RURAL TREND PROS AND CONS 

Since the 1960s hippie days some people have decided to forego the glamour of city life and retreat to the quiet of the countryside. Hasn't been that practical until recently. Now with the increasing costs of city life, crime to dodge, stress and hassles to avoid, extra taxes to pay and parking problems, some people are hearing a new message.

But it's not all one-sided. City life may still have an edge, for those residing in urban areas with low crime rates. Some people are stressing the lack of facilities and the increasing isolation as small rural towns have shrunk to mere villages with big spaces between occupied residences.

Off-setting the rewards of big city life again, is what's coming up for rural North America: technology. Bio-technology. Farmland that sells for a song today may be the investment of the future. A big advantage - much less land is needed now, not like in the old days. Modern bio-techniques enable farmers to grow more in a single twostory 10 acre building now than on a 200-acre farm during the 1950s. And it should be much more profitable. An "apartment" inside the farm saves driving costs. With today's technology everything you need can come via your satellite dish or computer screen.

Look at it this way. A Canadian farm, with only a five-month growing season invariably permits harvesting but one crop. Farmers use to work like crazy for five months and then freeze for seven. If the new prairie farmers are willing to say goodbye to those three-month vacations those industrial age farmers used to take to Hawaii or Arizona, new age types might be able to fly south for weekends.

Here's why:

On a vertical farm or a farm boutique, crops grow up instead of along the ground, requiring less land, and less capital cost for purchasing acreage. These farms use less water, less fertilizer, and have better control of the enclosed environment, hence fewer insect infestations. They operate year-round. Steady year-round production and delivery at stable prices to restaurants and grocery stores creates more valuable suppliers. Customers begin to love farmers instead of considering them mere suppliers. Indoor farming could produce what your customers formerly had to import from more southern climes.

But the biggest factor may be that crops can go beyond grocery shelves to the pharmacy. Patented gene-enhanced cauliflower ends up not being just a 49-cent vegetable but also a $4.95 super vegetable that will cure allergies. Since it is patented, along with growing rights by the inventor or seed company, only he or she is permitted to grow that product in a designated franchise area. The higher price makes more profit. The health benefits makes it easier to sell and lowers regional hospital costs. A win-win situation. There's more. Vertical irrigation water is filtered and recycled from the 30-foot high, three-feet-in-diameter vertical trenches inside the farm, reminiscent of round sewer pipes. The water that filters down is recycled. Fertilizer also gets filtered out from the drained water and is purified and re-used. This twelve-month indoor closed-cycle farming becomes competitive compared to inefficient five-month open farming outside. With year-round production, grocery stores and restaurants can improve sales and operations. They like the new farming. It's easier than buying locally in the summer and then having to track the world for grocer suppliers all winter.

There's more. Farmers can now grow potatoes in winter ... from seed. It's called TPS (True Potato Seed), a genetically-altered super spud and has many advantages over ordinary potatoes. But it's growth is limited to the size of a golf ball. That doesn't take long on a heated farm. There could be three crops a winter, to be sold in early spring to "earth farmers" (last of the old-type). Since the stud spuds are already started, they grow quickly once in the ground. Earth farmers can now harvest two crops a year in just five months. Everybody loves them. They become rich and lazy. Another cycle starts and "thought seed" puts them out of business in 2030. Think about this. It is not fantasy.

More information: Adrian Shaefler, Manager, Business Development, Escagenetics, 830 Bransten Road, San Carlos, CA 94070-3305. Phone: 415/595-5335.

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