Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 222 posts

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#151

Post by JoeAltmaier »

kochb wrote: post #149
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe that's out of date. Iowa used to be run as described, but the 'family farm' is largely extinct. Now its all run by corporations in large blocks. This is an evolving issue, and its gone at least as far as the OP suggests.

Speaking as someone who provides services to the industry, your statement just isn't correct; as I originally stated it's a popular myth that is very different from reality. There are large corporations involved, but they come in at the points where inputs are supplied to the farmer and production is purchased. Production is still operated by family run farms. It's so capital inefficient that no corporation would dar…

Here's some data: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/20...

Its pretty bleak. Farmers that don't farm. Family ownership has dropped drastically. Most farm owners are 65 or older, half of that women that outlived their families and don't work the land any more. Most land in production is rented. Families that keep the ol farmstead do it for sentimental reasons and hire it out to a corporation.

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#152

Post by ip26 »

iguy wrote: post #93
mellavora wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe true in glorious future where the industrialized farm can support increased biodiversity. Currently, however, this promotes large-scale monoculture. Which is inherently harmful on almost every level, including the ability to keep the cost of food down and and the supply up. Food diversity is much much less than it was 100 years ago. Nutritional content of food is down significant levels from 30 years ago.

> Maybe true in glorious future where the industrialized farm can support increased biodiversity While it certainly reduces on-farm biodiversity, higher yields also let us leave more land completely un-farmed. For example I think maybe 10% of France has returned to forest in the last 40 years, and more since 1900, but I can't seem to find a great link...

The Jevons Paradox would like a word.

E.g., we spend 14 million acres on non-food corn ethanol, and 80+ million acres of corn is fed to livestock at terrible feed conversion ratios. We'd get the same amount of net calories on our plates for 8 million acres if we ate the corn.

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#153

Post by wolfram74 »

3pt14159 wrote: post #77
refurb wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you lose a lot of granularity when you just measure a farm by size. A 20,000 acre “farm” that only grazes a few thousand head of cattle because it’s practically desert could be much less productive than a 100 acre farm in the most fertile region of the world. So it wouldn’t surprise me that the smaller farms feed an outsized proportion of the population.

I know a guy that set up a food operation in a sea container in Toronto. It was a whole ecosystem of food producing organisms. Fish in the water, herbs like dill, tomatoes, all sorts of stuff. He'd sell it at 4x grocer prices to pricy restaurants near-by. His reasoning in putting it in a sea container was that he could always find a spare place to park it / electrify it with all his friends in the construction indust…

I grew up in Iowa, so my fascination with hydroponics is partly from the technical intrigue, but also an egalitarian philosophy.

A locales food security with conventional agriculture is heavily dependent on the quality of their soil, while with hydroponics and derivatives it's more a function of their engineering prowess (and available infrastructure).

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#155

Post by kochb »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #151
kochb wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone who provides services to the industry, your statement just isn't correct; as I originally stated it's a popular myth that is very different from reality. There are large corporations involved, but they come in at the points where inputs are supplied to the farmer and production is purchased. Production is still operated by family run farms. It's so capital inefficient that no corporation would dar…

Here's some data: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/20... Its pretty bleak. Farmers that don't farm. Family ownership has dropped drastically. Most farm owners are 65 or older, half of that women that outlived their families and don't work the land any more. Most land in production is rented. Families that keep the ol farmstead do it for sentimental reasons and hire it out to a corporation.

Land ownership is a tangential subject, but this does portray some accurate details about modern agriculture in the US.

Many children leave the family farm; they can earn more with less work, and operating a profitable farm operation is very difficult. Families don't like selling their farmland, so they rent it out to another farmer. There are funds that buy farmland to profit from rental or future resale, but again they are not the operators.

Perhaps it'd be helpful if you provided a few examples of these corporations? Not incorporated family farms, but these for-hire corporations operating at large acreage scales.

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#156

Post by spurgu »

opencl wrote: post #38
fsloth wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What economies of scale specifically do farms have? A farm is not a factory where you can create a uniform process...

Ecen a pretty basic set of modern farm equipment and facilities will run into the millions of dollars, and will have very low utilization on small farms. A single modern combine can harvest >100 acres per day. With multiple big fields of crops that have different harvesting times your equipment will spend much less time idle.

Well, there's this: https://www.opensourceecology.org/

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#157

Post by marcusverus »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #151
kochb wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone who provides services to the industry, your statement just isn't correct; as I originally stated it's a popular myth that is very different from reality. There are large corporations involved, but they come in at the points where inputs are supplied to the farmer and production is purchased. Production is still operated by family run farms. It's so capital inefficient that no corporation would dar…

Here's some data: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/20... Its pretty bleak. Farmers that don't farm. Family ownership has dropped drastically. Most farm owners are 65 or older, half of that women that outlived their families and don't work the land any more. Most land in production is rented. Families that keep the ol farmstead do it for sentimental reasons and hire it out to a corporation.

The article indicates that the people who own the land are renting it out to the people who are farming it. This doesn't mean that corporations own the land or do the farming. The article you linked explicitly states that corporate ownership is very low and as not changed in 40 years.

> Corporate ownership has remained relatively stable since 1982, coming in at 10 percent last year.

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#158

Post by pueblito »

This article is the future for me. I’m a small farmer - I grow marijuana in Colorado. Federal laws have so far sheltered us and allowed us to grow (no pun) by keeping BigAg and Bank money outside. Now it’s an industry of small partnerships and family farmers and I am very happy. But it won’t last.

When marijuana is finally legalized nationally there will be an immediate tidal wave of money and consolidating. Those that remain independent will eventually become big corporate farms themselves or perish.

I have been blessed by my god with a wonderful family and the land my ancestors tended to, so while the business landscape will change and this boom will bust my small American family farm will remain.

I am also optimistic that BigAg will continue to look towards YOU for the tools I need to reduce labor and pests. Collectively, you guys are amazing and I get literally giddy thinking of the things you keep inventing

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#159

Post by gtsop »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #150
mellavora wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe true in glorious future where the industrialized farm can support increased biodiversity. Currently, however, this promotes large-scale monoculture. Which is inherently harmful on almost every level, including the ability to keep the cost of food down and and the supply up. Food diversity is much much less than it was 100 years ago. Nutritional content of food is down significant levels from 30 years ago.

That nutritional argument seems very speculative. I don't know of any 70-year-old food that could be tested side-by-side with 'modern' food. And 'nutritional content' is certainly up per dollar, per man-hour. And its more available with modern refrigeration and transportation. It seems overwhelmingly true that for most people, their food has improved drastically over 70 years.

> I don't know of any 70-year-old food that could be tested side-by-side with 'modern' food.

That's a false base for your argument. You can find traditionally grown vegs from villages today. Then you can grab a tomato from your super-cheap super market and test those two side by side. The traditionaly grown veg isn't old per say, but it is surely way closer to the old qualities. So if you find a difference between those two products you must surely conclude there is a difference between old - modern crops.

Re: 1% of farms operate 70% of world's farmland

#160

Post by opinion-is-bad »

thinkingemote wrote: post #137

This quote is from a report, which itself is based on a FAO report: http://www.fao.org/3/ca7036en/ca7036en.pdf Quote with context: The results show that, worldwide, farms of less than 1 hectare account for 70 percent of all farms, but operate only 7 percent of all agricultural land. Slightly larger farms between 1 and 2 hectares account for 14 percent of all farms and control 4 percent of the land. Together, farms of…

The profit share for those largest 1% of farms is even greater than 70% as well. I believe it’s around 93% of profits are made from the large operations.
Post reply on HN