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Jo and Rob Pendergraph Farming with a "Small is Beautiful" Philosophy – Farm Aid
The year 1985 was a terrible one for farmers in the Midwest and across the country. It was the height of the Farm Crisis, which forced hundreds of thousands of farm families into foreclosure. It was also the year that Jo Pendergraph and her husband Rob founded Manakintowne Farm in Powhatan County, Virginia. Jo explains, “We did not know what we were getting into when we began gardening in 1985!” Jo and Rob were inspired to be more self-sufficient by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Foxfire books, Alice Waters, Organic Gardening magazine, Rob’s parents who were in the nursery business, excellent gardening neighbors, and the restaurant where Jo’s sister was the baker. Jo remembers, “We were starting from a different place than the small and medium sized farms of the mid-80s, who were so negatively impacted by high interest rates and having to compete with subsidized megafarms.” Jo recalls, “We approached farming from a ‘small is beautiful’ philosophy, rather than ‘bigger is better.’” She laughs, “We did not think of ourselves as conventional farmers, and certainly other farmers did not!” Even today Jo and Rob think of themselves more as gardeners than farmers. Jo says, “That’s because we […]
