tomato information for the tropics
karenm@vt.edu
Thu, 10 Jun 1999 11:32:23 -0400
Dear Sanetters,
The following was forwarded to me. Perhaps some of you will have some
responses for George. It's scary to think that someone would view the
loss of small farms and the subsequent impact on communities the way
described.
k.
-----Original Message-----
From: George Morse [mailto:gmorse@dept.agecon.umn.edu]
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 1999 9:52 AM
To: cenet@ag.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Heresy -Agr Crisis
CENET is the listserv of the Community Economics Network.
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To: Ceneters
From: George Morse
Re: Help Needed to Debunk Heresy on Agr Crisis Impacts
A "friend" of mine - no, make that acquaintance but not in this
department or college- has hypothesized that the "agr crisis" and the
failure of some small farms probably is good for small towns. While
she recognizes that the loss of a farm by a fourth generation owner is
personally devastating, she argues that it is good for rural
communities. Her heretical reasoning runs as follows:
1) When a small farm fails, the land will remain in agriculture
(unless pulled out by urbanization). She assumes that the land will
be bought by a larger farmer. So the only negative impacts on the
community come if larger farms buy fewer inputs locally and spend less
on consumption goods locally. (Call locally a 20 mile radius of the
farm)
2) On the input size, farm size appears to be related negatively to
the percent spent locally but unrelated to the total amount spent per
acre locally (Chism and Levins, Minnesota Agr. Econ., 676-1-4, 1994).
So there should be few or no negative intermediate spin-offs.
3) Consumer spending is shifting away from small towns toward trade
centers by all types of consumers. The small farm families already
spend little of their consumer dollar locally and much of what they do
spend goes to mass-merchandisers who drain the profits from the
locale. So the loss of small farmers has little negative consumer
spending affect locally.
While 1-3 only hold things constant, her heresy gets worse.
4) Especially in livestock, the loss of small farmers and replacement
by large ones leads to enough greater efficiency that net income from
the land increases (over long run). Further, she suggests that a
little spin of the treadmill is good for encouraging the adoption of
new farming practices. Higher net income (while temporary gains
from the treadmill) leads to marginally more local spending and
higher tax collections.
5) With the extremely tight labor markets, she argues that the labor
released from small farms can be put to better use (at higher wages)
outside farming. She argues that even before the farm crisis, 75% of
the small farmers claimed their primary occupation is outside of
farming. So what happens in the rural non-farm economy is equally as
important to small farmers as what happens on the farm. Due to the
tight labor market it is often hard for small businesses in rural
areas to find good help. A little additional labor could provide
greater stability and growth for a lot of non-farm businesses and thus
benefit many other small farmers (who need to earn enough off the
farm to keep their small farms alive.)
So in the end, she concludes that the failure of a some small farms is
good for rural areas!!!
An extension educator has asked me to help "debunk this heresy."
Not really being familiar with much of this literature but realizing
that if it isn't heresy it ought to be, I'd appreciate any quick
help you can provide.
George W. Morse
Department of Applied Economics
University of Minnesota
1994 Buford Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108-6040
phone:612/625-9769
fax:612/625-2729
email:gmorse@dept.agecon.umn.edu
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