Why small farms can not feed the world anymore...

Makes one wonder how the pioneers made it before they built the first Piggly Wiggly.

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

They lived with what they had. Winter time was the time to eat meat,potatoes,canned goods,ect.. Summertime was the only time they ate salads and what not. I have to admit it would be hard to do that as I like a good salad every so often(even in winter time), but if we all put some thought into what that meal is actually costing us I'm sure we could cut down all the transportation and frankenfoods we eat.

My grandmother (born in the 20's) said, every christmas each kid got a banana in their stocking, that was the only time they ever got a banana. Now we have mountains of banana's that rot at the super market that sell for pennies per pound. We don't put any thought of what it takes to get that banana here, or tomato in the middle of winter,ect. because the costs are so subsidized. We don't keep US military in Columbia just because of the drug trade, banana's are big money and until we pay $10/pound or whatever it is truely costing us we will continue in our little blissful world.

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A plant based diet is linked to a longer life span. Diets heavy in meat and animal fats are linked to reduced life spans. You can do some research on this yourselves and bluezones.com is a good starting point.

I don't believe in paleo-diets, or atkins diets or any diet that recommends replacing carbs with more fats and proteins. The longest lived people in the world eat primarily a plant based diet, they garden and grow a good portion of their own food, they are light weight, generally about 18-22 on their BMI.

I agree. Not only is property expensive, the incentive to farm has dried up with profits.

Truth be told, I could feed 40-50 people on my farm if I were to dedicate myself and land to producing food. But I don't because all the regulations, subsidies and taxes that have been created to disincentivize small farming. They have created an artificial market for middlemen and massive volume producing agribusiness.

How can I compete with someone who receives a government subsidy? How can I make a profit if I have to pay a state processing center to do all my butchering, and pay the transport both ways? Then I have to keep mandatory insurances, pay out 1/3rd of every dollar I make to the government, pay the broker, or pay to sell at a market. Why is raw milk such a crime now? Because it takes the 'cut' away from large pasteurization interests and allows the small farmer to compete with big ag.

Some here may be right, small farms can't feed the world....because our government, which has been bought by large corporate interests, will not allow it.

Provisioners moved west right along with them. Diet was bland but they had their salt, sugar, and coffee or tea. In towns, shops and their keepers have been the norm for thousands of years. That allowed for the trade of crops for manufactured items, just as the title of this thread implies.

Martin

I could concede your point if you just said "plant based". But as soon as you include grains into that diet, the lifespan drops dramatically.

Dr. Weston Price did a lot of research on this topic and analyzed the diets of peoples all over the world. The healthiest people did NOT eat grains.

Grains and starches all break down into raw sugar. Eat a slice of bread and you might as well have had a Snicker's bar.

The Snicker's bar is probably better for you.

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I didn't think the issue was if a small farm could produce everything you would need on that farm, but rather that collectively small farms can produce enough food to feed the world. To have any sort of palatable diet and variety, trade will always be needed.

Tell that to Jubal Sackett.

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

There has always been provisioners. Wherever there were people, someone showed up to sell them something.

But there's a big difference between going to town for a pound each of sugar, coffee, and salt and the wholesale investment in groceries that most people do today.

The fact that the pioneers went into town to buy knives, a bolt of cloth, or some salt and coffee doesn't minimize their ability to survive independently out on their homesteads.

I think a point that is missed here is that shiney new truck and tractor are depreciable deductible business expenes for a farmer in business to make money and pay bills. WHen you can write it off the financial model changes.

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I ken spel fine I jist kent type.

Even old trucks can be write-offs.

I just bought a '81 dump truck.

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And you are right on that point too. I bought an old bush hog to mow my fields and creek, five years amortization of the $250. But like I said, around here many of the larger (400+ acre) guys will buy the stuff new, run it into the ground then trade them in. Since the gov't is paying to put corn in gas tanks our local guys are making out, the places with hay fields are doing good too.

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I ken spel fine I jist kent type.

If we were to get the government out of the way, out of the pockets of big ag and have a truly free market for food production, small farms would explode. In ten years the amount of food production accountable to small local farms would multiply exponentially.

In twenty years, large corporate agribusiness would be the exception, not the rule. The entire industry is warped by artificial demand created by government for the benefit of the biggest players.

I wholeheartedly agree that the government micro-managing the ag industry has led to problems. I would like to see subsidies phased out, and in the future only used on an emergency basis - if price supports are needed to ensure supply.

I disagree that large agribusiness would go the way of the buffalo even if the govt got out of the way. Because the quantities of food needed today are so huge. If you need to procure a particular food item, do you want to deal with 50 small producers, or just one or two larger ones? If you need to buy 10 pigs, do you want to go around to 10 different farms with one pig for sale, or just go to the one farm who has 10 pigs for sale? The convenience factor comes into play along with the efficiency of scale.

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some funny posts on here.
You do know that there are really no subsidies for vegetable and beef farmers right?
As a matter of fact growers of fruits and vegetables do not receive the dreaded direct payment subsidies and if a farmer who was on the direct payment plan switches to fruits and veggies, the payments go away.

Beef receives little in the way of subsidies. There are programs that can help the beef producer like EQUIP, but even as a smaller producer you could probably get some of that for help with your facilities. NRCS will hand out some bucks for conservation stuff like erosion control and even fencing and watering equipment to smaller guys as well.
As for dairy, the MILC has a limit so really, the guy with 2000 cows isn't getting any more than the guy with 130 or so, and even then, they only get anything if the price is low, it is not a constant flow of money for the most part.
And if you are selling milk on herd shares, or raw milk by the gallon out the back of your barn, these prices shouldn't affect you in any way as you are not selling wholesale and shouldn't be pricing your product as if you were.
I don't believe egg farmers get any sort of direct subsidies either.

So if you're a small guy with a CSA, truck garden, or trying to pick up a contract with a local store or restaurant, subsidies are not slowing you down.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

I do not mean this to argue with you. A simple question.

I see a dozen eggs in the grocery store selling for 99cents.

We buy chicks, brood them, and then feed them to maturity; they finally begin laying, but only for a while until they molt.

I am willing to ignore the expense of the chicken coops.

I am not going to provide timed lights and heat in the coops to get them to lay through the winter; that is far too expensive to do.

On the second year, my egg production is a bit better. Since they do not start as chicks, so they will lay beginning in the spring.

Counting all lifetime eggs from a hen after it's second year. Along with two years of feed.

It is hard to break even marketing eggs at $2.50/dozen.

So without subsidies; how do the grocery store eggs get trucked a 1,000 miles and still end up being sold at 99cents?

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I do not know, but according to eggbill.com egg producers receive no direct subsidy.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

I can not see how, you can include distributors and trucking and still market eggs for 30% of what it costs to produce eggs.

I am familiar with Earl Butz. I have watched his explanation of Farm Subsidies, and I do understand his reasoning. It is a way to manipulate the market resulting in lower food prices for the consumer. Every dollar spent in farm subsidy lowers grocery store prices by $10. I get it.

Which is why I had assumed that there must be some form of subsidy with eggs.

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