Most of us come from a long line of organic farmers. My mother grew up on a farm as did many of our parents or grandparents. This is simply the way most people made a living prior to the industrial revolution. In the mid 1930's there were 6.8 million farms in the U.S. Then two things happened to dramatically change the face of agriculture in America. Agricultural chemicals were introduced and tractors took the place of horses. At this point farms began getting bigger and farmers began getting fewer. This trend continued until only recently.
According to the agricultural census of 2007, the number of farms in America increased by over 50,000 to about 2.2 million since the last census in 2002. That's about 10,000 new farms a year over a five year period.. Many of these are young, sustainable, organic farmers who have chosen to get their hands in soil rather than punch a keyboard.
This is good news. A greater number of farms means better food security. They say for financial security you need to diversify your investments. The same is true for food security. It's better to have a greater number of small, independent, diversified farms rather than a limited number of large industrial sized mono-crop operations.
Today most food is grown by large scale growers who depend on agribusiness corporations to supply them with agricultural chemicals and hybridized or genetically modified seed. In the past open pollinated seeds were planted and the farmer would often save seeds from his crop for planting the next year. The main danger with hybrid and GM seeds, even beyond the well documented health risks of GM crops, is that they will not reproduce the same seed that was planted, if any seed at all. In the case of a catastrophic event such as war, economic collapse or natural disaster, the big seed producers may not be able to supply the farmers. Without seeds to plant there could be massive famine and starvation, adding to the problems which caused the seed to be unavailable in the first place. This is a dismal scenario. However with a vast network of small farms, growing a great diversity of open pollinated fruits and vegetables, we would have true food security.
The industrial economic model we've been working under for the past 120 years or so clearly is not working for us anymore. Small sustainable farms provide jobs, a high quality of life, a clean environment and a good work ethic. They instill a sense of freedom and independence in the work force. The organic agrarian lifestyle is a tried and true system that has been proven to work over the past 8,000 years. Industrial ag has been around only a few decades and look at the mess it's gotten us into already.
Contrary to what agribiz would have us believe small farms are more efficient. A farmer whose livelihood depends on his ability to coax as much as he can from the soil, will in the long run always do better and get more enjoyment and satisfaction doing it.
It's time for us to get back to our agrarian roots.