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

theguardian.com

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

#61

Post by alecco »

Modern farming got extremely more sophisticated and more productive at a cost of making it hard to be competitive with small operations.

Good things: much higher yield per area, economies of scale, better soil maintenance, more hydraulic planning.

Bad things: inhumane feed lots and lack of biodiversity.

Note these are the same journalists who would've praised catastrophic land reforms by Marxist governments, like Zimbabwe. The same journalists complaining of food costs and shortages (+yield, +supply). The same journalists complaining about deforestation (+yield). The same journalists complaining about global warming (CO2 sequestration).

There is room for improvement on biodiversity and long term care of topsoil. But a hit piece on inequality gets more views and gets more subscriptions/ads.

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

#62

Post by alecco »

teraku wrote: post #5
thepangolino wrote: post #2

Some farms are just hella big with ultra low land productivity.

Currently, EU subsidizes farms based on land area. Which is supposed to change, but the lobby is strong.

They should subsidize by efficiency/yield, soil maintenance, and crop rotation.

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

#63

Post by mywacaday »

yorwba wrote: post #47
opencl wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's right, but it's not necessary to aggregate small farms into large ones to maximize machine utilization. It's also possible to separate the machine-owning part from the other aspects of farming and aggregate only that, by forming an association of farmers who share equipment. (Shared ownership of the means of production, so to speak.) In German, that's called a Maschinenring. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masch…

In Ireland we have agricultural contractors who specialise in owning/operating big equipment that are only contracted in when needed but they are then very busy at certain times of the year an 18 hour days for a few weeks wouldn't be unusual. Literally making hay while the sun shines I guess.

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

#65

Post by onetimemanytime »

kebman wrote: post #32
oblio wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as a simple example, you can't efficiently plow or mechanically harvest lots of land which are very small or have a weird shape. If you aggregate them, it becomes much more efficient. Same thing goes for purchasing equipment or supplies, you can buy in bulk for a large farm. Modern farms ARE factories.

What you are saying is true, but a lot of people hate the thought, since a farm has historically been a family working within a small community or a village, first and foremost for their own benefit, with the surplus going back to the village or greater society through trade or cooperation (or later by force through taxation by the Lord of the land). This was a good and healthy life that produced strong people. For t…

>>since a farm has historically been a family working within a small community or a village

Yeah, but I'd rather go to a supermarket and buy 5lbs of meat than go hunting. Things change.

Small plot of land keep people where they are with zero hope or mobility. You cannot buy equipment and the tractors are best used in fields 1 mile wide or whatever.

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

#66

Post by qwerty456127 »

ovi256 wrote: post #64
qwerty456127 wrote: post #28

This doesn't surprise me: there are some huge industrial farms and the rest are small private ones, obviously.

The huge ones are also private, FWIW.

Sure, obviously these are not state-owned, but I meant it in a different sense - like when you compare a multinational hotel chain to a family-maintained hostel. I wish I knew a better word for this.

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

#67

Post by [deleted] »

usrusr wrote: post #48
opencl wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But there's only so much farmland. Those super efficient machines increase the efficiency of its operator, not the efficiency of the land.

[deleted]

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

#68

Post by Retric »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #19
Dylanfm wrote: post #13

Farms have continued to grow, echoing Earl Butz' (Nixon's Secretary of Ag) "get big or get out" philosophy. However, there are several studies out there showing that a greater portion of the world's population is fed by small farms: - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5... - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/1... - http://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/284666/…

Isn’t the solution to increase these farms’ economies of scale? So the same civilisation-enhancing forces that drove development 10,000 years ago can show their force more broadly?

My old boss operates a 1,000 acre farm as a hobby due to that efficiency. Sure it was a “family farm” but it was a trivial portion of their income and involved 10-15 hours of work a week. It’s hard to argue that’s a bad thing.

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

#69

Post by secondcoming »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #65
kebman wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are saying is true, but a lot of people hate the thought, since a farm has historically been a family working within a small community or a village, first and foremost for their own benefit, with the surplus going back to the village or greater society through trade or cooperation (or later by force through taxation by the Lord of the land). This was a good and healthy life that produced strong people. For t…

>> since a farm has historically been a family working within a small community or a village Yeah, but I'd rather go to a supermarket and buy 5lbs of meat than go hunting. Things change. Small plot of land keep people where they are with zero hope or mobility. You cannot buy equipment and the tractors are best used in fields 1 mile wide or whatever.

I'm pretty sure I've seen farmers in rural Ireland successfully ploughing fields that aren't 1 mile wide.

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

#70

Post by secondcoming »

mamon wrote: post #11
teraku wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently, EU subsidizes farms based on land area. Which is supposed to change, but the lobby is strong.

EU also sets limits on how much farms can produce. No one cares about yield from unit of land, they care about keeping prices high, so that farmers get adequate profits. EU will even pay farmers a pension if they retire and stop production.

Funny story, an aging local farmer used raise free-range a small amount of turkeys for the Christmas market. But she stopped because she thought the EU satellites would catch her doing it without permission.

Those turkeys were far better than anything you would buy in a supermarket.

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