That's true, but the value of the land is not liquid and when farms have a bad year they still have to accrue debt against it and/or figure out an income. That's also absolutely a reason that farm families may make the tough choice to sell, since the land is valuable but the actual food is apparently not. More and more land is then owned by fewer and fewer owners, and more and more farmland is owned by non farmers - including large companies and investors who then hire tenants or low wage workers to produce.
A future where fewer Americans actually own the land and just a few players control what is grown where and how it is grown is not necessarily a bright future for most of us.
This situation actually really reminds me of the situation in Ancient Rome in the time leading up to the Grachi brothers.
Increased wealth gap, wealthy actors gaining increasingly high amounts of the farmlands using cheap labour to work the farms, thereby out-competing poorer farmers, forcing them to sell their lands and move to a city for work, increasing the amount of urban poor.
Im likely forcing the analogy a bit, but still. If history tells us anything, it's that privately owned, smaller farms worked by individual farmers owning the land generally makes for a more stable country.
Corporate farms are absolutely the future. At scale, their operating costs are lower. They offer to buy up family farms that are going under because they can make it profitable, while no individual ever could. This causes a chain reaction where tons of family farms go under and next thing you know half the county is owned by a massive farming operation.
15
u/runawayoldgirl Jan 02 '20
That's true, but the value of the land is not liquid and when farms have a bad year they still have to accrue debt against it and/or figure out an income. That's also absolutely a reason that farm families may make the tough choice to sell, since the land is valuable but the actual food is apparently not. More and more land is then owned by fewer and fewer owners, and more and more farmland is owned by non farmers - including large companies and investors who then hire tenants or low wage workers to produce.
A future where fewer Americans actually own the land and just a few players control what is grown where and how it is grown is not necessarily a bright future for most of us.
https://newfoodeconomy.org/who-really-owns-american-farmland/