Ben Hartman Livres

At Clay Bottom Farm, author Ben Hartman and staff practice kaizen, or continuous improvement, by cutting out more waste - of time, labor, space, money - every year and aligning their organic production more tightly with customer demand. Applied alongside other lean principles originally developed by the Japanese auto industry, the end result has been increased profits and less work. In this field guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even greater detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximize land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency. From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers' market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable.--COVER.

"Lean principles were originally developed by the Japanese automotive industry, but Hartman has applied them to farming. As a result, he's been able to drastically cut waste, increase profit, and make his family farm more environmentally and economically sustainable. With ample examples from his one-acre farm in Indiana, Hartman illustrates how to incorporate lean practices, on farms of any size or scale, at each step of the production chain, from starting a farming operation and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. Hartman's approach of working smarter, not harder, aims to prevent the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter and enable a new generation of young people to choose farming as a viable career path"--Back cover