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PASA Business Member Profile - Earth Tools Inc - Jan/Feb 2010 Issue

The Best Tools on Earth!
By Gayle Morrow

The good news is there is this wonderful, growing resurgence in the practice of small-scale (a.k.a. sustainable) farming and gardening.

The bad news is there is only one of Joel Dufour.

Dufour, founder and president of Earth Tools, is up to his PTO in work, thanks to the afore-mentioned resurgence. The Owneton, Kentucky-based Earth Tools sells the perfect equipment for home gardeners, market growers, and others who work the land at an intimate level - not only the European style walk-behind farming equipment that has made BCS and Grillo household names, but the implements to customize that equipment for multiple use and the hand tools for when nothing but a well-crafted hoe or spade will do the job.

“What makes a tool good is a combination of ergonomics and high-quality,” Dufour says. “Dealing with high-quality hand tools is a joy to me.”

He is also quite pleased to be involved with high-quality tools that have engines.

“I know the insides of every machine I sell. I know it all intimately,” he notes. “I fell in love with these machines years ago in Dad’s place.”

One of seven siblings, Dufour spent his childhood in Indiana where his father was a walk-behind tractor dealer with BCS. Growing produce organically and selling it locally was “part of my growing up”, as was the “appreciation of high quality goods at a reasonable price.” His father “wasn’t satisfied to fix” malfunctioning equipment; “he needed to know why it broke.” That led to a personal relationship with not only the customer but with the engineers at BCS, a tradition Dufour has continued. His affection for the machines ultimately led him to take over the BCS segment of his dad’s business. When he moved to Kentucky (it was his wife, not a walk-behind tractor, which prompted the change in residence), he found the situation to be a bit different.

“People around here didn’t garden much,” he says. “But I could see that tobacco was going out, and there was diversification money, so I decided to market more to farmers and eventually put up a website.

“It has grown so exponentially that it is unbelievable. The national demand has skyrocketed because of the local food movement. People don’t have the money or the space for large equipment. The walk-behind tractor is just a perfect fit.”

He explains that in Europe (in Italy alone there are 18 different brands of walk-behind tractors, and the companies all stay in business) the walk-behinds are sold as farm equipment along with the big pieces.  But here, “if it doesn’t have four wheels and a seat, it’s a joke.” The lawn and garden shops end up selling the walk-behinds; they don’t understand what they’ve got as they’re used to selling single-use pieces of equipment.

“Walk-behind tractors have become such a forgotten part of American agriculture,” he says.

So there’s that functional disconnect between the retailer and the customer. Then there’s the monetary one as well.

“It just amazes me what retailers charge,” Dufour says. “And we’re all buying it at the same place. My support (to the small farm operation) is offering excellent products at a reasonable price.”

Check out Earth Tools at earthtoolsbcs.com or call 502-484-3988. And be sure to look at the “help wanted” section.

“We really need a person for sales and inventory,” he says as he fields another phone call. “Ideally it would be someone who understands something about organic farming.”

Interview with Joel DuFour

What is unique about your business?
We are the only dealership in the U.S.A. specializing in walk-behind farming equipment, and shipping it directly to customers in the U.S.A. and Canada.

Why did you join PASA?
PASA is a great organization, and we support organic and sustainable farming ( I personally have been an organic gardener for 32 years). We’ve never seen anything like PASA. It has done a great job of promoting the movement.

How has your membership been a benefit to your business?
By attending and exhibiting at the Farming for the Future Conference, we are able to meet many new customers and learn of the newest cutting-edge farming systems/techniques so that we can create new tools for the equipment we sell to best fit the farmers’ needs. The PASA conference is bigger than any other show we do in terms of sustainable and organic shows.

What does the term “sustainable” mean to you and how do you incorporate that into your business?
It means you are doing things in a way that does not detract from anything, and, in fact, puts back more than is taken. This is easy to envision in working with the soil, where organic farming leaves the soil in better condition as the years progress (more organic matter, more biodiversity, more fertility) , but in business what this means is not trying to get rich. It is setting a reasonable profit margin to make high-quality goods available to farmers at well below “retail” prices, yet still making enough margin to stay in business. It is treating customers with respect, doing our utomost to make sure that at the end of every business transaction, the customer feels valued, respected and feels they have received value worth MORE than what they spent monetarily. It is providing excellent service and backing up every sale with the knowledgeable in-house service many companies sorely lack these days, as I’m sure I don’t have to tell you.

What do you see as some of the critical issues facing ag and ag-related businesses today?
Being able to reach all the people out there who are completely losing touch with where their food comes from, and at what REAL cost. Local/organic – the whole idea should never have gone away. We’ve been going down the wrong road for over 60 years.

What do you see as the connection between sustainable ag and the consumer?
It’s pretty much the same as the answer to the above question. The average consumer in this country needs so much education and un-brainwashing.

PASA Business Member Profile Archives (under development)
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Victory Brewing Co.

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Clodhopper Farm
Creekside Farm
Eden View Organics
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Quiet Creek Herb Farm
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Tewksbury Grace Farm
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Willow Bank Jerseys

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