essay 4 draft

Emily Scott

Professor Kerr

EN 101-23

20 November 2011

Local Farming Advantages

Americans have been farmers since the beginning. Over the years, the methods of farming, technology used to produce crops, and the Supporting our local farms instead of big farms improves local economy, increases the health of the food, and connects members of the community.

Small farms boosts the amount of

“The 5000 acres of industrial corn, which is employing two people, could be providing jobs and homes for about 17 family farmers and their wives and children. Run all the figures and all the farmland out to a logical mathematical conclusion and the number of new jobs created by restructuring agriculture is unbelievably awesome. There are about 90 million acres in corn this year. That would make 300,000 family farms of 300 acres each. That means 600,000 parents would be fully employed and let us say two teenagers who are trying desperately right now to find part time jobs,— a total of 1,200,000 new jobs. If we take into account industrial soybean, wheat, and cotton acreages as well and divide all that land  into 300 acre family farms, the number of new jobs created rockets to somewhere in the three to five million range.”( http://www.alt-market.com/articles/318-small-farms-create-more-jobs)

“Farm program payments vary by type of farm. In 2009, 820,000 farms (37 percent of all farms) received $9.5 billion in government payments (see box). Among the farm types, government payments were paid to 3 out of 10 rural residence farms, 4 out of 10 intermediate farms, and 7 out of 10 commercial farms.

Conservation payments are made to farms based on the characteristics of the operator's land and the particular objectives of the conservation programs, not on the volume of farm production. Together, rural residence and intermediate farms received 65 percent of conservation payments, a combined $1.6 billion in 2009. Participation in conservation programs is attractive for small farms in part because their variable costs of production are higher and return on assets lower than for commercial farms.

over the last 10 years. The shares of government payments have risen for rural residence and commercial farms while they have declined for intermediate farms. This trend has been due in part to the declining number of intermediate farms and in part to more farms receiving conservation program funding being classified as rural residence farms.

Net farm income is forecast at $103.6 billion for 2011, up $24.5 billion for a rise of 31 percent from 2010.

The 2011 forecast of net farm income is the highest inflation-adjusted value recorded since 1974.” (“Economic Research Service”)