1. Where have all the Farmers gone? By: Lora Joy Grabau

2. An Endangered Species  Industrial- farmers getting older and fewer  Developing- Rising populations, increases number of farmers which decreases average farm plot size  Decreasing incomes, increasing debt and rural poverty force many to either leave farm or obtain an additional job/career  Examples: Japan- half of farmers over 65 years old Phillipines- 1.2 million lost farming jobs from July 1999-2000 China- an estimated 2 million farmers will leave in next 5 yrs US- fewer people are full-time farmers than full-time prisoners  However, we have 70 million more to feed every year!!!!

3. Blessing or curse??  Shift to urban, fun, exciting areas  Rural life has been portrayed as boring  City slum life- a disappointment  Marginization of farmers -vicious cycle of low education, increasing infant mortality and deepening mental distress

4. Hired hands on their own land  Increased production cost due to outsourcing of pre and post harvest processes -i.e. farmers pre-WWII saved seed, used own manure as fertilizer and crop diversity functioned as pest control  Today, farmers receive only 10 cent of the dollar  Self-destructive loop Increased demand for technology Output Increases and expenses increase while prices are steady or declining Over supply and declining Price= lower profits

5.  To maintain same income as 1950s –Farms 4 times bigger –Get a night job –OR return to earlier system of supplying input themselves and processing the crops post-harvest

6. Food Cartels  While small farms have lowest prod cost, large farms can tolerate lower margins and accept lower price  Benefits only processor, not farm, community or environment  Monetary shift from farmers compounded by concentration at every link of food chain -Partnership of Monsanto and Cargill - ‘Take or leave it’ pricing system for farmers - Agribusiness as big brother

7. TNC’s  Can buy at lowest price globally  Can sell at highest price globally  Some companies and individuals prefer to buy from large companies to keep lower transaction costs and standardized products  Allowed to be vertically integrated  What food and what price will we have if the farms are managed by distant corporations???

8. William Goldschmidt  Tried to assess how farm structure and size affected the rural community  Compared two small towns - Alike in every way including value of ag production except farm size - Alike in every way including value of ag production except farm size 1)Small farm community (Dinuba) - 20% more people supported - higher level of living - 2 times as many business establishments - More participation in politics - More schools, parks, churches, newspapers and civic organizations

9. Conclusions from Goldschmidt  Industrial agriculture- limited in helping community - net drain on local economy  Big Box- may displace more jobs than create  Farming families are twice as likely to live in poverty - similar in Europe

10. Farming: An Identity  Losing family farm can cause guilt and anxiety  Worldwide increase of suicide rate in farmers -Britain: suicide rate in farmers two times larger than rest of population -US: farmers 5 times as likely to commit suicide as die from farm accidents - reports of farmers calling suicide hotlines asking which types of accidents are least likely to be investigated as suicide

11. Farmer Rebellion  Increasingly ready to rise against government and corporations  Examples: -Zapatista revolution -Blacks seizing farms from rich whites in Zimbabwe -European farmers attacking the seed engineering plants  Farmer dislocation- rising security threat (OK bombing) -worse in countries where there is less industrialization to absorb workers

12. Farmers: the Professionals  Farm systems require thorough and intimate knowledge of the land- corporations don’t use  Efficient and sustainable farming - 1) Planting two or three crops on same land - 2) Planting crops with differing drainage close together on land with varying topography - Neither can be done with heavy tractors at high speeds -Small size alone not enough must have ecological awareness and motivation -Large scale mechanized farms can’t preserve ecological diversity

13. Simplicity of current farm techniques  The 2-crop system along with concentrated livestock production is inefficient -caused increase in fertilizer dependence -Triple hit of nitrogen pollution 1) Concentration of livestock- dumping of manure in single location 2) Lower nitrogen retention in Midwest 3) Run-off into Gulf of Mexico ( The Dead Zone) -Depletion of ecological diversity (our ultimate insurance policy) - Lost of knowledge and experience related to the dying species

14. Farmers: From Independent and informed decision-makers to technical applicators  Previously made decisions independently and on an informed basis and maintaining the land owned by crop rotation and combination  Now, simply follow company policy  Company policy -no rules on environmental degradation or responsibility -no community loyalty

15. Ecological Fallouts  Colossal confined animal feeding operations (CAFO’s) -dumping of enormous amounts of manure and waste -Cattle in constant close contact- increased chance of infection -higher incidence of disease with little chance of inspection cause many of the meat crisis’s of our age

16. Conclusions  Small more productive - Large look more productive because calculated with only one crop per acre rather than total food production per acre  Small farms- more efficient use of land, water and other agricultural resources  As population increase and farmland and water are steady or even decreases, a small farm structure is central to feeding the world