Vision of a Family Farm
No two family farms are the same. Family Farms vary
widely in size, producing all kinds of products utilizing mainly
family labor and management. Though often not the case today,
a family farm should be owned by the operating family with the
hope of passing the land in better condition to the next generation.
The “family farm” should be an ideal by which we measure
our progress as a society in offering rural economic opportunity
and freedom, conservation of resources and biodiversity, and a
healthful, safe food supply.
Using this measure, its apparent that today’s
farm and food system, with so many policy decisions being made
to maximize corporate profits, offers neither progress nor sustainability.
Our children and their children deserve better.
We need a family farm system, a people’s farm
system, composed of government policy and a nurturing culture—a
social contract—that will ensure economic opportunity and
healthful environment for rural America. A family farm system
would renew economic life in rural communities and deliver safe,
nutritious food to consumers in cooperation with Mother Nature.
A family farm culture—respect for family, neighbors, community,
and Nature—must be restored to the fabric of our nation.
A family farm system will use government policy
to assure fair prices and market access to all farmers along with
widespread ownership of land. When farm prices include all costs,
internal and external, family farmers will not be forced to exploit
their land and families to increase production to make up for
declining returns. By assuring fair prices for feed grains and
oil seeds, we can deny cheap feed to livestock factories and end
the consolidation of farms and agricultural industries which only
lead to increased economic and political power of faceless and
unaccountable multinational corporations
