Good News From Iowa

[groovedaddy]

When I was born in 1952, there were 203,000 farms in Iowa, only 11,000 fewer than when my dad was born in 1926. By 2002, the number had dropped to about 90,000, with roughly the same acreage in production in a state with a population that had remained roughly the same. The national numbers followed the same track: fewer farms, bigger farms, less-diverse farms. To a lot of people, this looked like progress because the ideal of efficiency promulgated by the Department of Agriculture was bigger yields with fewer people.

This industrial notion of efficiency has always seemed terribly inefficient in other important ways: socially, culturally and environmentally. Too few people in a farming landscape means too little attention to the soil. It also means broken towns. The history of Iowa in the past 80 years has been the steady impoverishing of the rural landscape, a fact most easily grasped by the steadily dwindling number of farms.

So it comes as a pleasant surprise to find in the 2007 Census of Agriculture that the number of farms in Iowa has risen to 92,856, a level last seen in 1992. Some 4,000 new small farms have been created since 2002. These are very small farms, 9 acres or less, and they are producing a much wider array of crops than the rest of Iowa, which specializes in corn and soybeans. Most have very local markets, not Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland. And yet as new farms are being created, midsize farms go out of business. Consolidation at the highest level — big farms eating slightly smaller farms — continues.

These are interesting numbers — 4,000 Iowa farms under 9 acres and about 1,500 with 2,000 acres or more. Still more interesting is the age differential. The average age of the “principal operator” on a farm has crept upward to 56 years old. But those small farms are being run by young farmers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/opinion/10tue4.html?th&emc=th

[spookybutt]

1. And I'll bet they are growing organic produce...Or organic dairy products

It's a great trend and I hope it continues in other agricultural states. Imagine if we started getting back to an agrarian society! That would be amazing. Small farms are definitely the way to go...

[Kare]

4. going organic...

sounds great, earns you more money since you can sell as organic, and it's healthier food.

The downside is it's pretty dang hard to get certified as organic.
My husband suggested that we try to sell organic eggs (we have a couple chickens for eggs for our own use). I have been planning on upscaling the amount of birds that I keep to include meat birds and eggs to sell.

Going organic means that never can the animals ever have had any medicine. The feed might actually have to be organic as well (not sure on this point) which makes feed more expensive. If once your animals get sick you are screwed unless you can isolate in time to keep it from spreading. It's not an easy prospect. Which is why organic products are higher, I just don't think it's practical for a small timer to try unless you can absorb the loss (which I can't) when your animals get sick.

[jwirr]

2. My kid brother lives on our small farm - his main products are black

walnuts and raspberries. Lots of other things to but most of the 5 acres are in those. He barters them for a lot of what he needs to live. We are trying to duplicate his success here in Minnesota. Edited to say that these two small farms are our families refuge areas if things get really tough.

[liberal N proud]

3. Does that include the wind farms