Socio Economic Aspects Of Small Scale Farming Farmers

Modern day farming has transformed from the farming process of last century. Instead of farmers producing for their families, farmers are now similar to input/output managers supplying massive manufacturers that feed the country.

compared to that from larger farms. Small farmers focus their farming techniques on being sustainable, which includes reducing the use of

This is precisely the life of individuals in pastoral societies where food is obtained by raising and taking care of domesticated animals.

There used to be a lot more farmers, each one with a smaller farm, but growing quite a few different products like corn, wheat, hay, barley, oats, etc. Today there are a lot less farmers, but about the same amount of land is being farmed. Each farmer has a much bigger acreage to cultivate. Now each farmer specializes in one product. This way each farmer is more efficient in what they grow.. The most produced commodities are grains, oil seeds, dried beans and peas at 42%, other crops and hay account for another 31%. Now, most products are enhanced of fertilizers and pesticides, although there is an increasing demand for organic products which are overall more

1 Farmers may not totally understand the product value. They may not easily accept new product that they have never heard about.

Production-based farming has provided small communities a new effective way of farming; however, this type of farming has created more issues than solutions. In "Renewing Husbandry," Wendell Berry discusses the way communities have lost the practice of husbandry in farming to production-based farming. Also, he depicts the side effects production-based farming has on the small communities by demonstrating the loss of connection the farmers now have with the land and community they provide for. Production-based farming destroys the unity of small communities.

o     They grow crops and have herds yet are all based on kinship and are don't have developed markets or governments.

Livestock's contribution to farming agriculture is significant, but over the past few decades, livestock farming has shifted

Hobby farms are on the rise, thanks to the growing popularity of terms such as “organic”, “free-range” and “sustainable farming”, to name a few. People are getting more health-conscious by the day, and are becoming more selective when it comes to buying fresh vegetables, meat and poultry.

Recently in America, there has been a decrease in family farming; according to article “The Disappearing Family Farm”, since the 1930’s there are roughly 5 Million fewer family farms in America, and out of the 2 million remaining, only 565,000 are family operated. (USDA, 2017). The drastic decrease in family farming has begun to ignite questions and debate within the American population; why this trend is occurring. The first official reason is the new laws implemented by our government have made it insufficiently harder to build a profit causing many farms to shut down.

producers as well as the fact that individual farmers are simply too insignificant to affect an

The profound effects of the livestock sector are amongst the top contributors to serious environmental problems at both a local and global scale (Bourgeois, 2012).

In the United States, much of the livestock population are well nourished and produce an adequate yield for human use. For instance, much of the meat cattle population of the US live on massive commercial feed lots, where they are constantly eating until the feed lot owner sees fit to have the animal

I’m just going to start off with the raising animal’s aspect. We raise beef cows and calves, pigs and run a steer finishing lot. The beginning process with the animals is actually buying them to start your business. You could buy the cows at the local cattle auction and raise them to become your own. In the process of raising these

Agriculture in the United States has changed dramatically over the centuries. Since the 1960’s large commercial farms have been leading in sales. As a direct result of their success we, as a society, have access to affordable food. However, the success of large farms has lead to many negative impacts such as increased usage of resources and decreased diversity in crop fields. This begs the question, what can be done to reduce the negative impacts of large farms. One solution growing in popularity is sustainable agriculture. The idea of sustainable agriculture is to create farms that need little to no outside help from irrigation, pesticides, or fertilizers. Sustainability can be achieved in many way through