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Page added on March 19, 2014
Family farms are best way to feed the world
Family farms offer the greatest potential for meeting the nutritional needs of a growing global population while conserving resources and protecting biodiversity, new research suggests.
The food think tank, Food Tank, has produced statistics to show that the world’s 500 million family farms take a less damaging approach to the environment compared to large scale agri-businesses.
The report found that 70% of the world’s fresh water goes to support agriculture and demand will increase by nearly 20% by 2050. It says that soils are being depleted 10 to 40 times faster than they are being replenished and, as a result, 30% of global land has lost productivity.
But it says the most innovative approaches to sustainable farming are carried out on family holdings, from the United States and Europe to sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.
“We need to bring more attention to what’s being implemented by family farmers – big and small – on the ground,” said Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank President. “What they’re doing is working. These innovative practices, which are grounded in farmers’ knowledge, are nourishing communities and protecting the planet’s resources at the same time. Smallholder and family farmers are the backbone of food production all over the world.”
The report also found that family farming drives economic growth and social stability by providing job opportunities. Researchers suggest small farmers create a “multiplier” effect that extends beyond the farm sector, spending a high share of their income in other sectors, including construction, infrastructure, and manufacturing, which creates demand for other goods and sectors in their communities.
In her address to farmers in the South West, successful candidate for the post of NFU deputy president, Minette Batters, made a plea for family farms to be given a higher profile within the organisation.
She said: “2014 is the year of the family farm. They are the DNA of farming and the bulk of land in this country is farmed by families. We need less bureaucracy; less red tape.”
Food Tank’s findings include evidence that smaller family run farms are better at maintaining a wide range of crops which are often more resilient to climate change and extreme weather.
Family farms produce 56% of the world’s food, are more likely to be organic and use more innovative technology than many agri-businesses.
8 Comments on "Family farms are best way to feed the world"
rockman on Wed, 19th Mar 2014 3:17 pm
So we need about 400 million new family farms to replace the 44% of the world’s food that comes from the corporate ag system. And, of course, that means we need to have those 400 million new family farmers buy the $trillions of farm land currently used by the corporate ag system.
No problem…lets get after it ASAP.
westexas on Wed, 19th Mar 2014 3:46 pm
If so inclined, you can do a Google Search for: ELP Plan.
Following is an interesting article which reviews the cultural clash between a group trying to implement their own version of ELP and the city of Arlington, Texas:
http://www.fwweekly.com/2014/03/05/troubles-in-eden/
Troubles in Eden
Arlington’s alternative lifestyle gardeners are trying to make peace with the man.
“Part of their worldview requires producing more than they consume. The Gardeners don’t generate much waste. They don’t use paper plates or aluminum foil or almost anything that can’t be composted and cycled back into food production.
In one light, they live in a peaceful world of their own creation, where life is simple, even on the border of a metropolis of seven million people, most of whom throw away far more than they create.
In another light, that under which the City of Arlington enforces its rules, they are hoarders, the garden a blight and a potentially shady operation in an increasingly upscale corner of town.”
Paul on Wed, 19th Mar 2014 4:59 pm
Rockman, agree completely, just feasible.
Also, some of the most efficient of these farmers (second hand, no sources to quote), which I believe are often the rice farmers in poor asian countries, undertake that work so their kids don’t have to.
I’ve spent more then a few days wandering around a number of Asia’s rice terraces (incredibly beautiful/impressive/humbling) and a) it’s overwhelming old people working the paddies, and b) that has to be some of the hardest work I’ve ever seen.
Trust me, that isn’t a realistic or desirable goal to romanticize. And those workers seem to recognize that.
Northwest Resident on Wed, 19th Mar 2014 6:12 pm
Family farms will be able to feed the world when 98% of the population returns to family farming, as was the case in pre-industrial times. The other 2% were the military, a few craftsman and managers, and the usual kings and queens and “nobles” to keep everybody in their place and make sure that the family farmers were contributing their “fair share”.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 19th Mar 2014 6:51 pm
Basically when the decent tempo increases and the social fabric frays one of the few options for displace people and unemployed is small farms. The post contraction economy will not be able to support the multilayer manufacturing and service employment positions that are now the norm. The current industrial production Ag infrastructure will suffer entropic decay at some point down the contraction curve. The logical and meaningful response will be a mass migration back to the land. This scenario is contingent on a manageable contraction of the status quo BAU. If we go into a Kunstler long emergency this may happen as an orderly and overwhelming trend. How else will people be fed and put their energies to use. The social safety net will be gone. The disabled and unmotivated individuals will not have long on this earth. Natural selection will kick in weeding out all but the productive and strong. This has always been nature’s way. In the meantime do not expect much to happen with family farms. I know I had a 1500 acre corn and soybean production agriculture farm. I now have what is equivalent to a family farm. Family farms are still dying and will for a few more years. The trend will turn if our society does not end itself in the transition from growth to contraction. Now, the hobby farmer and the family farmer who has a spouse with a good job can swing a farm currently. Often it is the love of the lifestyle and the rural living that draws people to this life. The Ag transition is about economics and currently with oil in a plateaus we will see a strangle hold by production Ag. If we have a food crisis and or energy crisis with martial law and rationing we may see a government policy of redistribution of land. I see status quo BAU and production Ag for at least 5 to 10 years following the oil depletion curve.
DC on Wed, 19th Mar 2014 11:37 pm
Family farms do indeed have many of the virtues listed here. Unfortunately, for the last 60+ years, corporations have doing everything they can to extinguish the ‘family farm’ as viable enterprise. And they have pretty much succeeded too. Now the corporations are turning their greedy eyes on the remaining small farmers of the third world. Stealing their land, their livelihoods and forcing them to migrate to over crowded cities where they eat, guess what? Industrial chemo-slop produced on the land uS and western corporations stole from them.
Makati1 on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 2:38 am
And the year the corporate seed providers don’t, then what? Mass starvation!
Like getting poisoned by Big AG and then they sell you the antidote annually until they decide it its time to thin the herd and there is no antidote for sale. End of game. End of billions at no cost. Now there is “enough” for the 1% and their chosen serfs.
Ah the way the world we know can end has endless possibilities. We do live in interesting times.
Northwest Resident on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 4:51 am
“Ah the way the world we know can end has endless possibilities.”
So true. But we can only speculate. Somewhere, though, I’m guessing there are people who have a pretty good idea of how it is all going to go down, but they obviously aren’t talking. So, back to speculation. I prefer to speculate about positive not-so-bad possibilities that seem much more likely to become reality than the total doom end-of-world everybody-dies possibilities. But that’s just me.