Small farms vs big co-ops

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  • February 13, 2020 at 9:46 am #111281
    wv
    Participant

    the evil wv-ewe sent me this:https://medium.com/sylvanaquafarms/small-family-farms-arent-the-answer-742b6684857e
    Small Family Farms Aren’t the Answer
    Chris Newman
    Jul 25, 2019 · 9 min read
    The romance of neoliberal peasant farming blinds us to our collective power

    February 13, 2020 at 10:21 am #111284
    nittany ram
    Moderator

    Interesting. He mentions the desire of many people to return agriculture to the era of the small “family-owned” farm. They think this is more sustainable. It isn’t. Not from a financial standpoint as the author of this article points out and not from an environmental standpoint either.

    Actually, 98% of farms, large and small, are already family owned. But the preponderance of family-owned farms is relatively recent. Prior to the middle part of the 20th century most farmland was leased by the farmer from a landowner who was not only paid rent, but also took a share of the profits from whatever crops the land yielded. Very few farmers owned their own land. They lived and died in poverty. Returning to the innocent and wholesome farming practices of yesteryear would mean creating a giant underclass of impoverished sharecroppers and tenant farmers.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by nittany ram.
    February 13, 2020 at 12:19 pm #111291
    wv
    Participant
    nittany ram wrote:

    Interesting. He mentions the desire of many people to return agriculture to the era of the small “family-owned” farm. They think this is more sustainable. It isn’t. Not from a financial standpoint as the author of this article points out and not from an environmental standpoint either.

    Actually, 98% of farms, large and small, are already family owned. But the preponderance of family-owned farms is relatively recent. Prior to the middle part of the 20th century most farmland was leased by the farmer from a landowner who was not only paid rent, but also took a share of the profits from whatever crops the land yielded. Very few farmers owned their own land. They lived and died in poverty. Returning to the innocent and wholesome farming practices of yesteryear would mean creating a giant underclass of impoverished sharecroppers and tenant farmers.

    =====================

    Yeah, well I ‘know’ what YOU, want Mr Science. You want GIGANTIC Orchards of Genetically Modified Asparagus. Asparagus the size of RedWoods. And…walking Meats. Giant Corporate-Grown Bacon Strips. All across the land. Giant-Meat grown from Test Tubes. And Robots. Meat-Robots.

    w
    v

    February 13, 2020 at 1:04 pm #111292
    nittany ram
    Moderator
    wv wrote:

    Yeah, well I ‘know’ what YOU, want Mr Science. You want GIGANTIC Orchards of Genetically Modified Asparagus. Asparagus the size of RedWoods. And…walking Meats. Giant Corporate-Grown Bacon Strips. All across the land. Giant-Meat grown from Test Tubes. And Robots. Meat-Robots.

    w
    v

    You get me.

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