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Where have all the Farmers gone? By: Lora Joy Grabau
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An Endangered Species Industrial- farmers getting older and fewer Developing- Rising populations, increases number of farmers which decreases average farm plot size Decreasing incomes, increasing debt and rural poverty force many to either leave farm or obtain an additional job/career Examples: Japan- half of farmers over 65 years old Phillipines- 1.2 million lost farming jobs from July 1999-2000 China- an estimated 2 million farmers will leave in next 5 yrs US- fewer people are full-time farmers than full-time prisoners However, we have 70 million more to feed every year!!!!
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Blessing or curse?? Shift to urban, fun, exciting areas Rural life has been portrayed as boring City slum life- a disappointment Marginization of farmers -vicious cycle of low education, increasing infant mortality and deepening mental distress
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Hired hands on their own land Increased production cost due to outsourcing of pre and post harvest processes -i.e. farmers pre-WWII saved seed, used own manure as fertilizer and crop diversity functioned as pest control Today, farmers receive only 10 cent of the dollar Self-destructive loop Increased demand for technology Output Increases and expenses increase while prices are steady or declining Over supply and declining Price= lower profits
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To maintain same income as 1950s –Farms 4 times bigger –Get a night job –OR return to earlier system of supplying input themselves and processing the crops post-harvest
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Food Cartels While small farms have lowest prod cost, large farms can tolerate lower margins and accept lower price Benefits only processor, not farm, community or environment Monetary shift from farmers compounded by concentration at every link of food chain -Partnership of Monsanto and Cargill - ‘Take or leave it’ pricing system for farmers - Agribusiness as big brother
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TNC’s Can buy at lowest price globally Can sell at highest price globally Some companies and individuals prefer to buy from large companies to keep lower transaction costs and standardized products Allowed to be vertically integrated What food and what price will we have if the farms are managed by distant corporations???
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William Goldschmidt Tried to assess how farm structure and size affected the rural community Compared two small towns - Alike in every way including value of ag production except farm size - Alike in every way including value of ag production except farm size 1)Small farm community (Dinuba) - 20% more people supported - higher level of living - 2 times as many business establishments - More participation in politics - More schools, parks, churches, newspapers and civic organizations
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Conclusions from Goldschmidt Industrial agriculture- limited in helping community - net drain on local economy Big Box- may displace more jobs than create Farming families are twice as likely to live in poverty - similar in Europe
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Farming: An Identity Losing family farm can cause guilt and anxiety Worldwide increase of suicide rate in farmers -Britain: suicide rate in farmers two times larger than rest of population -US: farmers 5 times as likely to commit suicide as die from farm accidents - reports of farmers calling suicide hotlines asking which types of accidents are least likely to be investigated as suicide
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Farmer Rebellion Increasingly ready to rise against government and corporations Examples: -Zapatista revolution -Blacks seizing farms from rich whites in Zimbabwe -European farmers attacking the seed engineering plants Farmer dislocation- rising security threat (OK bombing) -worse in countries where there is less industrialization to absorb workers
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Farmers: the Professionals Farm systems require thorough and intimate knowledge of the land- corporations don’t use Efficient and sustainable farming - 1) Planting two or three crops on same land - 2) Planting crops with differing drainage close together on land with varying topography - Neither can be done with heavy tractors at high speeds -Small size alone not enough must have ecological awareness and motivation -Large scale mechanized farms can’t preserve ecological diversity
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Simplicity of current farm techniques The 2-crop system along with concentrated livestock production is inefficient -caused increase in fertilizer dependence -Triple hit of nitrogen pollution 1) Concentration of livestock- dumping of manure in single location 2) Lower nitrogen retention in Midwest 3) Run-off into Gulf of Mexico ( The Dead Zone) -Depletion of ecological diversity (our ultimate insurance policy) - Lost of knowledge and experience related to the dying species
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Farmers: From Independent and informed decision-makers to technical applicators Previously made decisions independently and on an informed basis and maintaining the land owned by crop rotation and combination Now, simply follow company policy Company policy -no rules on environmental degradation or responsibility -no community loyalty
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Ecological Fallouts Colossal confined animal feeding operations (CAFO’s) -dumping of enormous amounts of manure and waste -Cattle in constant close contact- increased chance of infection -higher incidence of disease with little chance of inspection cause many of the meat crisis’s of our age
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Conclusions Small more productive - Large look more productive because calculated with only one crop per acre rather than total food production per acre Small farms- more efficient use of land, water and other agricultural resources As population increase and farmland and water are steady or even decreases, a small farm structure is central to feeding the world
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