Booker T. and the Pizza King

(Page 4 of 5)

July/August 1988
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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After getting involved with a medical clinic, providing equipment for a small hydroelectric plant and starting a sewing industry, Tom now plans to buy a state-of-the-art tomato-processing plant in Honduras that comes with 8,000 acres. Since he needs only 5,000 acres to produce enough tomatoes for his pizza sauce, he wants to divide the rest into five-acre plots, build houses and sell them to Honduran farmers with no money down—and he wants Whatley's advice on what crops these farmers should grow. Even though both men are primarily concerned with U.S. farming, Monaghan says he has learned, "as every first-time traveler to the area does, that Central America—Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica—is geographically in the back yard of the United States .... I have a feeling that I may find a purpose in Honduras that will be stronger than . . . anything else I've done so far. "

RELATED CONTENT

Editor's Note: To visit Domino's Pizza headquarters, contact Domino's Farms, 24 Frank Lloyd Wright Dr., Box 874, Ann Arbor, MI48106; 313/995-4500.

To subscribe to Whatley's Small Farm Technical Newsletter ($16 a year), write to Whatley Farms, Inc., P. 0. Box 2827, Montgomery, AL 36105. For more information, see `Booker T. Whatley: The $100,000 25-Acre Farm Plan," MOTHER No. 75.

Whatley's Wisdom

A while back, Ward Sinclair of The Washington Post said in an article about Whatley, "A lone guru in Alabama has found a way for small farmers to make $100,000 on 25 acres." Whatley laughs when he recalls that he told his wife, Louie, "We better look that word guru up and see what he called me."

In his "guru" role, the horticulturist has come up with the following 10 principles:

1. The farm shall provide year-round daily cash flow. This is essential, Whatley says, and is possible with proper diversification of crops (see No. 8 below).

2. The farm shall be a pick-your-own operation. This requires excellent management and detailed planning, since successful PYO operations must have such conveniences as one place for cars to enter and another place to exit; parking on both sides of the road where the commodity is being harvested; and comfort stations and telephone jacks, so home privacy isn't disturbed. Pets should never be allowed.

3. The farm shall have a guaranteed market with a clientele membership club. This allows control over who comes to the farm, which isn't the case with most PYO operations. One of these 25-acre farms can support the freezer needs of 1,000 households, which constitute a guaranteed market.

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