Editing Family farm (section)

==Developed world==

===Perceptions of the family farm===
In [[Developed country|developed countries]] the family farm is viewed sentimentally, as a lifestyle to be preserved for tradition's sake, or as a [[wikt:birthright|birthright]]. It is in these nations very often a political rallying cry against change in [[agricultural policy]], most commonly in [[France]], [[Japan]], and the [[United States]], where rural lifestyles are often regarded as desirable. In these countries, strange bedfellows can often be found arguing for similar measures despite otherwise vast differences in [[Ideology#Political ideologies|political ideology]]. For example, [[Pat Buchanan]] and [[Ralph Nader]], both candidates for the office of [[President of the United States]], held rural [[Demonstration (people)|rallies]] together and spoke for measures to preserve the so-called family farm. On other economic matters they were seen as generally opposed, but found common ground on this one.

The social roles of family farms are much changed today. Until recently, staying in line with traditional and conservative sociology, the heads of the household were usually the oldest man followed closely by his oldest sons. The wife generally took care of the housework, child rearing, and financial matters pertaining to the farm. However, agricultural activities have taken on many forms and change over time. [[Agronomy]], [[horticulture]], [[aquaculture]], [[silviculture]], and [[apiculture]], along with traditional plants and animals, all make up aspects of today's family farm. Farm wives often need to find work away from the farm to supplement farm income and children sometimes have no interest in farming as their chosen field of work.

Bolder promoters argue that as agriculture has become more efficient with the application of modern [[management]] and new technologies in each generation, the idealized classic family farm is now simply obsolete, or more often, unable to compete without the [[economies of scale]] available to larger and more modern farms. Advocates argue that family farms in all nations need to be protected, as the basis of rural society and social stability.

===Viability===

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, ninety-eight percent of all farms in the U.S. are family farms. Two percent of farms are not family farms, and those two percent make up fourteen percent of total agricultural output in the United States, although half of them have total sales of less than $50,000 per year. Overall, ninety-one percent of farms in the United States are considered "small family farms" (with sales of less than $250,000 per year), and those farms produce twenty-seven percent of U.S. agricultural output.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ers.usda.gov/StaticErrorPages/custom404.htm?aspxerrorpath=/ersDownloadHandler.ashx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728124625/http://www.ers.usda.gov/ersDownloadHandler.ashx?file=%2Fmedia%2F862707%2Feib12c_002.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Custom 404 Page|archivedate=July 28, 2014|website=www.ers.usda.gov}}</ref>

Depending on the type and size of independently owned operation, some limiting factors are:
* '''Economies of scale''': Larger farms are able to bargain more competitively, purchase more competitively, profit from economic highs, and weather lows more readily through monetary inertia than smaller farms.
* '''Cost of inputs''': fertilizer and other agrichemicals can fluctuate dramatically from season to season, partially based on oil prices, a range of 25% to 200% is common over a period of a few years.
* '''oil prices''': Directly (for farm machinery) and somewhat less directly (long-distance transport; production cost of agrichemicals), the cost of oil significantly impacts the year-to-year viability of all mechanized conventional farms.
* '''commodity futures''': the predicted price of [[commodity]] crops, hogs, grain, etc., can determine ahead of a season what seems economically viable to grow.
* '''technology user agreements''': a less publicly known factor, patented GE seed that is widely used for many crops, like cotton and soy, comes with restrictions on use, which can even include who the crop can be sold to.
* '''wholesale infrastructure''': A farmer growing larger quantities of a crop than can be sold directly to consumers has to meet a range of criteria for sale into the wholesale market, which include harvest timing and graded quality, and may also include variety, therefore, the market channel really determines most aspects of the farm decisionmaking.
* '''availability of financing''': Larger farms today often rely on lines of credit, typically from banks, to purchase the agrichemicals, and other supplies needed for each growing year. These lines are heavily affected by almost all of the other constraining factors.
* '''government economic intervention''': In some countries, notably the US and EU, government subsidies to farmers, intended to mitigate the impact on domestic farmers of economic and political activities in other areas of the economy, can be a significant source of farm income. Bailouts, when crises such as drought or the "[[mad cow disease]]" problems hit agricultural sectors, are also relied on. To some large degree, this situation is a result of the large-scale global markets farms have no alternative but to participate in.
* '''government and industry regulation''': A wide range of quotas, marketing boards and legislation governing agriculture impose complicated limits, and often require significant resources to navigate. For example, on the small farming end, in many jurisdictions, there are severe limits or prohibitions on the sale of livestock, dairy and eggs. These have arisen from pressures from all sides: food safety, environmental, industry marketing.
* '''real estate prices''': The growth of urban centers around the world, and the resulting [[urban sprawl]] have caused the price of centrally located farmland to skyrocket, while reducing the local infrastructure necessary to support farming, putting effectively intense pressure on many farmers to sell out.

Over the 20th century, the people of developed nations have collectively taken most of the steps down the path to this situation. Individual farmers opted for successive waves of new technology, happily "trading in their horses for a tractor", increasing their debt and their production capacity. This in turn required larger, more distant markets, and heavier and more complex financing. The public willingly purchased increasingly commoditized, processed, shipped and relatively inexpensive food. The availability of an increasingly diverse supply of fresh, uncured, unpreserved produce and meat in all seasons of the year (oranges in January, freshly killed steers in July, fresh pork rather than salted, smoked, or potassium-impregnated ham) opened an entirely new cuisine and an unprecedented healthy diet to millions of consumers who had never enjoyed such produce before. These abilities also brought to market an unprecedented variety of processed foods, such as corn syrup and bleached flour. For the family farm this new technology and increasingly complex marketing strategy has presented new and unprecedented challenges, and not all family farmers have been able to effectively cope with the changing market conditions.

[[File:Wheat Planting Rig May 2007.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Intensive wheat farming in western North Dakota.<ref>according to uploader: a 2007 photograph of a "family-owned wheat planting rig" (Case STX Steiger tractor with Case IH seed drill combination).</ref>]]

===Local food and the organic movement===
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2007}}
In the last few decades there has been a resurgence of interest in [[Organic food|organic]] and [[free range]] foods. A percentage of consumers have begun to question the viability of [[industrial agriculture]] practices and have turned to organic groceries that sell products produced on family farms including not only meat and produce but also such things as wheat germ [[bread]]s and natural lye [[soap]]s (as opposed to bleached white breads and petroleum based detergent bars). Others buy these products direct from family farms. The "new family farm" provides an alternative market in some localities with an array of traditionally and naturally produced products.

Such "organic" and "free-range" farming is attainable where a significant number of affluent urban and suburban consumers willingly pay a premium for the ideals of "locally produced produce" and "humane treatment of animals". Sometimes, these farms are hobby or part-time ventures, or supported by wealth from other sources. Viable farms on a scale sufficient to support modern families at an income level commensurate with urban and suburban upper-middle-class families are often large scale operations, both in area and capital requirements. These farms, family owned and operated in a technologically and economically conventional manner, produce crops and animal products oriented to national and international markets, rather than to local markets. In assessing this complex economic situation, it is important to consider all sources of income available to these farms; for instance, the millions of dollars in farm subsidies which the United States government offers each year. As fuel prices rise, foods shipped to national and international markets are already rising in price.

===United States===

In 2012, the United States had 2,039,093 family farms (as defined by USDA), accounting for 97 percent of all farms and 89 percent of census farm area in the United States.<ref name=USCensusAg2012>United States Department of Agriculture. 2014. 2012 Census of agriculture. United States summary and state data. Volume 1. Geographic area series. Part 51 AC-12-A-51.</ref> In 1988 Mark Friedberger warned, "The farm family is a unique institution, perhaps the last remnant, in an increasingly complex world, of a simpler social order in which economic and domestic activities were inextricably bound together. In the past few years, however, American agriculture has suffered huge losses, and family farmers have seen their way of life threatened by economic forces beyond their control."<ref>See [https://muse.jhu.edu/book/37559 Mark Friedberger, ''Farm Families and Change in 20th-Century America'']</ref> However, by 1981 Ingolf Vogeler argued it was too late—the American family farm had been replaced by large agribusiness corporations pretending to be family operated.<ref>Ingolf Vogeler, ''The myth of the family farm: Agribusiness dominance of US agriculture'' (1981) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TLDBDNJ/ excerpt].</ref>

A USDA survey conducted in 2011 estimated that family farms account for 85 percent of US farm production and 85 percent of US gross farm income. Mid-size and larger family farms account for 60 percent of US farm production and dominate US production of cotton, cash grain and hogs. Small family farms account for 26 percent of US farm production overall, and higher percentages of production of poultry, beef cattle, some other livestock and hay.<ref name="Hoppe, R.A 2014">Hoppe, R.A. 2014. Structure and finances of U.S. farms: family farm report, 2014 edition. United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service EIB-132.</ref>

Several kinds of US family farms are recognized in USDA farm typology:

Small family farms are defined as those with annual gross cash farm income (GCFI) of less than $350,000; in 2011, these accounted for 90 percent of all US farms. Because low net farm incomes tend to predominate on such farms, most farm families on small family farms are extremely dependent on off-farm income. 
Small family farms in which the principal operator was mostly employed off-farm accounted for 42 percent of all farms and 15 percent of total US farm area; median net farm income was $788. 
Retirement family farms were small farms accounting for 16 percent of all farms and 7 percent of total US farm area; median net farm income was $5,002.

The other small family farm categories are those in which farming occupies at least 50 percent of the principal operator's working time. These are:

Low-sales small family farms (with GCFI less than $150,000); 26 percent of all US farms, 18 percent of total US farm area, median net farm income $3,579.

Moderate-sales small family farms (with GCFI of $150,000 to $349,999); 5.44 percent of all US farms, 13 percent of total US farm area, median net farm income $67,986.

Mid-size family farms (GCFI of $350,000 to $999,999); 6 percent of all US farms, 22 percent of total US farm area; median net farm income $154,538.

Large family farms (GCFI $1,000,000 to $4,999,999); 2 percent of all US farms, 14 percent of total US farm area; median net farm income $476,234.

Very large family farms (GCFI over $5,000,000); <1 percent of all US farms, 2 percent of total US farm area; median net farm income $1,910,454.<ref name="Hoppe, R.A 2014"/>

Family farms include not only sole proprietorships and family partnerships, but also family corporations. Family-owned corporations account for 5 percent of all farms and 89 percent of corporate farms in the United States. About 98 percent of US family corporations owning farms are small, with no more than 10 shareholders; average net farm income of family corporate farms was $189,400 in 2012. (In contrast, 90 percent of US non-family corporations owning farms are small, having no more than 10 shareholders; average net cash farm income for US non-family corporate farms was $270,670 in 2012.)<ref name=USCensusAg2012/>

===Canada===

In Canada, the number of "family farms" cannot be inferred closely, because of the nature of census data, which do not distinguish family and non-family farm partnerships. In 2011, of Canada's 205,730 farms, 55 percent were sole proprietorships, 25 percent were partnerships, 17 percent were family corporations, 2 percent were non-family corporations and <1 percent were other categories.<ref>Statistics Canada. 2011 Census of Agriculture.</ref> Because some but not all partnerships involve family members, these data suggest that family farms account for between about 73 and 97 percent of Canadian farms. The family farm percentage is likely to be near the high end of this range, for two reasons. The partners in a [Canadian] farm partnership are typically spouses, often forming the farm partnership for tax reasons.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mnp.ca/en/media-centre/library/2010/10/1/family-farm-partnerships|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150416200727/http://www.mnp.ca/en/media-centre/library/2010/10/1/family-farm-partnerships|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 16, 2015|title=Family farm partnerships}}</ref> Also, as in the US,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/business/farm-transfer-estate-planning/docs/farm-business-transfer-strategies-2014.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-04-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141002185139/http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/business/farm-transfer-estate-planning/docs/farm-business-transfer-strategies-2014.pdf |archive-date=2014-10-02 }}</ref> family farm succession planning can use a partnership as a means of apportioning family farm tenure among family members when a sole proprietor is ready to transfer some or all of ownership and operation of a farm to offspring. Conversion of a sole proprietorship family farm to a family corporation may also be influenced by legal and financial, e.g. tax, considerations. The Canadian Encyclopedia estimates that more than 90 percent of Canadian farms are family operations.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Canadian Encyclopedia |title=Farm law |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/farm-law/ }}</ref>  In 2006, of Canadian farms with more than one million dollars in annual gross farm receipts, about 63 percent were family corporations and 13 percent were non-family corporations.<ref>{{cite web |author=Statistics Canada |title=The financial picture of farms in Canada |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/ca-ra2006/articles/finpicture-portrait-eng.htm }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Ayal |last1=Kimhi |first2=Ray |last2=Bollman |title=Family farm dynamics in Canada and Israel: the case of farm exits |journal=Agricultural Economics |volume=21 |issue=1 |year=1999 |pages=69–79 |doi=10.1111/j.1574-0862.1999.tb00584.x |url=http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/175082 }}</ref>

===Europe===
Analysis of data for 59,000 farms in the 12 member states of the European Community found that in 1989, about three-quarters of the farms were family farms, producing just over half of total agricultural output.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hill |first=B. |year=1993 |title=The myth of the family farm: defining the family farm and assessing its importance in the European Community |journal=Journal of Rural Studies |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=359–70 |doi=10.1016/0743-0167(93)90048-O }}</ref>

As of 2010, there were approximately 139,900 family farms in Ireland, with an average size of 35.7 hectares per holding. (Nearly all farms in Ireland are family farms.)<ref>Teagasc. Agriculture in Ireland  {{cite web |url=http://www.teagasc.ie/agrifood/ |title=Teagasc - Agriculture in Ireland |access-date=2015-04-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150428121110/http://www.teagasc.ie/agrifood/ |archive-date=2015-04-28 }}</ref><ref>Ireland and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/key-eu-policy-areas/agriculture/index_en.htm</ref><ref>2000 World Census of Agriculture. Main results and metadata by country. 1996–2005. http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1595e/i1595e.pdf</ref> In Ireland, average family farm income was 25,483 euros in 2012. Analysis by Teagasc (Ireland's Agriculture and Food Development Authority) estimates that 37 percent of Irish farms are economically viable and an additional 30 percent are sustainable due to income from off-farm sources; 33 percent meet neither criterion and are considered economically vulnerable.<ref>http://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2013/1935/NFSincomeestimates {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725063509/https://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2013/1935/NFSincomeestimates |date=2018-07-25 }} 2012.pdf</ref>