This complicated life may not be what Beth Hoffman envisioned for herself decades ago when she was going to graduate school on the West Coast. But her previous career may have led her to this. So did a neighbor she met (she later married him).
Now she can’t imagine doing anything else. And she hopes that what she has built will carry on far longer than she does.
“We are financially sustainable,” Hoffman told American Farmland Owner from the 570-acre family farm that she operates with her husband, John Hogeland, in rural Monroe County, Iowa.
Beth Hoffman bio:
Journalist focusing on agriculture and food for various media organizations including National Public Radio
Documentary film contributor
University of San Francisco -- Associate Professor in Media Studies
Whippoorwill Creek Farm – Farm operator in Monroe County, Iowa
Book author – “Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America”
Iowa Writers Collaborative – “In the Dirt” columnist
Of course, financially sustainable doesn’t mean $100 bills are growing out in the fields alongside the hay and oats. “It’s not something that you can then have profits to go on vacation or buy a car,” she said. “But the land can take care of itself. The farm can take of itself.”
And that might be all that she can ask six years into this new life in the Midwest.
“Households associated with intermediate farms reported median farm income of -$125 and a median total household income of $73,304. Residence farms reported median income from farming of -$2,370,” details a USDA report on 2022 farm income for mid-sized operations.
Hoffman’s father-in-law, who owned the farmland, was among the skeptics that she and John could transform the operation into one that prioritized true sustainability. But she and her husband were determined to do it their way, a way focused on crops other than corn and beans and an abundance of pesticides.
“Continuing to grow excessive quantities of corn and soybeans in Iowa also seems to defy a basic economic principle, namely that taking some of the world’s most fertile and expensive land and producing cheap ingredients on it is a losing proposition,” Hoffman wrote in a column that she writes called “In the Dirt” on the Substack platform.
She continued, “But let’s do the math: the Iowa average yield for corn is 200 bushels per acre. At $4 a bushel (and as I write, the price is $3.82) a farmer will earn $800 an acre. 2024 estimates calculate that the cost to grow an acre of corn was $901.86 (including costs from seed and sprays to labor and machinery). The break-even point for corn then is more than $4.50, well above its expected price for years to come.”
RELATED: Here is the post called “Iowa farms should produce the best, not just the most” on Beth Hoffman’s column called “In the Dirt.”
Hoffman’s background in journalism has roots far deeper than the half-dozen years she spent on the farm. She has been a journalist for three decades.
Radio and print jobs followed her time in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. She followed one extracurricular: John. Her husband grew up on the farm before heading to San Francisco to become a chef, wine buyer, and butcher.
Years later, they rely on all those skills for their farming life, which has expanded far beyond growing things. They raise grass-fed cattle, along with goats that handle the weed control. Hay grows nearby to feed the animals. The farm also includes a large garden with produce serving local restaurants.
RELATED: Beth Hoffman explained why she and John Hogeland chose to change the family farm in this article in The Counter.
John’s background in fine food and wines also contributes to another effort the couple has with farm-to-table gatherings at their refurbished barn. There is an Airbnb, too.
Yes, it is a lot. But those additional endeavors, plus Hoffman’s writing, provide extra revenue…the cushion…that is so difficult to achieve in these sustainable farming operations.
“I had to been to Italy…and India…and Africa reporting on food,” Hoffman said of her previous journalism-related travel assignments. But she acknowledged that she “didn’t know anything about the economics of farming.”
RELATED: 45% of farmers (or their spouses) work outside the farm, as well, according to this 2020 USDA report.
That is why she wrote a book. She wanted to share the stories of farmers – those who grew massive amounts of corn and soybeans and others who chose smaller, organic alternatives.
“I wanted to write a book that was empathetic to farmers, because I felt like I had never read that book that was told from a perspective of, yes, someone who's doing something different,” Hoffman explained. “…but is also empathetic to the reasons why people would grow corn or why you would grow…corn and beans and commodity cattle, or even have a hog house.”
She knows that not all farmers share her perspectives. But she wants everyone to better understand why people choose what they do.
“I don't want to have those things, but I think it's really important that even if we want to change those things…we have to understand how we got here, like, why do people do this?”
Hoffman shares ideas and relies on resources from three organizations also focused on sustainability.
