The so called family farm is an emotional issue. Although huge outfits like ADM are the norm now, we still have a hang up with the concept of the family farm with the whole family pitching in to make a go of it and living on the economic fringe. Somehow, the American public needs to be detached from that family farm image as being the norm.
The U.S. is filled with small farmers, whose families do indeed pitch in and make a go of it. I would recommend going to the USDA webpage or your state's A&T college webpage and investigating this for yourself. You will find that there are a hell of a lot more small farmers than corporate farmers.
Not only that, but EVERY small farmer that I know, and I know plenty, is in favor of getting rid of government subsidies. We are fully aware that subsidies are a sham to give money to corporate farmers and the rich who use land ownership as not only a tax shelter, but to milk the government. Unlike corporate farmers, the money that small farmers receive isn't enough to keep them in business, although it may or may not make or break them in any given year.
This topic has been a matter of ongoing discussion in this area for years. The one's in favor are usually the guys with multiple hundreds of acres.
What small farmers want is access to the markets. Here's an example: The only way I can sell beef is in bulk. I cannot, for instance, raise my own beef and sell it through my own butcher shop or in the newspaper. Why is this? Because it has to be either state or USDA inspected. If I want to sell beef to someone in the next state over (a mere 25 miles for me) it MUST be USDA inspected. This makes the cost of selling the the beef as grocery stores do prohibited because you must travel close to 600 miles (round-trip)to find a state or federally inspected processing facilty. Plus it ain't cheap.
Now the government's excuse for this is simple. The individual businessman or woman (i.e. small farmer)cannot be trusted to provide a quality product to their customer.
This is ludicrous. If a small businessman/woman provides a dangerous or inferior product to his/her customers, just how long do you think he/she will stay in business? Remember, this person is selling locally or regionally. People talk. Local newspapers report. Word gets around. Besides that, there are laws on the books to protect the public from crooked businessmen. Plus there is civil court where a customer could sue the pants off any businessman that attempts to screw them.
However, the government would have us believe that it is safer for us to buy meat from a corporate USDA inspected processing facilty that processes 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Literally 10's of thousands of pounds a day. Usually with ONLY 1 OR 2 INSPECTORs!!!! Guess where most of the inspectors are? At the corporate processing facilities, which are not open to the public.
I wish people would think about this. Which would you trust more? Meat from a local farmer who you know and look in the face everytime you make a transaction, or a corporation paying minimum wage to immigrants who you don't know and who don't know you and are only there to put in their 8 hours? They have no pride in their product. It's a freaking low paying job. Does anyone truly think either the corporation or their employees give half a damn about you ar your families?
The proof is in the pudding. Look at how much meat has been recalled within the last couple of years?
There are literally millions of small farmers in this country. However, the politicos, once again, care about one thing and one thing only...political contributions so they can stay in power.
This is but one example. The dairy industry is just as bad, if not worse. Laws for just about every single agricultural market have been skewed in this way. So small farmers have a choice of selling fruits and vegetables at a local farmers market, selling meat products in bulk to the few customers interested in buying meat in this way, or signing a contract with a corporation and raising mass-produced chickens, eggs, etc, in which they are really no longer independent businessmen, but a part of the corporate structure (Tyson, George's, etc).
I'm all for a free market and capitalism. However, this is not what we have now. We have corporate agribusiness buying politicians to make laws to ensure they do not have any local competition. These laws have literally destroyed rural America. They have put literally tens of thousands of mom and pop processing facilities and related industries out of business, all for their corporate masters.
Conservatives are constantly bemoaning the fact that values have gone down hill. When exactly did this take place? I would suggest it began during the depression and increased drastically during and after WWII, when people left the rural areas for the cities. Is it coincidental that this just happens to be when corporate farming came into being?
Instead of living in rural America and working to help support the family on the farm or the parents local agri-related business, people now live in expensive cities where both parents have to work to pay the taxes and survive. Since most work for someone else, the kids are left at home to care for themselves, most with nothing better to do than to get in trouble. They have no chores, they have no responsibility, they have no supervision.
If you look through the Who's Who books in almost any category, you will see that the vast majority of these folk's come from rural areas. I wonder why this is?