Hi,
I’m Andrew, I was born on, the very agrarian, Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada, but didn’t grow up with an interest in farming…
I went to Uni for Mechatronics Eng but left in my last semester for personal reasons. I did complete a Technology Management and Entrepreneurship diploma prior to quitting. After some design work and a stint coordinating at a Makerspace, I spent the past five years building and running a small-scale cutflower farm and florist business with my partner. With bootstrapping and homesteading we were able to live off of only the income the two of us generated on-farm (with the dubious help of a local teen that probably cost more than he helped). We reluctantly had to sell our farm despite it’s success, and are on a soul-searching journey that has me living in Italy at the moment. I had hoped to see more of the local farming methods and tools but connections have proved hard to make. So, here I am on the internet…
Between my engineering background and adult ADHD my farming life was an unfiltered fountain of ideas and experiments. I’m very interested in permaculture ideology and abhor the modern world of industrial agriculture where chemical companies, equipment manufactures, and banks trap farmers in a viscous cycle of debt and dependance. Through my baptism-by-fire market gardening experience I was often disappointed by the ignorance and greed present in that sector. I believe we have undermined our collective agrIQ™ by discouraging a whole generation of innovators that farming is beneath them. Farmers used to be the best engineers and innovators around! Now, companies are cropping up all over to peddle simple, homemade solutions to unsuspecting growers. The great Eliot Coleman made his legacy teaching growers to make their own tools on public television! Now, his ideas are sold (for large profit) as finished tools despite still being made of prototyping materials. (see the Tilther *drill not included, or this)
It has been some years since I saw the electric AC model G on pinterest and I am amazed it has taken me this long to find this community! I am head over heels for the simple beauty of the original G, and believe that size of tractor fills a huge niche in market gardening (as evidenced by the popularity of the BCS). I would say my biggest passion lies in that area and the promotion of ‘village-scale’ agriculture through reviving and adapting Victorian-style inventions to mitigate the energy and investment required to produce food.
In general though, I have a broad area of interests and will be more than happy to collaborate on all sorts of ideas and projects. As someone currently unemployed, and who knows that farming is an impossible way to make a living, I find myself sometimes torn in the intellectual property/open source debate. However, it is a strange world we live in and practical skills are so few, that it seems (as in the case of Eliot Coleman’s ideas) that revealing a design does not prevent the manufacturing of it form profiting. Also, (especially in IT) the patent system is so slow and flimsy that the best way to maintain a profitable position is to keep innovating.
So, let’s do that together!
Steeves