Bok-What? Farming Gets a Face-Lift
1. New Jersey: home of the indelible and intelligent Jersey cow, whose milk is less forthcoming than her sister Holsteins around the country, but richer and creamier, nonetheless. Then there are the fields: acres and acres of Jersey corn stretching up towards the hot summer sun, basking in its glory, waiting patiently for the day when man will enter with his massive harvesting machines, collecting ear upon ear in a dizzying display of mechanized efficiency. And who could forget Farmer Hom, with his tiny plot of bok choy, growing sprightly on his tiny farm alongside small mustard greens and bitter melon (Taipei Times, 17 Nov. 2002)? Wait a minute. That doesn't seem right. What are mustard greens, bitter melon, and bok choy doing in the middle of New Jersey?
2. The answer lies in the current popularity of the vegetable itself: "an attractive vegetable with a mild, meaty heart and tender, darker green leaves . . . bok choy has become the vegetable of the moment" (Fabricant, 22 October 2001). Restaurants combining Asian seasoning to their dishes or employing fusion concepts have created a sudden demand for strange and exotic produce. Regular consumers, too, increasingly interested in more healthful foods, have begun to show interest in this Brassica vegetable's alleged cancer-fighting properties. There are some, like Farmer Hom in New Jersey, who have taken notice. Thus, they are abandoning traditional base commodity crops like corn or soybeans, and focusing, instead, on these newly emerging "niche" markets, growing or creating a specific product for specific people.
3. Niche farming is just one of many trends in agriculture that seeks to add value to a product by catering to the specific needs of the consumer directly -- such as restaurants or individuals, rather than large transnational corporations. It is a concept that is benefiting small farmers directly, those struggling to compete with large, highly capitalized agribusiness because it allows them to produce products the big guys can't: "the most successful farmers have turned away from traditional farming that produces what people need to niche markets based instead on what people want" (Quimby, 17 Nov. 2002).
4. Traditional farming practices follow an industrial model of production -- one based on specialization, mechanization, routinization, and economies of scale or size.