I love America.  There’s an entrepreneurial spirit here, a can-do attitude that has impressed me since I moved here as a kid from Denmark.  In many countries, exposing a business idea in public results in a list of reasons why it can’t or shouldn’t be done.  In America, sharing a business idea often results in encouragement and an offer by a stranger to provide capital.

And within this environment of entrepreneurship, there is no better business to start than a farm.  Here are 5 reasons why:

1.  You can start a farm for the price of your daily Starbucks habit.  If you own a yard, you can grow something.  If you don’t own a yard, you can likely talk a landowner into lending you a corner in exchange for produce.  Seeds are cheap.  And, very likely, you’re already buying water and fertilizer for your lawn.   Sell your first tomato crop to buy a beehive.  Sell the honey and buy a chicken coop.  You get the idea.

2.  You can eat the inventory.  This one is important.  If you start a keychain factory in your garage, there’s a limit to how many keychains your friends and family can utilize in the event that it goes bust.  But, if you start an agricultural operation at a reasonable size, and don’t sell anything, you just cut down on your family’s grocery budget.

3.  You can scale any size.  Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. started in a garage, and now makes a million barrels of beer per year (that’s 8-figure annual revenue, for anybody keeping score).  If you’re making the world’s finest jam from a quarter acre, you can expand as customers demand it.  If you get carried away with inventory, refer to the paragraph above.

4.  You’re changing the world.  Every small farm making delicious, healthy products gets us one step closer to a better world.

5.  It’s March, the beginning of the growing season.  Now go buy some seeds, if you haven’t already.  You should be planting something!

Christian Ahlmann