The Family Farm Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America

An entire way of life is rapidly dying right in front of our eyes. The family farm is being systematically wiped out of existence in America, and big agribusiness and the federal government both have blood all over their hands.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of farms in the United States has fallen from about 6.8 million in 1935 to only about 2 million today.

That doesn’t mean that there is less farming going on. U.S. farms are producing more than ever. But what it does mean is that farming is increasingly becoming dominated by the big boys. The rules of the game have been tilted in favor of big agribusiness so dramatically that most small farmers find that they simply cannot compete anymore.

Source

With the growing expansion of industrial agriculture a.k.a. factory farming, it has made it increasingly difficult for smaller family farmers in the U.S to stay in business and compete.The food industry has become primarily dominated by a few large corporations backed by government policies that endorse large scale production.

If the farm aid statistics are to be believed 330 farmers leave their land a week,there are now nearly five million fewer farms in the U.S. than there were in the 1930's.

There are 10 corporations that control most of the things that Americans eat and drink on a daily basis,check this out (Right-click & 'view image' for easier viewing) -

95 percent of all soybeans and approximately 80 percent of all corn in the United States is from genetically altered seeds manufactured by...Mega conglomerate Monsanto.

Do you think you can go against Monsanto? do you doubt the kind of pull,power and money that Monsanto among other corps have in the fight against freedom and the right of choice?

From the article -

If you want to try to defy companies such as Monsanto, you are playing a very dangerous game. The predatory business practices of Monsanto have been well documented. Monsanto has taken countless numbers of farmers to court, and they are absolutely ruthless.

Plus, it certainly does not help that there is a constant revolving door between Monsanto and federal government agencies.

Here is the link they give in the article showing the thin line between major corps and government corruption.

Series of Venn diagrams shows in painstaking detail just how corrupted our political system in the United States has become- 18 Venn diagrams showing how corrupted American ‘democracy’ really is

In a few instances the feds have conducted military-style raids on smaller farms for "infractions" like selling raw milk!
Here is a trailer for the documentary 'Farmageddon' that shows a few examples of the behavior that was just mentioned above.


Additional links for more information -
Farm Aid

Feds raid Amish farm for the crime of selling raw milk

Good place to start for information if you would like to make a difference locally -Help protect food and farm freedom in your area with local 'right-to-farm' laws

Monsanto,Bigpharm,the FDA..They are all in on it..Anything for the all mighty dollar it would seem.

Could there be a more nefarious agenda here as well? you take control of the food supply,drinking water,medicate the population,vaccinate the young...Eugenics...It is nothing more than modern day eugenics under false guise,shrouded in secret,marketed to help,heal and change people when in truth it very well be kill you.

"A slow death is still a guaranteed death no matter how you put it,let us speed the process up for you there a bit"

So are they trying to destroy family farming? and why? what do you think is really going on here?
I already have a pretty good idea what is going on here...Greed,Power,Money and Control.

Are they killing a few million birds with one stone? get rich and reduce the population all in one swipe?

All I can say for sure is that I do not trust the puppet masters behind the curtain and I truly do not believe that they have our best interest at heart.

ETA: here is a little related bonus that has some very telling and interesting information about food industry -10 Things the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know
I imagine the rules in that article for marketing apply not only just in America but abroad as well.

Forgive the rather large image in the middle,I could not get the link to work first go around.

reply to post by PerfectPerception


Makes me wonder if this white nose bat disease and the bee depletion is all configured under these heartless bastards

reply to post by PerfectPerception


Great thread but the "10 corporations in control" link is broken, I'm really curious to see what they are. Thanks.

Wait I think I got it from the article, i.imgur.com...

Mass agribusiness has been killing our country so subtely yet we've been letting it happen. I remember as a kid in the mid late 90's, chicken actually had texture to it, maybe I'm not the only one but I've been noticing a gradual degradation of quality in all food, not just chicken. Anything at the store anymore is some GMO from a monsanto lab. Maybe it's just me, but ever since chemicals were approved left and right by the FDA, (red 40, apartame=nerve gas=brain lesions), whose existence is supposedly for food safety, I've noticed an exponential rate in kids born with autism, ADD, bipolar, depression, anxiety, or some other sort of label or issue that didn't exist 40 years ago. I remember talking to one Mason/Illumnist ( who are basically the same; no this isn't a conspiracy namedrop, this was one of the more curious conversations I've had in my life), but I was talking with him about the big plan of things, how I was sure the FDA was another cog in their wheel, with our own food warping our chemistries so we're led to depend on the drugs they provide (pure machiavelli; thesis + antithesis = synthesis, in this case our forced dependence); he gave me a look, grinned and said "guess whats in grape pop.. not grapes." food for thought.

The rise in corporate farming operations is directly tied to the oil and chemical industries who altered the face of agriculture through massive monoculture practices. Increased use of machinery and fertilizer were dependent upon petroleum products and herbicides and insecticides became necessary to protect massive single-crop plantings.

Unmentioned is the increased use of illegal immigrant labor (in factory farming) to maximize profits - another reason the border has been left unguarded.

Jeffersonian ideals of democracy are based on families who farm, care for the land in perpetuity and are handed to the next generation. Such ties ensure sound practices to preserve and enrich the soil and control erosion. By eating the very food they grow, family farming also ensures the production of healthy foods. Last but not least is these families become anchors for community, something big corporations by their nature cannot be.

The American dustbowl of the 1930's as well as Soviet collectivization were direct results of the mechanization of farming methods. These events were not mere "bumps" in the road to progress but inevitable byproducts of corporate farming.

As trends go, it is one of the worst. It affects the quality of our food, our land, our water, our communities and our nation. If we cannot save family farming we cannot save ourselves. It's that important.

The decline of the 'family farm' isn't new...it's been going on as long as I've been alive, and longer. I've seen it first-hand. I grew up in the Missouri bootheel, just off the Mississippi River south of Cape Girardeau. Both of my grandfathers were farmers, as were eight of my eleven uncles and grand-uncles. When I wasn't in school, I spent a lot of time as free labor on one of the various farms that were a part of my family. Now, all of those spreads are gone, absorbed into larger, corporate farms. Of all the farm houses that were a part of my childhood, only two are still standing. So, what happened? To borrow a phrase from Walt Kelly, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Here are three of reasons that don't really involve conspiracies:

1) Modern farming is an expensive and complicated business...the stereotype of the dumb redneck farmer is becoming more outdated by the day. Modern agriculture requires equipment that can cost the better part of (or over) a million dollars per unit, knowledge of soil composition, chemistry, meteorology, biology, and a raft of other things not normally thought of by non-farmers. It also requires long hours of ridiculously hard work, and a fair load of manpower. In short, it's a field (if you'll pardon the expression) where the entry costs are staggering, the work is demanding, and the returns (such as they are) are subject not only to market variations in price, but random chance...one freak storm at the wrong time can (and has) wiped out a year's crop, leaving the farmer holding the bag on massive planting costs with no way to retire the debt. That level of investment, workload, and risk make farming a job that isn't exactly flooded with 'new blood'. Never mind bringing in outsiders, most farm kids don't even want the family business these days...more and more of them are opting out.

2) Economies of scale. See above regarding costs and risks...big corporate farms are better protected against risks, and have lower costs of production (thanks to economies of scale). That gives them a long-term advantage vs smaller 'family' producers. Lower cost of production means that they can market goods at lower prices and still show a profit...putting more pressure on the smaller farmers to bow out.

3) Efficient transportation and storage. Back in the 'good old days' (which weren't really all that good), local farms would compete with each other for local markets. Now, with the ability to store food and transport it across continental distances at high speed, small farms in Missouri, Kentucky, and other central/southern states have to compete with corporate farms in Kansas, Arizona, and California (and other places)...there simply isn't any market in the US, or the world, where small farmers (with their higher per-unit costs, and thus, higher prices) are safe from the mass-production economies-of-scale mega-farms.

I don't *like* the idea that the small farm is on its way out...I learned a lot growing up as I did, and I think the farming life shaped the essential character that built the country. I'm worried that as we lose the farms, we'll also lose the work ethic that they produced right alongside their crops and cattle. That said, unless we're willing (and/or able) to pay a lot more for food, I don't see many things we can do to stop the trend.

Dont many farmers actually receive subsidies and such, with their goods being bought at greater than market value?

To my mind and experience what forced many family farms to incorporate and become as large as possible are taxes and insurance.

Originally posted by Cassius666
Dont many farmers actually receive subsidies and such, with their goods being bought at greater than market value?

Some do...milk prices are 'supported' by government subsidies, and (ironically enough) so is tobacco. I can *almost* understand some price supports for milk...dairy farming is just as demanding as any other kind of cattle farming (and Lord above, could I write several posts about *that*) with the added requirements for amazing amounts of sanitation, refrigeration, extra equipment, and government regulation.

There also used to be (I haven't had any real connection with farming in so long that the program may be gone or renamed) a program called "Payment in Kind", which compensated a farmer for letting his land lie fallow (unused). Yes, the program had its share of fraud, but it's not the total scam you might think....land really does need to rest every few years, and the PiK program made sure that farmers could afford to actually let it do so.

Those programs aside, though, the only 'safety nets' most crop farmers have are stashed money from good crop years, and (if things *really* go south) food stamps. Even with Federal "help", most farmers operate under massive debts (do a quick look around the internet at the price of tractors, combine harvesters, seed, fertilizer, and herbicides / pesticides...the numbers will turn your hair white and your wallet inside out). There's an old not-really-a-joke in farming country that goes something like this:

Q) What's the only sure-fire way to make a small fortune as a farmer?
A) Start with a large fortune.

reply to post by Brother Stormhammer


reply to post by Asktheanimals


I would just like to take the time to applaud the both of you for your very insightful,honest and passionately inspired commentaries on this topic.

I admit to never laboring on a farm but I fully appreciate and understand the hard work full of blood,sweat & tears that has gone into it the better part of the century,the molding of early America rests on the shoulders of such toiled home grown labor.

There is really nothing I can say that will do Justice or add significance that you have not already written elegantly here before me.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

We cannot give up,let our voices be heard from the roof tops!

reply to post by PerfectPerception


Thanks for the kind words, Brother Stormhammer knows what he's talking about for sure. I spent a few years as teen working on dairy farms and man, that is some hard, hard, work. Nasty too. But somehow a good way of living for all it's hardships.
Compare the way of life farmers lead versus what city people and factory workers have? Who gets to see the sun and feel the wind every day? Who has a real tie with the planet?
There is a metaphysical/spiritual aspect to the environments we spend our lives in and in my mind those who live rural lives make the best decisions about how we live and interact with our planet and each other.
Rural communities built closer relationships as neighbor would have to help neighbor since there was no one else to reach out to. Mutual aid was a way of living.
People view it as sad and rustic and a passing way of life but somehow inevitable. That sounds like suicide to me. We will have lost all ties with the Earth as people and as a Nation and will suffer for it's abuse.
Nuclear power is more than likely what will get mankind eventually as all these power plants and warheads decay and start leaking radiation everywhere.
Glad I won't be around in 100 years to see just how bad it will be.

I want to thank you for sharing this. This is big news for me as I had lately found that going into large animal/farming Veterinary is on the decline, as well as my community which not only is the Universities' agricultural programs that locally there are many family farmers. Leading further into a national and global problem.
Monsanto and Co. are leading the way of it all being homogenized(pun intended) in a swill pot. Of deregulations, arrests for investigation.
Monsanto under the guise of feeding the world, couldn't be further from the truth.

Hi guys.

I have a farm.

We are small. We are not a registered farm, not a declared farm, and we burn the surveys and applications and official mailers that come from the state and federal governments.

I do have a license for a "business" and priviledge licenses for the different undertakings my "business" does. I have a license to sell things...the fact that I grow them escapes the authorities.

How do you hide your weapons from a metal detector or thermal imaging? By hiding the gun? No... by putting it in plain sight along with about a thousand other pieces of scrap metal... it then becomes invisible.

Same with a small family "business" that happens to be a farm.

That way, all I have to do is file my sales tax, reapply for the right licenses, and that's all. No FDA... no State Dept Agriculture, no inspections, ... no EPA.

There are plenty of us out here. Small family farms doing the back to the land thing... bartering, selling for cash only, posting ads on Craigslist, leaflets in feed stores, setting up not at farmer's markets but at flea markets for the day only... setting up at crossroads and selling out of the back of the truck... selling word of mouth.

And we don't tell nobody nothing. An entire under the table economy... underground.

At the feed store I manage, a lot of farmers pay cash and do not use the sales tax exemption for farm use. Many do not have any record of their purchase or way to track what they buy. Sales of home made sausage or BBQ or stew are done through the local church or volunteer fire dept... orders are placed... a truck pulls up at the fire dept or church on Saturday morning... cash is exchanged for 10 lb rolls of sausage... ... a small line forms... kind of a social gathering almost... and in about a half hour... the lot is empty.

So on paper, yes... the family farm is disappearing. But I can assure you it is unofficially slugging along... underground.

There are still family farms in America?
2

reply to post by Asktheanimals


I could not agree more or have said it better myself.

I believe the increase of modern technology is as much a blessing as it is a curse to man,I have been guilty of spending too much time in front of a machine when I could of been bonding with nature...I think there is a natural,very powerful energy that emanates from the earth if harnessed properly...It could be equated to a spiritual connection if you will.

Man has become more cold & calculated..."Robotic"...Technologically dependent...The native tribes believe and live the proper philosophy/lifestyle of respecting and worshiping mother nature, animals and life are sacred,we should at least attempt to improve our connection to the earth,respect and cherish the life that is freely given...How we came to be is not as important as simply 'being'

Evolution?/Creation?...Irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.What matters is that we are here.the miracle has passed and continues to manifest...I AM.

I still own the family farm.

But I get calls almost daily from the big Agri business conglomerates, trying to get me to sell.

More stinkin GOP Republcan corporate pressure on the real freedom lovers; The American farmer.

Hey GOP, I got two words for you....no corporatetacracy! among others...

reply to post by AlreadyGone


Thank you for that response.

Your post gives me hope,we can still make a difference and not give in to big corp. and tptb. Keep on keeping on.

The underground lives! viva la resistance

"I'll take 6 lbs of corn,2 lbs of 'maters' and throw me in some that delicious looking BBQ"

There are a few couples,husband and wife teams that do exactly what you have posted,They run a fresh vegetable.fruit and BBQ stand by an intersection not far from where I live...Yes,The BBQ is delicious.

Those are some truly depressing statistics. I would recommend everyone check out the documentary Food, INC. You will realize how the corporate control of America's food supply should be a issue of national security. If an EMP attack or any other disaster man made or natural were to happen people would be without food within weeks and anarchy would spill out into the streets. I think there needs to be another major grass roots campaign for people to start growing their own gardens and reinvent American homesteading. Is anyone familiar with Aquaponics? A simple solution to sustainable farming for commercial and private use. Check it out.

i would say its because they dont like people living off the land they want to be in control of the source apparently