Family farm

The tradition of the American family farm is at risk as there are now less than a million people in the U.S. that claim that their main profession is farming. This represents a loss of nearly five million farms since 1935. Self-sustaining family farms are the base of our rural communities. Communities benefit from local farmers as they purchase their products from local merchants that provide jobs which improve the local economy. Shopping at a farmers market is not only eco-conscious but a healthier option for consumers. Regularly sold within 24 hours of being harvested, fruits and vegetables produced locally are fresher and taste better than produce that has been shipped for a long periods of time. Studies prove that fresh produce loses nutrients rapidly. When we consume fruits and vegetables at the height of ripeness we get all the…

Family farms have been around for many centuries in America. My family’s farm has been in our family since the 1940’s and was started by my late great-grandfather, Howard Daugherty. He was the backbone to our now 4th generation family farm. Throughout the years, from when he started the farm up until I was born there have been many struggles. Although there have been many hardships, our family farm has been in our family throughout the years. With the high demand for bigger, better and more…

In parts of Northeast Kansas there is not much to see. The countryside is full of empty fields, but farm animals graze in sufficient amounts. People there live what we know as the farm life. They grow their vegetables, raise their meat, collect their eggs every morning, and work hard for everything they have. There is a place special to me and my family on the outside rural area of Lancaster, Kansas. This community where my family farm is, off a random gravel road. When I talk about the “family…

Pluriactivity and The Changing Image of the Family Farm The past century of farming and agriculture production has survived countless economical hardships. By adapting and innovating the age-old process; farmers have created a new image of what the modern family farmer is capable of achieving while maintaining financial freedoms that are similar to larger industrial farms. This paper will elaborate on the factors that have forced the image of family farms to change over the years, as well as,…

As I walk into my local Stop & Shop or Market Basket I am overwhelmed by my choices. I look at some of the products and sometimes I find pictures of small farms with wide green pastures. That is how the industrial food system wants us to interpret it, although I know this is far from reality. Most of these industrial farms do not even have animals, and the ones that do are simply awful. In the essay “The Future of Food Production, the author, Sam Forman mentions that as soon as food production…

Most family owned farms do not have the disposable income to absorb the increased expenses of GMO seeds. Farmers are constantly battling ever-increasing production expenses, particularly equipment, fertilizer, fuel, and more recently, seed costs, in order to survive. As a result, many farms often struggle to make a profit or may not even break even at the end of the year. In addition to production costs, the patent infringement lawsuits placed upon farmers by Monsanto can be especially…

The dynamics of agriculture and the methods of food production continue to evolve and change with the growing globalization of the world. Whereas, the small family farms once supplied the food necessities of the population, now the larger more industrialized operations take precedence over this domain. According to Hoppe (n.d.), the small family farms remain the leading component in the overall count of farms in the United States, as well as, accounting for approximately half of the farmland,…

Cultural Context While the location of the audience, in Benton and Upper Lane County, is important for the purpose of access to Turpen Family Farm’s physical location, the purpose of this campaign is to target a specific subculture in which members value healthy lifestyles. The first norm of this group is the value of local products. They often shop at health food stores and farmers market to meet their desire for healthy, fresh and organic produce and farm products; in this same vein is the…

There are many cause of small family farms decreasing. The causes are the government and the USDA (United States department of agriculture) creating regulations that purposely take out small family farms, therefore these regulations cause extra expenses. and the aging farmer and their children not wanting to take over the farm. There are many causes of the huge decrease of dairy farms in America. The kind of farms that are decreasing the most are small family dairy farms. One cause is…

of Craftsbury Christmas Tree Farm during his twentieth season operating a small-scale tree farm, following the transformation that both the farm and Pete’s life undergo before, during, and after the peak Christmas tree season. The film will focus on the history of Pete’s ownership of Craftsbury Tree Farm, and raise questions of what will become of it as he gets older. The overarching theme of a family tree will intersect with the stories of the trees on Pete’s land. Treatment A handsaw is…