The changing face of farming in America

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"Here and now" speaks with Carol House, of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, about the latest numbers in farming; and Jon Satz, a farmer who runs Woods Market Garden in Brandon, Vermont.

The latest numbers are in from the 2007 Agricultural Census — the most recent one — and it looks as if farming is the business to get into — the number of farms in America has increased, overall sales are up by almost half, and direct-to-consumer sales have spiked.

But not all is rosy — there are more farms, but they’re small; medium sized farms are failing, and there were 16 million fewer acres of farmland in America in 2007.

Carol House’s organization runs the census: "The middle-sized family farms … they’re making it and growing larger; or often times, they’re having to get out of farming altogether, and the Department does have concern about the decline of mid-sized farms. And also a lot of interest in local agriculture — for the first time we’re measuring on the census how many farmers are selling directly to consumers. we’re also looking at a lot of different kinds trends that are happening in the smaller farms that perhaps will be at least the future for small and mid-sized farms."

Direct-to-consumer sales were up 49%; while this is still just a small fraction of overall sales — only 1.2 billion — but the number is still significant because the money stays within the local communities.

House: "It’s an important growing part of what the diversity of agriculture looks like right now. We really do have the very, very large farms in the Midwest … but say in the Northeast, you’re going to see a very different type of farm that’s growing and prospering. I was outside of one of the larger cities in the Northeast about a year ago, and I was introduced to a farm operated by five Asian women, and each of them had about two acres, and they were growing specialty vegetables for a local market. This is the type of innovative new farming that fits right into the suburban-urban markets, and there’s a lot of that starting up."

Jon Satz’s farm, Woods Market Garden is a mid-sized farm, and sells about $250 thousand dollars in annual sales. Satz’s farm sells about 50 varieties of field vegetables and small fruits, as well as plants — locally: "Pretty much 99 percent of our products get sold in our farm stand which is right on our farm here."

Satz also offers a community supported agriculture (CSA) program in his farm: "This is the first year we’re really venturing into that, where people can have a sense of membership to our farm, and then we’re also starting up a small CSA, which will be off-farm in a nearby community where we would bring a certain amount of root vegetables on a weekly basis to people who don’t come up to our farms …"

On the importance of smaller farms like his to a community, Satz says: "It’s kind of a win-win situation, where we might have anywhere around 15 people working here during the summer, so there’s a fair amount of jobs for the community, and then all the different businesses around here that we’re networked with, whether it be repair shops, or equipment places. Agriculture is in our roots, it doesn’t take much to understand that’s a pretty strong part of our culture, who we are and our ability to survive …" 

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