Deep Roots

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] 32

egional

erspectives

Image: Natasha Bowens

Young farmers of the low country, USA

Do family farms matter?

Family farms obviously are important to farm families, but is their

survival important for society as a whole or the future of human-

ity? Those who value traditional family farms are often seen as

naïve or idealistic. The controversies surrounding family farms

versus industrial farms invariably centre on questions of agricul-

tural sustainability: The ability tomeet the basic food needs of all of

the present without diminishing opportunities for those of future

generations. It is not naïve to be concerned about sustainability.

The historical root meanings of the words ‘farm’ and ‘farmer’

suggest that economics has always been an important aspect of

farms and farming. However, these words have also always had

important social and ethical dimensions. Historically, farmers

have managed their farms multifunctionally. The industrial

agriculture emphasis of economic efficiency invariably leads to

extraction and exploitation of the natural and human resources

that ultimately must sustain long-run agricultural productivity.

True family farms are a way of life, not just a business, and thus

have a natural advantage in meeting the multiple needs of both

present and future generations.

Industrial agriculture has shown weaknesses in providing

domestic food security for all in the United States and Canada.

About one-in-six residents of the US and one-in-eight Canadians

is classified as ‘food insecure’.

Many can get enough food to satisfy

their need for calories or energy only by buying cheap industrial

food products that fail to meet their nutritional needs for healthy,

active lifestyles. As a result, diet-related illnesses in the US are

rampant, including obesity and related diseases such as diabetes,

hypertension, heart failure and various types of cancer.

Development experts attribute the persistent hunger globally

to increases in population made possible by the increased food

production of the Green Revolution. However, many of those

living and working in developing nations have a very different

view. Numerous studies sponsored by the UnitedNations indicate

that multifunctional farms are key for meeting the food needs of a

growing global population. In the US and Canada, the challenge is

agricultural sustainability, not agricultural productivity.

Government policies for family farms

Since government policies have been focused onmonofunctional

economic efficiency rather than multifunctionality or sustain-

ability, the definitions of family farms describe farm businesses

rather than farms as ways of life. The existing definitions tend to

give some attention to previously mentioned gradients between

family and non-family farms, including the nature of manage-

ment, legal ownership, and sources of labour and markets to

lesser extents. However, current family farm definitions are of

limited usefulness in address questions of functionality.

Food security has been accepted as the logical motivation

for farm policies in the past. However, with growing ecological

and social equity concerns, a more encompassing farm policy

mandate for the future is agricultural sustainability. Agricultural

sustainability is a multifunctional concept with ecological, social

and economic dimensions. Thus, farm policies that support and

promote agricultural sustainability must support and promote

intentional multifunctionality. Examples include:

• reducing emphasis on subsidies for industrial agriculture that

incentivize specialization and corporatization at the expense of

diversification and family farms, beginning with programmes

linked to specific commodities including corn, soybeans,

wheat and rice – including subsidized crop insurance

• reducing economic risks for multifunctional family farms

– for example through subsidized ‘whole-farm revenue

insurance’ with lower premiums for more diversified

farming operations

• subsidizing farm families, not farm production by linking

government payments to family size not farm size.

Policies supporting multifunctional farming must extend beyond

farming operations. They must provide basic health care to multi-

functional farm families as well as workers’ compensation and

other ‘fringe benefits’. Theymust restore farmland to the commons

and permanently zone enough farmland for food production to

meet the food sovereignty needs of all in current and future genera-

tions. This should include developing land tenure policies that will

support more farms, local markets, local control and food democ-

racy, thus ensuring the use of farmland for the common good. And

public research and education should be redirected to serve public

interests, giving priority to on-farm research and with-farmer

education. Farming must again be treated as a learned profession.

In summary, the sustainability of food production for the

benefit of all of the “world’s people” can be and should be

ensured by policies that support a global network of local

community-based food systems that support and are supported

by multifunctional family farms. Multifunctional farmers are

better endowed to farm sustainably, and sustainable farms are

the key agents to achieving sustainable food and agricultural

systems. Public policies thus must support this transition from

mono- to multi-functionality. Family farms can and must return

to their honored, almost sacred, position in the cultures of North

America as well as the rest of the world.