Uncategorized

Family Farm Still Stable

Click to see original imageReports of the demise of the family farm have been greatly exaggerated. Far from disappearing, the family farm still accounts for about twothirds of American agricultural production, according to the chief economist. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Not only that, this percentage has remained stable over a long period of time. ” We don’t have the – percentages as they apply in counties of Central Utah, but we believe they would back up the national figures at least in trend. While Utah County especially has become more industrialized in recent years, it still remains the No. 1 county in the state in farm income in most years. Many families still maintain their farms though the head of the household may work at Geneva Steel or in some other industrial pursuit, “The family is a very tough competitor, a very durable institution,” writes the Department of Agriculture chief economist, Don Paarlberg, in Saturday Evening Post. “It has survived war, depression, inflation, and natural disaster. With a few highly visible and much publicized exceptions, it has thus far adapted itself very well to a technological revolution.” One reason given for the family farm’s resilience; If a bad year comes along, either in terms of poor or low prices, huge industrialized farms may go under because of fixed prices, mainly labor. “But the family farmer, who is self-employed, pays himself a low wage, postpones some maintenance costs, pulls in his belt a notch or two, and is still there the next spring, ready to go.” Some forms of agriculture lend themselves more readily than others to industrial methods, The poultry industry, for example, “now probably bears a closer resemblance, organizationally, to General N Motors than it does to the historic family farm,” says Mr. Paarlberg. For the majority of farms in the United States, however, the greatest efficiencies of size have been achieved with suitably equipped two-man operations, So They Say “As a group, economists are slightly more entertaining than bankers and a trifle duller than laywers. The excuse for perpetrating an entire volume about their shortcomings is only this: when respectable economists are wrong en masse, other people usually suffer the consequences.” -Robert Lekachman, professor of economics at Lehman College and author of a new book, “Economists “at Bay: Why the Experts Will Never Solve Your Problems.”