Help Wanted

     The world's current system of agriculture is based in a more industrial way of going about things:  massive crop outputs, at low prices, using automated machines and factories to process it all. A select few companies, all of which have extensive buying power and economic market share, are the ones pulling the strings of this new system. These corporations set up huge farms that are dedicated to single crops, such as corn or wheat, and run them year round. To be able to protect all their crops, large amounts of fertilizer and chemicals are dumped onto them routinely, poisoning the very food that people everywhere consume. While these large entities dominate, the small-scale farmer can do nothing but watch.

Because of this system, the idea of small scale farming has been left in the dust. The ability for these farmers to be able to compete against these large companies is seemingly futile, as they could simply be out-competed with lower prices, bought out, or pressured at the legal level. The US government also provides bigger subsidies to bigger farms, putting them at further disadvantage.  As a result, millions of farmers at this smaller level have gone out of business over the past few decades, and changed the way agricultural products are supplied globally. Since the 1930's the amount of farmers in the US has decreased from 6.3 million to 2.2 million, and most of the time, these local farms have gone out due to inaffordability. The traditional way of rural life has been disappearing, and younger generations have no desire to continue family businesses with uncertain futures. There are many potential ways to go about solving the crisis at hand, but one place to begin is to seek to get more farmers to work.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438983/small-farms-big-business-family-farms-struggle-against-industrial-agriculture