Family farms vs Cooperate Farms

[tcm]

Is it just my opinion, or is farming heading for cooperate farms at the expense of family farms? Why are so many people in favor of these cooperate farms and against the family farm, even some farmers. I agree with change, but not to this extent!

[rklenk]

I agree that farming seems to be heading the corprate route, I really hope people think twice before promoting this. As small farms dissapear and large corporate farms take over not only will the rural suffer but also the cities. Larger corprate farms will search for deals for there supplies, and will buy in quantity, which will mean buying from larger cities like Vancouver or Toronto or even the USA, and that will certanly hurt smaller cities and rural arrears in the praire provinces.

[tcm]

What about the messes they leave behind? I would like to see a moratorium on Intensive Livestock Operations, at least until the rules and regulations are in place. What happened to farming for farming? What happened to caring about the output? These Intensive Livestock Operations seem to be just a "here today, gone tomorrow" idea. They run the small towns into the ground, run the farmers into the ground and then leave and whoever stayed behind has the mess to clean-up and the relationships to mend (if that is even possible)

[cakadu]

Does there have to be polarization towards big or small? I think the family farm can still exist, it will just look different than the family farm we grew up with. There will be a need for the corporate farms that can grow huge amounts, just as there will be a need for everything else in between large and small.

The key to all of this is that we need to grow what someone is willing to buy and what we can get to market in the most cost effective manner possible. Until we can move past the notion that we can sell whatever we grow, we are going to have problems, no matter what we do and the size of our farm will be irrelevant. It takes work and research to get an idea of what consumers want. We have to work together to get products to market as one person/farm cannot do it all. There has to be a way to utilize the skills that your neighbor may possess in order for each of you to gain more benefit.

We have gotten really good at working independently, now what we have to do is become interdependent and build on synergies so that everyone can benefit.

Linda

[hmorkin]

Why can't we have both? I currently live on a "family farm" consisting of my grandfather uncle and father but we are also a corporation.

[Deb]

It's actually the scale of a farm that scares people if it is really big. Family farms can be corporate farms but its when they are so big that they monopolize the feed source and the market, that's when the small guy gets squeezed out.