Some facts about small farms

What do you assume about small farms?

In the last few months, I’ve been focusing on two large writing projects. One is a piece which will soon come out in a well-known publication and the other is a paper I’ll be presenting at the Marx in the Anthropocene conference. During this time, I revisited the ideas we have about industrial and small farming. And in my readings, I came across some very interesting facts about small-scale farming.

Small-scale animal agriculture isn’t a universally defined term and sometimes it’s simply referred to as traditional farming. Existing definitions usually encompass both farming animals and growing crops, so small-scale farms in much of the world are typically defined as those smaller than two hectares. 

The US uses a notably broad definition of small farms, classifying them as any operation with a gross cash income between $1,000 — the minimum threshold to qualify as a farm — and $250,000 and there’s no distinction between commercial enterprises and hobby or backyard farming. Each small farm gets significant tax exemptions, which sound good when it’s one’s livelihood, but it could be unfair if it’s merely a hobby, which under US tax law isn’t a tax favourable endeavour.

Photo by Xavi Moll on Unsplash

This categorisation means 95% of farms in the US are considered “small,” yet the remaining 5% produce a staggering 78% of the market value of agricultural goods. Such a skewed definition muddies the waters, making it nearly impossible to have a meaningful or productive discussion about what truly constitutes a small farm in the US and their role in addressing the challenges of modern agriculture.

Globally, small-scale farms (under two hectares) produce 30-34% of global food and allocate 55-59% of their crop production to food instead of animal feed or biofuels. And small-scale farms can benefit both productivity and biodiversity. Many small-scale farmers are some of the poorest people in the world and their farms are both labour intensive and provide poor returns.

So when we’re talking about small farms, location makes a tremendous difference. I’m purposely not addressing any animal-related topics here because my point is more informational than philosophical. And a good grounding in facts is an important praxis for thinking about philosophy and ethics.

I hope this is helpful information. It certainly was revelatory to me.