Re: Role of Factory Farms

ec Roberts (ecr@ivic.net)
Mon, 22 Sep 97 18:13:06 PDT

Just for the fun of it, I think I'll throw in a kink in your
thinking. I worked for a corporate farm in Washington
State. We had 16,000 acres on the "baby" farm, 35,000
acres on the "large" farm and 60,000 acres on the "giant."
It was all under center pivot irrigation and pumped water
from the Snake and Columbia Rivers. The "plot" for which I
was responsible was only 880 acres, under irrigation.
The 1200 acres in the same area was not my problem.
The baby farm was a corporation of 3 families. The large and
giant farms were coporations of one family each.
Quite the family farm, eh?
Bob
ec Roberts
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----------
> From: "D.B.Sullivan" <Buffalob@mhtc.net>
> To: <Ecol-Econ@csf.colorado.edu>
> Subject: Family Farm Stats
> USDA
>
> June 1, 1997 Farm Stats for US by Economic Sales Class
>
> Gross sale < $10,000 50.2 % of Farms 10.7% of land Average Size
> 60- 172 acres
> Gross Sales < $100,000 32.9 % of Farms 35.0% of land Average Size
> 268-760 acres
> Gross Sales > $100,000 16.9 % of Farms 54.3% of land Average Size
> 1170- 2726 acres
>
> Total Average size of Farm Size : 470 acres
> In other words 83.1 % of farms and 45.7 % land is controlled by the fam=
ily
> unit.
> 16.9 % of farms & 54.3 % land is corporate farmin=
g
> Assuming you use gross sales as your model
>
> The old definition of a family farm was ; How much land a farmer could
> plow in a day ? Technology has changed that !!!!
> ..
>
>
> On the topic of corporate farms, I'm curious as to exactly how
> "corporate" farms are defined, and how that definition may differ from =
the
> typical impression of non-family oriented, mass production farming. =

>
>
> ----------
> to Melissa Anne Stine <mstine@wam.umd.edu>
> To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu
> Subject: Re: Role of Factory Farms
>
> You wrote:
> On the topic of corporate farms, I'm curious as to exactly how
> "corporate" farms are defined, and how that definition may differ from =
the
> typical impression of non-family oriented, mass production farming. =

> <snip>
>
>

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