What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
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Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#2I don't think you talked to too many people.
Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#3My grandfather ran a farm. Small farming isn't profitable. Full stop. Farming scales up really well but not down.
Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#4Duh. Do these people just forget about the principle of economies of scale? How do they think they can possibly compete against huge factory farms? I can understand if you're doing a small farm 'for fun', but don't understand how an otherwise intelligent person can think they can (or should be able to) make good money from it.
> As the average age of the American farmer neared 65, I knew young farmers were badly needed in this country.
If they're truly in demand, one would expect wages or profits to signal that.
> none of these things address the policies that dictate how our country’s food system works, policies that have created a society in which the small farmer can’t even earn a living.
Some of the policies might not help, but the fundamental reason small farms can't compete is that farming has large economies of scale. Some people may be able to find a niche charging high prices for uncommon goods, but that's never going to be the bulk of the industry. Expecting small farms to be profitable in that way is like expecting cobblers to make a comeback.
Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#5"That quirky lifestyle business I got into without really knowing much about? For some reason it didn't wind up being a gold mine."
Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#610 acres is not enough. A friend of mine owns 200 acres in Iowa and he has to work off-season to ensure a steady income. But the 200 generated enough $ for him to retire. Wasn't easy though.
Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#7Duh. Do these people just forget about the principle of economies of scale? How do they think they can possibly compete against huge factory farms? I can understand if you're doing a small farm 'for fun', but don't understand how an otherwise intelligent person can think they can (or should be able to) make good money from it. > As the average age of the American farmer neared 65, I knew young farmers were badly need…
I think the danger in our agricultural policy is that large farms are favored (through subsidies, tax breaks, regulation, etc.) to an extent that small farms can't exist profitably, even charging higher prices at market. While there is a minimum viable farm size (given the need for modern machinery to automate the process), most likely, it probably isn't nearly as large as what our current set of incentives enforces. And, historically, there were farming coops that made it possible for communities of farmers to share expenses for those tools (and some states and communities still have legal infrastructure and such to enable those kinds of organizations), but federal policy and mega-store purchasing policy makes it a moot point.
There's a lot more to the story of what our agricultural system looks like, and this article only touches on it from one personal, anecdotal, perspective, but it's simplistic to dismiss this perspective and the concerns it raises about our food supply. Michael Pollan has been writing compellingly on the subject for many years, and I recommend you check out The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. They provide a well-research view of why things are so skewed in our food system, and why that is dangerous to our current and future health.
"If they're truly in demand, one would expect wages or profits to signal that."
On that point, we're agreed...there has to be a way to correct the incentives so that a competitive agriculture market can exist, given the fact that we all need to eat, and ethically speaking, it'd be good if the most affordable foods were among the most healthy and least damaging to the environment. That's not the way things are incentivized currently. As it stands, there's a strong cartel of very large farms and animal agriculture companies that stack the deck in their favor. It isn't merely a story of efficiency of scale, it also includes lobbying, anti-competitive practices, etc.
Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#8I live in Colorado.
Lots of profitable small farms here.
You just need the right crop :-)
Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#9Has the American small farmer ever been able to make a living?
Re: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living
#1010 acres is not enough. A friend of mine owns 200 acres in Iowa and he has to work off-season to ensure a steady income. But the 200 generated enough $ for him to retire. Wasn't easy though.
Do you mean by selling the land? The last few years until this year there was boom in farmland prices.