Justus Walker was born in the US and came to Russia in 1993 along with his parents, who were Protestant missionaries, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His parents went back home in 2000, while Justus stayed. He founded his first farm in the Krasnoyarsk region, eastern Siberia, where he met his future wife, Rebecca. In 2016, Justus, Rebecca, and their three children moved to the Altai region, famous for its vast grasslands and mountainous landscape.
"There's kind of that Americana mythos of the rugged pioneer going out into the wilderness and starting something from scratch, it is actually really deeply seeded, rooted in kind of the American DNA," Justus told Sputnik. "Not very many Americans are willing to do that nowadays, but it is still very much a part of our vision of ourselves or mythos of who we are as a people. And so for me and my wife, Rebecca, who's also an American, the idea of going out and doing that, going out into a place that's completely unsettled, there's no roads, no infrastructure, a Little House in the Prairie-style, and starting from scratch actually was very appealing to us. It's kind of like you starting from drawing a picture with a clean canvas and not having to build on other people's mistakes."
Russia's Land Inexpensive Compared to US or Canada
While speaking about the benefits of farming in Russia, Justus drew attention to the fact that land there is relatively inexpensive. When one starts a farm in the US, Canada, or elsewhere, the most expensive item is land, he explained.
"Whereas in Russia at the moment, in most contexts, if you're starting a medium-sized farm, like I have, like a hundred hectares or something like 240 acres, whatever, your land is cheaper than your equipment. Your land is cheaper than your house. Your land is cheaper than... You know, I've got three vehicles, a minivan for my family and two farm vehicles, a little Niva and a Largus, and those three vehicles together cost as much as my land. I mean, that's just ridiculous. It's an absolutely insane thing to think about. But that's the case," he said.
That means that the investment to return ratio is high in Russia when it comes to farming. While it's not easy to make money in farming, in Russia one can pay back one's original investment in five to seven years, he pointed out. That's absolutely unprecedented compared with farming startups in the US, Canada, or anywhere else in the industrialized world, per Walker.
Does the Russian State Help Farmers?
The Russian state provides assistance to entrepreneurial farmers, Walker continued.
"There are a lot of programs that are talked about quite a bit," Justus said. "I know that some people have, some of my friends have gotten, like they have grants for starting up. There are some guys even in the village over that got a grant for starting a cooperative. So you have several different, you know, farming entities into a cooperative. Some of those systems seem to have worked alright. I have tried to get a couple of subsidies, never seemed to work out for me, for whatever reason. But that largely is due to the fact that I'm allergic to bureaucracies and paperwork in general. And I'd just prefer to go and work harder and buy some more land than try to go and beg the government for something."
However, one program the Walkers did take advantage of is the Farmer's House law. The law – which was adopted two years ago – permits farmers to build a permanent dwelling on their land. Earlier, restrictions with regard to residential houses on arable lands and meadows in Russia were aimed at protecting rural lands from mass housing development. The 2021 legislation allows a farmer to build a house on rural land, albeit with some limitations. First, the construction of a farm house is allowed only on land owned by the farmer. Second, the area that can be used for placing a farm house is limited: it should be no more than 0.25% of the land. Third, the size of the house should be no more than 500 square meters.
The other program, mentioned by Justus, is a program for rural electrification: "You can get really, really huge discounts, pretty much for free, frankly, to get the power, up to 10 kilometers of power lines, to your land if you are actually a functioning farmer," he explained.
What if an American Farmer Wants to Move to Russia?
When asked what advice he would give to Americans who are considering potentially moving to Russia, Justus responded that one should come on an extended visit first: "So get as long of a visa as you can," he said, adding that one should go to different places, volunteer on a farm or somewhere else, go touring, and go visiting.
"Also, one of the things that you really want to compare when you're comparing countries is not comparing Moscow to New York, because that comparison is like, okay, so you've got a major financial capital of the world being compared to a major financial capital of the world. Of course, those two things are going to look rather homogenous. But compare the kind of town that you are familiar with in America, like a 5,000-person town, with a 5,000-person town in Russia," he said, stressing that each country has its own specifics.
Cows are grazing in the steppe near the village of Solenoozernoye in the Republic of Khakassia, Russia
© Sputnik / Ilya Naymushin
/ Why Russia's Agricultural Sector Has Huge Potential
Per the Merry Milkman – as Russian netizens call him for his sparkling sense of humor and kindness – Russia has the potential to become the world's agricultural powerhouse, second to none.
"Well, I mean, it's not about perfect conditions," Justus explained. "I think that the Russian mentality itself is very self-deprecating in the sense 'Oh, you know, we're so north, oh, my goodness!' How they even say it in English, 'zone of high-risk of agricultural, whatever, blah, blah.' And this always sounds to me like some kind of an excuse for people to not do anything. Because it's like, you look at comparative climates in other countries like, you know, southern Canada or North Dakota, which are worse conditions, largely, than the vast majority of the areas that people would want to farm in Russia and yet they're very productive."
"So it's like, no, no, no, we in Russia have one of the largest reserves of topsoil in the world. We have one of the largest reserves of fresh water in the world. We have temperate climates along the southern border, and there are huge expanses of land that aren't being properly used, or used at all. So we have this giant resource, agrarian resource that just is still even yet untapped. And I think that for me those are the conditions," the farmer continued.
While obviously not being some sort of "Mediterranean paradise," Russia is no worse than any other country and, what's important, has a lot more resources than other states, according to him.
"So, we should be, Russia and the Russians, we should be the number one agricultural powerhouse in the world, bar none," Justus underscored. "Especially if you take into consideration our proximity to the billions of people in Asia - India, China, just to name a few - that also are constant clients, a marketplace for agricultural products. I think Russia should, it's our destiny, God-given destiny to be the agricultural powerhouse. Whether or not we will, you know, step into that destiny and fulfill that destiny is a different question. But I think it's obvious that that is what we should be doing."