Complexities of farming
The complexion of farming is changing radically. The land cannot support as many farm families as it did in an earlier time. Small farms are being consolidated into larger ones. General farms, with several kinds of crops and a barnyard of farm animals, are yielding to specialty farms that concentrate on a single major crop. Family farms are declining; corporate farms are increasing. Efficiency is growing. Crops are changing. Techniques are improving. Just as the train, tractor, truck, and airplane changed farm life in the past, the computer and robotics are expected to change farm life in the future (AOL, 1997). And the outcome of this is that during the early 1980's and continuing, the farmer's source of income is indeed being stripped from him. What was once the only means of survival for these farmers, has now become distant memory. Farming techniques are undergoing tremendous changes. Farming will surely become more efficient throughout the world. It will also become more scientific and, in the process perhaps lose some of its romance. People who formerly lived on farms and have fond memories of their rural childhood will barely recognize the new farms. For farmers of the future, it will not be enough to know how to drive
Source: Sample data (N=58) (Friedberger 1989, pp.75) Freidberger, Mark. Shake-Out. Kentucky, Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1989. A critical feature which distinguishes a system of family farming from corporation based factory farming is the use of family labor rather than wage labor. The family farm unit differs significantly from the corporate owned farm in that no matter how large the farm is, or mechanized it is the primary input of labor on the family farm comes for family members. On the other hand, large agribusiness firs owned by such companies as United Brands employ hundreds of wage laborers. It is bad news for family farms because family farm members are attracted to the wage pay from the agribusiness firms; thus they leave their farms to go to these firms, leaving no one to work on the family farm. As a result the family farm starts to see declined in productivity, and not too far away, the selling of the farm to some big firm, who can meet the monthly expenses. This is another implication affecting the decline of family farms. An additional implication is the 'cost price squeeze' situation. This is where farmers are caught between declining farm prices and rising costs. Farmers are constantly trying to increase productivity, but in doing so tend to overproduce for the market, driving down prices and incomes. When this occurs, it leads to bankruptcy for the weakest competitors, typically those who are having trouble buying the basic necessities for the farm (Burnach 1980, pp. 22)
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2412
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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