Help Meg Save 50 Years of Sustainable Farming

This is the last thing I want to be doing today. I’d rather be working on my harvest or writing my novel.

However sometimes adulthood means you have to do the thing you absolutely don’t want to do. This is that thing.

Asking for the help from kind people online is hard for me to do, but I have no other options.

Let’s give you all a bit of backstory.

I’m Meg and I’m an author/ forensic scientist turned sustainable farmer.

I know that’s an odd career 180, but it has been my reality for the past couple of years when I was handed the management of our sustainable agriculture research farm, Badgersett. I was given this responsibility because there was no one else who was both competent and able to manage it. Notice I said able, not willing. This was foisted on me and while I love the farm and what I do, it was a bit of a surprise to be given control and ultimate responsibility for the future of nearly five decades worth of tree breeding work. I really didn’t see that twist in my fate coming.

My husband, Philip started this work in the 1980’s and is responsible for the breeding of three species of trees/bushes to replace annual agriculture. His work is sustainable and field ready. But it is expensive to do. The breeding alone takes thousands of dollars per plant and years to complete.

To give you an idea of how long he has been working on this, he was one of the speakers at the 2nd International Meeting on Coping With Climate Change in Washington DC in 1988, followed by the one held in Cairo, Egypt. He was there to explain his system of woody agriculture that he'd been working on for nearly a decade. Let's just say we've been at this for a minute.

His work is to the point of being ready for major commercial operations. Finally. After decades of blood, sweat, tears and unbelievable dedication.

I am now the person who has the responsibility to make this all work so people can learn how to farm in a way that’s not only climate safe in order to feed people, but healing to our planet.

I’m the one who will be at fault if it all fails because of ridiculous legal bills. Me.

Now that you have a bit of backstory, I’ll get to our problem.

With the farm I inherited a lot of debt primarily in the form of a mortgage. When it was taken out, the mortgage made sense, but now looking back it was a very bad idea. Hey hindsight is 20/20.

This mortgage has become the millstone around my neck. One I was barely able to manage this year as I had to shut down my main income stream, growing trees in my greenhouse for commercial sale, in order to meet the requirements of a grant I was awarded but have yet to receive and funds from.

Yeah that was fun.

“Hey Meg we’re going to pay you amazingly for your work, but in order to get it you have to have the trees to put into the ground within an 18 month turn around costing you an entire year’s income. Sounds great doesn’t it? Oh wait, we’re delaying the payment until next year, but you’ll be ok not getting a paycheck for a year right?”

This mortgage payment was paid, but it was late which incurred legal fees that have been compounding beyond my ability to pay. I’m absolutely not asking you all to pay a $20k farm mortgage payment. That would be asking way too much. Bordering on insanity.

I have until the end of next week (the week of September 16th) to pay the bank’s lawyer off before they begin foreclosure proceedings. Yeah I know how bad that sounds and how much that sucks.

I. Have. To. Pay. For. The. Bank’s. Lawyer.

Could they afford to pay it?

Of course.

Will they?

No.

Because there’s a clause in the mortgage that says if I’m late paying I’m responsible for any legal fees incurred. And they’re a bank. They like to keep their money like some twisted dragon’s hoard. You gotta love this system. (Massive sarcasm)

So yeah a handful of letters from a lawyer are going to cost me thousands of dollars.

So this is my ask…

Please help me save nearly fifty years of sustainable farm development and research. I need the money to pay these people off basically yesterday.

I’m desperate. Help me keep my home and make the world a little bit better for everyone. Donate to this GoFundMe. Please.