Small farms trend growing
American agriculture seems almost obsessed with endless innovation. Technologies of the past have made it possible for fewer farmers to provide Americans with a vast array of high quality foods at affordable prices, we are told, and new biological and electronic technologies seem destined to revolutionize American agriculture in the future. Biotechnology is proclaimed as the solution to world hunger and the savior of the natural environment. New electronics will allow us to trace foods back to their farm and field of origin, leading to dramatic improvements in food safety and food quality. New management systems guided by electronics, will support new global food supply chains, ensuring the widest possible variety of foods for all at the lowest possible cost, so we are told. But, where is the farmer in all of this innovation?
As the importance of off-farm technologies has grown, the importance of the farmer has been diminished. That’s why U.S./>/> agriculture today supports only a third as many farmers as in the 1930s. and why 90% of the income of farm families today comes from off-farm employment. Why should farmers expect make a living farming when the developers of technologies are doing the economically important things? Those who have done the thinking, meaning those who developed the technologies, have also received the benefits. And, if future advances in agriculture come from new off-farm technologies, rather than on-farm thinking, the role of the farmer will be diminished still further in the years ahead.
Small Farm Today® was founded by a small farmer in central Missouri in 1984, and is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of small farming, rural living, sustainability, community, and agripreneurship. It is published on a farm, by a farmer, for farmers. Most of our readers are full- or part-time small family farmers, and many are using alternatives, such as growing high-value crops, raising unusual livestock, and direct marketing their products to bring in more income. Readers are extremely loyal—most read the magazine from cover to cover, including advertising, and pass the magazine along to neighbors, friends, and relatives.