Why has co-operative farming declined?
Ken Hanly
Coops were apparently encouraged to expand during last decade,
accumulating massive debts in process...
Re. organic farming (don't recall if Ken asked question, I accidentally
deleted post), about 1% of food grown for market in US is 'certified
At 11:22 PM 3/28/00 -0600, you wrote:
Is there are breakdown on the number of organic farmers and
production of organic farms etc?
I don't know, but it's interesting that last time I heard, Gallo Wines --
famous for being a mass-producer of mediocre jug-wines and for once being
the target of a
Check out the Monthly Review special issue on agriculture from a couple of
years ago. There is a tremendous article by Richard Lewontin that not only
makes the case that most farming is done by self-employed family farmers,
but has the statistics to back up his argument.
At 02:30 PM 3/28/00
Carrol Cox wrote:
Does anyone have any good figures on the farm population of
the United States? How many "small farmers" are left -- not
counting those whose primary family income is from regular
off-farm employment. Also, I'm not sure how to define "small
farmer." Does this category add up to
I am in a rush now and cannot answer in detail. Most of the production comes
from fairly large farms, which probably is owned by a farmer. Corporatations
however impose ever more stringent contracts on farmers, so that many, if not
most, become more like franchise owners than outright owners.
Food First have a number of publications on small farms (not sure of the size of
the farmers!) at http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/index.html
Bill Rosenberg
Michael Perelman wrote:
I am in a rush now and cannot answer in detail. Most of the production comes
from fairly large farms, which
I do not know how the system works in the US. For some
specialty crops I suppose contracts with the purchaser would
be the only way to sell but for
standard grains and oilseeds there is a great deal of
competition among elevator companies, seed companies, and
other companies(e.g. Monsanto) to get
Is there are breakdown on the number of organic farmers and
production of organic farms etc? The number seems to be
growing here but since it takes three years for soil to be
free of chemical residues etc. and get certified it takes a
lot of dedication. There seems to be an increasing interest
in
An interesting and informative post. Why has co-operative
farming declined?
I expect that the same has happened here, while Hutterite
collective farms seem to be doing well. The Social
Democratic government in Saskatchewan encourage
co-operatives of all sorts including farming but I know that
at
