Fewer Family Farms

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says there were 30 percent fewer family farms in 1993 than there were in 1973, but one reader of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal questioned those statistics saying definitions used by the federal government are skewing the figures.

Uncle Sam classifies small farms as those with an annual income of $20,000 or less, which may have been a sufficient income in 1973 but doesn’t amount to much in the 1990s.

Bob Hoppe, a researcher with the USDA’s Economic Research Service, says many family farms with an income of $20,000 or less don’t provide all the income for the families that run them. Often, those farms provide supplemental income for people who have day jobs, he says. In many cases, small farms amount to a part-time operation.

The USDA says small farms still comprise two-thirds of the U.S. total but account for only 4 percent of the nation’s agricultural sales. Large farms, often owned by corporations, produce the majority of crops and livestock consumed by Americans.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman says he wants to examine ways to keep more young farmers in business. He plans to create a National Commission on Small Farms later this month to deal with the problem.

The commission will include farmers, academics and others who will hold hearings around the country and report conclusions in President Clinton’s fiscal 1999 budget.