Farmingfrom Family Farms to Industrial Food Production

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

the change

the family farm

A family farm is a farm owned and

operated by a family

In developed countries the family

farm is viewed sentimentally, as a

lifestyle to be preserved for tradition's

sake,

According to the United States

Department of Agriculture, ninety-

eight percent of all farms in the U.S.

are family farms

Natural Farming: Family Farms

the family farm

A family farm is a farm that:

1.produces agricultural commodities for sale in such

quantities so as to be recognized in the community

as a farm and not a rural residence;

2.produces enough income (including off-farm employment) to pay family and farm operating expenses, pay debts, and maintain the property;

3.is managed by the operator;

1.has a substantial amount of labor provided by the operator and the operator’s family;

2.may use seasonal labor during peak periods and a reasonable amount of full-time hired labor.

Family farming is a rapidly decreasing trade.

Family farms today are struggling to survive.

There are seven hundred and fifty thousand less family farms since 1981:an equivalent to 1 million jobs lost.

In over 70 years, 7 million farms have become 2 million, causing the rate of self employment in agriculture to decrease as well. 

As new generations sell off the family farm and migrate from the rural country to the city. these farms are shut down - they are not replaced by

new farms and young farmers.

Though farming is highly romanticized throughout history as a traditional culture that represents old America.....

the ideal is not necessarily accurate.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

What are some reasons? 

•With a lack of access to markets, the benefits from farm programs go to larger farms.

•Family farmers are unable to attract new investors. With a high cost of equipment (averaging an initial cost of about $200,000), investors are necessary.

• However, the average age for famers has risen to 58 years old, with only 6% of the farmers being under the age of 35.

• What investors look for in businesses is the probability that their investments will succeed or not.

• Failure is viewed as more common in older people, especially in a line of work that requires intense physical labor, such as farming.

•Though farmers do receive consumer dollars for the food they produce, their income is often offset by inflation. 1980, a farmer received $.37 for every consumer dollar spent on food, * a net income equivalent to that of the Great Depression.

2012, the farmer receives $.20 for every consumer dollar spent on food

Corporate Farming Corporate Farming Modern Food ProductionModern Food Production

CORPORATE FARMINGCORPORATE FARMING encompasses the production of animal and plant foods as well as the transportation for marketing.

The "farmers" are actually large corporations who are absentee farmers and have no stake in the surrounding environment.

The idea behind corporate farming is to raise the most food, in the the most food, in the smallest space, in the fastest way, with the least cost possible,smallest space, in the fastest way, with the least cost possible, without much consideration for the animals, the community or the environment

A problem with large -scale food production is that by reducing the actual number of companies that produce our foodit limits the diversitylimits the diversity of the food being produced,

if one of these agribusinesses should stop functioning, a great deal of the food chain could be threatened.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

FOOD inc. - Chicken Farm

Corporate Farming Corporate Farming Modern Food ProductionModern Food Production

•Industrial farms cause smaller farms to go out of business by mass producing food.

•Efficiency is they key to production, •despite the use of unnatural chemicals, genetic engineering, and inhumane methods of treating livestock. 

•Increased amounts of food mean that food prices can drop and make it easier for consumers to feed themselves and their families. 

•With a growing population, the government supports industrial farming.

•Industrial farming has become a big business.

Agribusiness Agribusiness Modern Food ProductionModern Food Production

agribusinessagribusiness is a generic term

applied to businesses involved

in some or all of the following

agricultural production

systems: crop producrop production,

including farming and contract

farming, seeseed supply, agroch

emicals, farm machinery,

wholesale and distribution,

processingprocessing, marketing, marketing, , aand retail

sales.sales.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION

Corporate Farming Corporate Farming Modern Food ProductionModern Food Production

The US governmentUS government is now engaged in a war to

eliminate the small family farm.eliminate the small family farm.

The family farm has been under pressure for a

long time by larger and more powerful

commercial interests as well as the their

collusion with government.

They do this by way of lobbying Congresslobbying Congress to

enact regulations that are designed to to harm to harm

or impede the family farm operationor impede the family farm operation.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

industrial food system: fast food and ethics