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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Small Farms
  • Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 10:22:26 -0600



Small Farms
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ofgu/subsidies.htm

# Critics of U.S. farm policy say it rewards larger industrial-type farms
and distorts land values, making it harder for small farms to compete and
harder to start a successful small farm. Peter Rosset, executive director
of the Institute for Food and Development Policy, wrote a backgrounder
entitled "On the Benefits of Small Farms," arguing that the loss of small
farms hurts society and the environment. Rosset also takes on the myth that
small farms are "less productive" than larger farms. Excerpts:

# "In the United States, small farmers devote 17 percent of their area to
woodlands, compared to only five percent on large farms, and keep nearly
twice as much of their land in 'soil improving uses,' including cover crops
and green manures."

# "Simultaneously, the commitment of family members to maintaining soil
fertility on the family farm means an active interest in long-term
sustainability not found on large farms owned by absentee investors."

# "How many times have we heard that large farms are more productive than
small farms, and that we need to consolidate land holdings to take
advantage of that greater productivity and efficiency? The actual data
shows the opposite -- small farms produce far more per acre or hectare than
large farms."

# "Integrated farming systems [employed by smaller farms] produce far more
per unit area than do monocultures. Though the yield per unit area of one
crop -- corn, for example -- may be lower on a small farm than on a large
monoculture farm, the total production per unit area, often composed of
more than a dozen crops and various animal products, can be far higher."

# As the debate on a new Farm Bill began, most farmers had lost faith in
the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act and emergency spending legislation. While
Congress dealt out record high crop subsidies under these laws, USDA
countered that much of them may actually be helping corporate sized farms
buy out their smaller neighbors — the very farms Congress was trying to
save (USDA “Taking Stock for the New Century,” page 6).
------------------


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Henry David Thoreau





  • [Livingontheland] Small Farms, TradingPostPaul, 08/07/2006

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