WE'VE LEARNED HOW TO CONSUME. BUT HAVE WE FORGOTTEN HOW TO PRODUCE?

I've been thinking a lot about what we consider education.

We spend years teaching people how to prepare for the workforce, how to earn a living and how to participate in the economy.

But how much time do we spend teaching people how to actually produce the things they need?

How to grow food.

How to raise animals.

How to preserve a harvest.

How to repair something instead of replacing it.

How to turn a practical skill into a business.

And how to recognize the resources and opportunities that might already be sitting right in front of them.

We've become very good at teaching people how to earn money to buy things. But have we forgotten how to teach people to produce things of value?

We've built an economy around consumption.

Think about how most of us live.

We work to earn money.

We use that money to purchase food, clothing, housing, transportation and the services we need to maintain our lives.

When something breaks, we pay someone to fix it.

When we need food, we go to the grocery store.

When we need something, we buy it.

And when we can't afford those things, we often find ourselves looking for another source of income or some form of assistance.

I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with purchasing goods and services. That's how an economy functions, and specialization allows people to become very good at what they do.

But I do think we've created a problem by becoming so disconnected from the knowledge required to produce the things we depend on.

Because when your only option is to purchase something, your ability to provide for yourself becomes entirely dependent on your ability to pay for it.

And that's a very vulnerable position to be in.

Education should create capability.

I don't believe education should be measured solely by the qualifications someone receives or the employment they eventually secure.

Those things matter.

But so does the ability to recognize a problem and develop the skills to solve it.

To look at a piece of land and understand what it could produce.

To understand how food is grown, harvested, stored and distributed.

To recognize when something can be repaired.

To take an idea and turn it into a source of income.

Or to identify an opportunity where other people might only see a limitation.

These are skills that can change the direction of someone's life.

I know because that's exactly what happened to me.

I didn't grow up farming.

I learned because I needed to find another way to support my family.

And once I started learning how to produce food, I began recognizing opportunities I never would have seen before.

What began as a way to feed my own household eventually became the foundation for Small Scale Farms.

Knowledge didn't just help me find a different way to earn a living. It helped me create one.

Why aren't we teaching more people how to become producers?

We talk constantly about food insecurity.

We talk about rising grocery prices.

We talk about the disappearance of small farms and the challenges facing agriculture.

But how often does the conversation turn toward teaching more people how to actually produce food?

Not just how to grow a tomato in a container.

I'm talking about understanding the entire process.

Soil preparation.

Seeds and growing seasons.

Animal husbandry.

Harvesting and preservation.

Production planning.

Food safety.

Processing.

Distribution.

Marketing.

And perhaps one of the most important lessons of all, how to make the numbers work.

Because growing food and making a living growing food are two very different things.

A person can become an excellent grower and still struggle financially if they don't understand their production costs, their market or how they're going to sell what they produce.

If we want more farmers, we need to teach people how to build farms that can actually support them.

We have more opportunities than we realize.

One of the things farming has taught me is that you don't always need enormous resources to get started.

You need knowledge.

You need a plan.

You need to understand what you have available and how to make the best use of it.

Maybe someone has a small piece of land.

Maybe they have access to a greenhouse.

Maybe they have equipment sitting unused.

Maybe they have a skill they could teach someone else.

Or perhaps they have the ability to produce something that another business is already looking to purchase.

The opportunity isn't always obvious until you understand how the pieces fit together.

And that's something I think we've lost sight of.

We've become accustomed to believing that opportunity comes from someone offering us a job.

But opportunity can also come from recognizing a need and learning how to meet it.

That's entrepreneurship.

And in agriculture, there are countless opportunities to produce something useful.

This is why I created Red Maple Farm School.

I didn't create Red Maple Farm School simply to teach people how to garden.

I created it because I believe practical education can become the foundation for an entirely different kind of economy.

An economy with more people who know how to grow food.

More people capable of starting small farms.

More people who understand how to preserve, process and prepare what they produce.

And more people who recognize that the skills they develop can become opportunities to earn a living.

That education can take many forms.

A workshop that teaches someone how to make their own medicine from plants.

Learning how to grow food in a backyard.

Understanding how to raise livestock responsibly.

Learning how to preserve seasonal abundance.

Or developing a business plan for a small farm that can generate income.

And it isn't limited to any particular age or stage of life.

Someone looking for a career change may want to become a farmer.

A family may want to reduce its grocery expenses.

A business owner may see an opportunity to develop a new agricultural enterprise.

Someone approaching retirement may finally have the time to learn something they've always wanted to do.

The point isn't that everyone needs to become a farmer. The point is that everyone should have the opportunity to become more capable.

But education alone isn't enough.

Here's something I've learned through building Small Scale Farms.

We can teach people how to grow food, but if they have nowhere to sell what they produce, we've only solved part of the problem.

That's why I believe education and economic infrastructure need to work together.

Imagine someone learning how to establish a small farm.

They develop the skills to grow food.

They understand their production costs.

They have a realistic plan for what they can produce.

And instead of having to figure out an entire retail and distribution operation on their own, they have access to an existing network of customers looking to purchase what they grow.

Now education has become something much more valuable.

It's created the possibility of a financially sustainable business.

And that business can contribute to feeding other people.

This is the relationship I'm working to build between Red Maple Farm School and Small Scale Farms.

Education creates more capable producers. Distribution gives those producers a pathway to customers. And customers create the demand that allows production to grow.

Each part strengthens the other.

What would happen if we invested more in teaching people to produce?

Imagine if more people knew how to grow even a portion of their own food.

If more households understood preservation and food storage.

If more people knew how to turn practical skills into income.

If more small farms were started with realistic business plans and reliable access to markets.

And if our communities began recognizing education as something that could directly strengthen their local economies.

We wouldn't eliminate the need for grocery stores, employers or public services.

Nor should that be the goal.

But we could create more options.

More opportunities.

More productive capacity.

And more people with the knowledge and confidence to provide something useful to others.

That's what resilience looks like to me.

Not doing everything ourselves.

But having enough knowledge, skills and relationships that we aren't completely dependent on someone else doing everything for us.

Maybe it's time to rethink what we're learning.

I believe education should do more than prepare us to participate in the economy that already exists.

It should give us the ability to help shape the economy we want to live in.

One where people can recognize opportunities.

Where knowledge becomes something practical.

Where producing food is valued as much as selling it.

And where learning a new skill can open the door to an entirely different future.

Through Red Maple Farm School, I want to help more people discover those possibilities.

Whether that means growing their first vegetables, developing a practical skill or taking the first steps toward establishing a financially sustainable farm.

Because the more capable people become, the more opportunities we create for ourselves and one another.

We've spent generations learning how to earn money so we can consume. Maybe it's time we put just as much effort into learning how to produce.

And if you're interested in learning, teaching, starting a farm or helping us create more opportunities for practical education, I'd love to hear from you.

Because the next generation of producers doesn't have to be born into farming. We can teach people how to become farmers.