Farm Metrics

One way of trying to tell the difference between corporate, family, and play farms.

February 10, 2006

Agrian Amazement: Somehow the work ethic of farms and Rural America never ceases to amaze me.

Christmas on the Farm: Why working farms rarely have Christmas lights.

Confined Animal Feeding Operations: Looking at the pros and cons of mega-farming.

Contempt of Farms: Farmers are backwords maybe, but essential definately.

Day My Dad Shot the Dog: A story about life and death on the farm and my old dog.

Geographical Differences in Farms: Why geography and experience define so much of the farm scene.

If You Move Next to A Pig Farm: It's going to smell like pig manure sometimes, so don't complain.

Interest Groups of the Farmer: The conflicts and issues that define the contemporary farm.

Old Farmers: With so many farmers getting old, what is the future of our rural landscape.

Raw Milk: Raw milk is dangerous but shows a demand for more milk diversity.

What About 3% Milk?: A review of the different blends of milk, and why there is nothing between 2% and whole milk.

Farm Metrics

So what is a real farm, what is a play farm, and what is a mega-corporate agribusiness? In many ways the distictions are probably largely imaginary, as people farm in a variety of ways and live the agrian lifestyle by different means. Certianly there are a edifference between people who have a little garden and those who grow to feed many different people. Yet, where does the corner vender come into play? I propose a schema like this:

Play	Real
Small	"Hippie" farms and gardens	Family farms where people produce for others as a primary source of income—ie. open range cattle, limits on number of chemicals and technology used.
Big	"Organic" Farming—though we have to wonder how organic can a mega-farm be	Factory farms—feedlots, CAFOs, lots of chemicals

This schema varies in it's usefulness. In many cases small farms are connected to big farms for things like fodder, as are play farms. Yet, sometimes the work done on so-called play farms is still important in understanding our world. It's still one way to look at things.

Dairy Farm in Peru
From the Farming Series. Added 10/9/06.