaintance, almost the entire loan had been paid off. I also noticed that there is a whole field of corn growing on the plot of land, which no one is going to harvest. I ask Marvin, why did he imprison him? The answer was amazing: “Deer come to eat corn. And bears eat deer. And since bears eat deer, they do not eat people and dogs. True, they love to dig through garbage cans with great pleasure.” A couple of days later I saw such a bear, just poking around in a trash can. At first I mistook him for a homeless person. But he quickly realized that there could be no homeless people here, since the nearest neighbor was half a kilometer away.

(Dan Slater makes deer barbecue)

Dan Slater. Shell Lake, Wisconsin. A simple car mechanic in the town of Shell Lake with a population of 1314 people. Oddly enough, I met him in Russia. And even in his native Kursk. Upon arrival in Wisconsin, I stayed with him for some time. Fan of hunting and firearms. He kept more than fifty guns, a hunting bow and a crossbow at home. One evening we were shooting clay pigeons with him. When I saw his arsenal, I almost had a stroke. He also kept a .45 Colt Python revolver at home. Well, how did you store it? It was on the table in his room. To my question “what if there are children?” I received a simple answer: “they prefer rifles.” To my attempts to talk about the danger of keeping children and weapons without isolation from each other. Then the idea was conveyed to me that the children knew how to shoot perfectly and knew safety precautions quite clearly. “What about without weapons? Bears, wild boars, wolves all around. And who knows, what if someone breaks into the house and I’m not at home?” When I told him that in Russia everything is complicated with weapons, except for hunting ones, his eyes were the size of the wheels of his Dodge. Although, let me remind you, he had already been to Russia at that time. However, his children were almost adults. The youngest daughter was 12, the son was 14, and the eldest daughter was about to get married. The children turned out to be very good-natured, but did not get involved in the conversation.

(Dan and his Dodge Ram 1500)

Unfortunately, there is not enough space for all the stories. I'll tell you a little summary. We met farmers and simple rednecks in Wisconsin and California, in Arkansas and Minnesota, in Missouri and Texas, in Ohio and Oklahoma... Everywhere we could note this. None of them ever complained about life, but they loved to scold the government, especially then-President Obama, who was often called an alien or a drug addict. Wisconsin is virtually all dairy and meat. They make excellent homemade cheeses and sausages. But they are completely unfamiliar with cottage cheese. And there are not even any analogues. I think it would be possible to make money on this, since Americans easily pay for good ideas. Farmers are, in general, quite wealthy people. Although, contrary to our ideas, they have practically no government support. Rather, it lies in the fact that they are not interfered with. Plus, Americans easily begin to defend their rights if they feel that the state is violating them. Suing a state governor or the president is a piece of cake. If the state begins to go crazy, then they can take up arms, especially southerners in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico like to do this. There are many farmers in California. This state is generally considered the most farming. And it’s not Hollywood and Silicon Valley that are in charge there. Simple redneck hillbillies work hard for a small salary and dream of someday buying or building their own farm or ranch. By the way, this is not only the dream of rural residents.

(farm fields in California. Rocky Mountains on the horizon)

American villages also have very interesting infrastructure. Public transport is missing as a concept. However, it is often absent in large cities. But almost every village has a functioning airport. In the same Shell Lake that I wrote about above, there are already two of them. One for conventional regional aviation and air taxis, and the other for amphibious aircraft. Just a bunch of piers on the lake. They carry passengers, cargo and mail. And private aviation is very developed. In every village there is at least one or two people who own a Cessna or Piper. And some even have working pre-war biplanes like the Boeing Stearman. There is nothing surprising. To learn to become an amateur pilot costs approximately two times the national average salary, and a medical examination generally costs only $30. Moreover, it can be completed in half an hour. The light piston four-seater aircraft itself can be bought for the price of a decent car (about 40 - 50 thousand dollars). Second-hand, of course. It is not uncommon for bus drivers or truck drivers to become pilots.

(Agricultural aircraftCessna AirTractor)

(T quintessential American country house )

(N small farm in Wisconsin)

(Country jeep)

P.S. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer. Write, ask.

The United States today is one of the world leaders in agricultural production. In terms of export of agricultural products, the United States ranks first in the world - 15% (by value). The United States accounts for half of the world's production of soybeans and corn and 10 to 25 percent of cotton, wheat, tobacco and vegetable oils.

The USA now ranks 1st in terms of agricultural efficiency. Today, U.S. agriculture is using many innovative solutions to help farmers produce more with less. The use of GM seeds and direct sowing reduces farmers' costs for the use of machinery, fuel and pesticides. With their help, as well as through targeted government policy and the creation of a comfortable climate for the development of agricultural production, US agricultural productivity has increased by almost 50% since 1982.

By any measure, United States agriculture today is big business. It was in the USA that a special term appeared - “agribusiness” - reflecting the gigantic weight of agricultural production in the American economy.

US Farms

American farms are fundamentally different from Russian agricultural enterprises, both in their approach to organizing work and in production efficiency. In the United States, farmers are under constant government control, especially when it comes to maintaining the fertility of the land. Farmers have access to preferential loans, and various seminars and consultations are organized for them. It is more profitable for the state to invest and help them than to lose its main national wealth - its land (agricultural land occupies 1.163 billion acres or approximately 52% of the total land area of ​​the United States).


The development of agricultural production in the United States is due to a number of main factors: the widespread use by farmers of direct sowing and strip tillage technology, high-tech and productive equipment, high-quality seed material, etc. But in many ways this is also due to the activity of the farmers themselves - every farmer is a member of some cooperative or association, some are members of not one, but two or three. There are supply, marketing, and agricultural service cooperatives, and he has access to the information he needs. All this together brings its fruits - the average farmer harvests an average of 4-4.5 tons of wheat or 2-2.5 tons of rapeseed from 1 hectare of land per season.

Regarding technology, we can say that a strong farmer in America tries to lease rather than buy new combines, tractors, and seeders. Many work according to this scheme: they rent equipment for a year, then return it to the dealer and take a new one with an additional payment. This allows them not to accumulate old equipment and increase their capacity every year. The dealer, in turn, also benefits from this, since he leases or sells this equipment to smaller farmers.

Farmers pay special attention to storing their grain after harvest. In agricultural areas, small silos and floor storage warehouses can be seen every 2-3 km. It is characteristic that 40% of all silos are new designs that are not yet 10 years old.

In recent years, farmers have been trying to switch to storing their crops in silos rather than in floor storage warehouses, as it is easier and more convenient to control the quality of the grain. However, they are not moving away from floor storage entirely; some farmers are building such warehouses in cases where their harvest exceeds expected forecasts. Such warehouses are much cheaper in price today, but if a farmer plans the operation of his farm for many years to come, he will definitely install a metal silo, which will be more durable and reliable. As for the area under crops, the average farmer has about 200 - 300 hectares.
Most often, a farmer focuses on growing one crop, depending on the region where his farm is located. For example, if we talk about crops such as corn and soybeans, then 70% of all crops are oriented in 5 states: Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana. As for wheat in the United States, it is cultivated in North and South Dakota, Kansas, Montana, Texas, Washington, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska and Idaho.
A typical small farm in the USA looks like this: 8-10 silos, 1-2 floor storage warehouses, office space, a small laboratory and a hangar for equipment and supplies. Particular attention in the North American farming system is given to conveyors, namely mobile belt and auger conveyors. In North American agriculture, speed is a priority. The average farmer has a grain loading and unloading speed of 200 - 250 t/h.

As for transporting grain from the farm to the elevator, most often the farmer himself transports his grain on his own transport. Separately, I would like to touch upon the topic of the grain trucks themselves. The design of the trailers ensures reliability and ease of operation. Such trailers have bottom unloading, which is carried out from two hatches on the bottom, which allows the grain truck to be quickly unloaded anywhere. The capacity of trailers is 38-40 tons. As for the unloading speed, the farmer can unload at the elevator in 10-15 minutes.


If we talk about organizing a business, then from a legal point of view, farmers can use any of the three traditional forms of business organization: ownership, partnership, association. The simplest form of legal organization, a sole proprietorship, does not require any legal action, and the law does not distinguish between the owner (the owner of the business) and the business. The owner (farmer or farming couple) controls the farm's assets and is responsible for economic risks and management decisions, as well as receiving income from the business.

More complex forms of legal organization—partnerships and associations—allow multiple owners to work together. An individual farmer or family may not have the necessary resources and means - management, labor, technology - to run a commercially oriented farm. Partnerships and associations allow people (not necessarily related to each other) to pool resources.

The standard of living of American farmers is generally very high. The income of a farm family is on average three-quarters of that of an urban family, but since farmers have lower household expenses, their standard of living is close to the national average.

Farming support programs and the WTO

The actual level of support for agriculture in the United States is almost 20 billion (down from 50 billion at the time of accession to the WTO under the “yellow box”).
In the United States, budget subsidies include a number of direct forms: compensation payments for livestock reduction programs and changes in crop structure; investment subsidies; payments to agricultural producers per unit of area or head of livestock; reimbursement of costs for water supply, irrigation, gasification; various compensations and discounts on taxes (turnover tax, for example), etc. And indirect: through full or partial payment of expenses for scientific research, insurance of crops and products, transportation costs (for government procurement), construction of roads and bridges in rural areas. There are also other subsidies, expressed in deferment of loan payments, write-off of debts to the state, preferential or interest-free loans, etc.

Under the WTO, US farmers receive significant government subsidies and an additional set of indirect support measures. Subsidies account for about 25% of the value of agricultural products in the United States.

In the United States, all food subsidies are determined by the level of market prices and are almost not paid during periods of high prices. There are three types of subsidies:
- direct payments
- countercyclical payments
- market assistance loans.

In the United States, since the late sixties, the mechanism of direct payments and various kinds of premiums not related to the price or quantity of products has been increasingly used. This mechanism is neutral in relation to resource costs or prices and therefore does not cause undesirable effects on the structure in conditions of overproduction
supply, however, it allows to ensure the required level of profitability of farms.
Direct payments are made to producers of so-called “protected products”: wheat, corn, barley, sorghum, cotton, rice, soybeans, other oilseeds, and peanuts. Direct payments to the manufacturer are not related to actual production volume. The subsidy is paid based on the base sown area, and it may not be used at all or sown with other crops (except rice, fruits and vegetables), this does not affect the receipt of the subsidy. At the beginning of the year, 50% of the estimated subsidy volume is paid, the remaining amount after October 1.

Direct payment is calculated according to the formula: direct payment rate X base yield X base area X 0.85 (coefficient enshrined in the Agrarian Law),
in this case, the base area is fixed at the previous years, and the base yield is fixed at the 1995 level. The rate is fixed for each crop. The highest is for peanuts and wheat (36 and 0.52, respectively). The subsidy limit under the program is $40 thousand per person per year. Countercyclical payments are designed to stabilize farmers' incomes if market prices are below target prices. It is used in most farms in cases where the “effective price” for the products produced is lower than the “target price”.

In the United States, target prices for major agricultural products focus on cost recovery (including rates of return on capital and estimated land rent) and a specified return to farmers. Target prices ensure that farms are self-financing at average and reduced cost levels.

Products are sold at market prices, which may not coincide with target prices, but if the market price is less than the target price, the farmer will receive the difference between them.

This difference between the "effective price" and the "target price" is paid to farmers as a counter-cyclical payment. It is paid based on the historical level of seed payments and is not related to the current level of production.
For example, target price for wheat = $194 per ton.
Effective Price = Market Price + Direct Payments
Direct payments = $19 per ton.
If market price = $150 per ton, then effective price = $169 per ton.
Countercyclical payment $194 – $169 = $25 per ton.
The rate of countercyclical payments, unlike direct ones, is not fixed, but depends on the market. The payment limit for these payments is 65 thousand dollars per year, 30-35% is paid in October, the balance is paid at the end of the agricultural year.
Essentially, this type of settlement price coincides with the minimum price that farmers can receive for their products. Therefore, target prices in the United States are called guaranteed prices.

In addition, the United States has programs to support prices for dairy products and sugar. The programs are aimed at increasing domestic prices through government procurement.

Milk price support is set at $218 per ton. Currently, products such as butter, cheese, skim or powdered milk are purchased; purchases are made at adjusted prices.

The sugar price support is set at $397 per ton for sugar cane products and $504 per ton for sugar beet products. Subsidies are provided to sugar processors, who must purchase sugar from producers at a support price.

There are also market-based lending programs in the United States. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets borrowing rates for most crops.

For example, the loan rate for wheat is $101 per ton. The farmer has the option to repay the loan under the following conditions: 1) transfer the crop to the USDA at the borrowing rate, 2) repay the loan with interest, 3) repay the loan at market price if the price falls below $101 per ton, 4) receive a “compensation payment” » as the difference between the loan rate and the market price.

The American farmer has wide access to a developed network of credit from private, cooperative and public financial sources. One of the most important components of this network is the Federal Farm Lending System, consisting of three groups of banks, each of which is endowed with specific functions: lending for the purchase of real estate, lending for the purchase of agricultural implements and seed funds, and lending to cooperatives. The country is divided into twelve zones, in each of which there are three federal banks, one for lending to each of the above areas of activity. Another source of credit for farmers is the Local Farm Bureau.

In the United States, as in almost all countries with highly developed agriculture, the level of direct financing (subsidies) of agricultural production, despite constant negotiations (within the WTO) and attempts to reduce the level of government support for the agricultural sector, remains extremely high. At the same time, when it comes to the fact that the United States is reducing the level of support in the “yellow box,” you need to understand that they are transferring them to the “green box” of measures not limited by the WTO. Some major US green box expenditures, so-called general services: scientific research ($1.8 billion), canning services ($1.5 billion), food safety testing ($2 billion) .), measures to support the “green basket” by 50 American states ($4.32 billion), environmental protection ($3.9 billion).

According to the well-known charity Oxfam International, the EU and the US are spending $9-10 billion more on direct subsidies to agriculture alone than 10 years ago. For Americans, food costs much less than for residents of many other countries. Moreover, one third of the acreage in the United States is sown specifically for export - to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
From here it is quite obvious why there is overproduction of food in the United States and why it so needs more and more new markets. Accordingly, this makes it difficult to find solutions to develop trade in agricultural products between developed and developing countries and preserves the position of the WTO as a tool for rich and powerful countries to impose their will on weaker ones.
Konstantin Sergeev

A couple of years ago, when the first Windows phones came out, I decided to play a small game and opened my own small business - I wrote several programs for Windows phones and started selling them. A lot of time has passed since then, and from a harmless hobby, my business gradually turned into an even more harmless hobby (the Windows smartphone market still hasn’t reached 4 percent, it seems). I actively gave up writing new versions of programs, but by some miracle the total number of people who downloaded my applications approached half a million, and every month 200-300-400 dollars in profit began to come into my account. It's a small thing, but nice. Well, that is, it was nice until the month of April came and I didn’t have to think about taxes. Fuck it, the minimum turbo tax that can cope with my situation (home and business) costs as much as $109, which no one will return to me. But also three nights of my life that I have already spent filling out and calculating all taxes, and this will never come back. As a result, I became angry and irritable.
The only thing that saves the world from me killing everyone around me is rain. I don't want to leave the house. And at home it’s good. I'm so glad I don't live and work in some big stone tower in some big city. I love my little Duval, full of farmland and programmers. You look out the window and there is a plum blossom there. The neighbors have deer stripping the bushes. Silence on the streets, even cars are not frequent guests. It’s rare when you hear some stomping outside the window - and there, bam, the locals are going somewhere. Happens.

My most popular app is called GPS Calculator and many of its users are real American farmers who use my program to calculate the area of ​​their fields. I really respect farmers for their work and believe that working on the land is one of the most important things you can do.
The time of giant, poisonous farms that destroy all the nature around them is long gone. According to Washington State statistics, the number of American farmers is slowly growing, successful farmers are getting younger, each farm is smaller and smaller (the average size in King Prefecture is 10 acres), they are specializing in rare crops, in a greater variety of varieties, in organic farming, in working in maximum harmony with nature, reducing watering and fertilizers, using products ideal for the local climate. More and more people are realizing that local, native vegetables, root vegetables, berries and salads are much nicer than Mexican or California tasteless cucumbers.
Or, for example, mushrooms. This is how I usually buy mushrooms: I write a message to the farmer (who lives in the same city as me) on Facebook and ask him to bring it. Today I wanted to do the same, but the farmer said that today he was very, very busy on the farm and it was raining heavily. Therefore, on the contrary, I had to go to him. Do you want to know and see how ordinary American mushroom farmers live and work in ordinary small towns? Then watch.

The farm is located in Duval on 315th Avenue. It’s not far from my house, but on the outskirts of the city, so 315th Avenue is heavily wooded and not paved. Here it is.

We turn left onto 315th Avenue into the first house. Right here. We see a car, sakura and a farmer's house. There is silence and no one around, but it’s not scary - the farmer is now busy with work and to catch him you need to go directly to the backyard. Next to the house is a garage and daffodils bloom in a puddle.

And here is the backyard and farm. Tractor, sawdust, canopy.

This green machine is for cutting branches and all kinds of wood debris into sawdust. The farmer buys all the excess scraps from aspens, fir trees and thujas from local lumberjacks, the tractor puts them into the machine, the machine processes all this garbage into sawdust and packs the sawdust into liter plastic bags (made of compostable corn plastic).

This scary device (similar to something from the TV series Lost) is used to turn water into hot steam (under high pressure).

And here is the owner himself. He opened a mushroom farm in the city of Duval two years ago, and before that he lived in Izu Prefecture in Japan for three years, taught English at school there and developed a love for mushrooms. He works with sawdust in the fresh air, only occasionally being distracted by Facebook. Social media (and blogs) is an incredibly important tool for all the farmers I know. Nowadays everyone blogs. But I, for example, don’t know why someone would think of subscribing to some Coca-Cola Twitter account. Small farmers are a completely different matter. From baker Sean's Facebook, his readers will find out what mood he is in today and how the bread will turn out (or not at all). The mushroom farm posts photos of mushrooms and frogs. In return, farmers who subscribe to their readers learn about the interests and tastes of buyers of their products and adjust their assortment to this. It turns out to be a completely different, personal level of service.

The most sacred place of the farm is where mushrooms are just beginning to grow. This is done by loading all the shelves in the house with bags of fresh sawdust. The house is closed and a stream of hot steam is allowed inside, which sterilizes all sawdust from excess mold and bacteria. Then mushroom spores are carefully planted into each bag. The mushrooms are regularly watered with the purest spring water (the spring is located right on the farm), the sawdust begins to rot and mold (and due to the fact that rotting occurs inside closed bags, these bags become very hot).

When the first mushrooms begin to emerge from the mold, they are transferred to another, neighboring house, which is called the “growth house.” Here is the owner of the farm and his partner in this house of growth, at work (when constantly working with mushrooms, precautions are needed for the lungs).

Shiitake.

Hedgehogs like to grow upside down.

Self-development