![\"Soybean](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/blog-soybean-field.png?ssl=1\")
<\/a>Soybean field<\/p><\/div>\n
The land is owned by, and the tractor drivers are employed by, some corporation that may not even pay income taxes in the state, since their corporate HQ is elsewhere. As a result of this kind of agricultural consolidation, small Wisconsin towns, near my mom grew up on the farm, as well as the small town father grew up in, are now almost ghost towns. They used to be busy with stores, churches, bars and schools providing for the now absent hundreds of small farms around them.<\/p>\n
This isn’t simple pining for a life style that’s changed, or a time that’s gone.\u00a0 I’ve never lived on a farm or in the country.\u00a0 Instead, I believe there are significant benefits to society, the environment, the economy and the security of the nation in having numerous small farms, supporting numerous small towns, much like American of the early 20th century.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Family farm circa 1950<\/p><\/div>\n
These changes were not necessarily inevitable, but were instead the result of government policies and unfettered capitalistic profit over everything behavior.\u00a0 But it only works that way in the short term.\u00a0 Long term, society suffers and then the economy suffers.<\/p>\n
In addition to being economic engines, small farms \u2013 especially family-owned small farms \u2013 provide numerous other benefits.\u00a0 When you know you will likely pass your farm onto your children, you’re inclined to take better care of the soil, preventing erosion and depletion and contamination.\u00a0 When there are numerous prosperous small towns, there are more small business economic opportunities.<\/p>\n
Those same towns also make community \u2013 the knowing and supporting the people around you \u2013 generally easier to achieve.\u00a0 It’s not impossible in large cities, but it’s a lot easier to become a lost and isolated.\u00a0 Not everyone is cut out for living in a big city, just as not everyone is cut out for living in a remote area.\u00a0 More farms and more small towns provide a much larger variety of opportunities to fit the varying dispositions and habits of the humans making up society.<\/p>\n
The extractive, end-stage capitalism of huge industrialized agriculture produces mostly negatives for society.\u00a0 We should encourage a return to the more human-scale, more resilient, more anti-fragile benefits of small farms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Small farms are economic engines for the countryside. Large corporate farms are generally extractive industries.\u00a0 The latter are employers of labor, such as machine drivers. They provide fewer jobs both on the farm, and in supporting small towns than the more numerous small farms they replace. I’m undoubtedly biased, having \u2026 Continue reading