New USDA Census Raises Concern about Family Farm Loss, Increased Consolidation
New USDA agricultural census data paint a troubling picture of the continued loss of American family farms and the ongoing consolidation of American agriculture. According to the report, the total number of farms decreased from 2.20 million in 2007 to 1.9 million in 2022. A significant portion of the farms that have ceased operations had sales between $100,000 and $500,000 or sales less than $10,000.
Long the backbone of rural America, small and mid-scale farmers find themselves increasingly marginalized in an environment dominated by large farms supplying large corporations. The number of farms with sales greater than $5 million has nearly doubled since 2017, and large farms over 500 acres now comprise over 82.5 percent of American farmland. In 2022, 78.3 percent of total production value generated was from farms with at least $1 million in sales, even though those farms only represent 5.5 percent of operations.
Misguided government policies forcing farmers to “get big or get out” as well as the rising political and economic power of Big Agribusiness have pushed small farmers into an economic crisis. Many small-scale farms operate on thin profit margins of less than 10 percent, which leaves them vulnerable to unexpected events like poor yields, weather disturbances, pests, or shifts in market demand. Consequently, most small farming families rely on non-farming jobs to sustain their operations, while the median household operating large-scale farms earned $505,833 in 2022, most of which came from farming. Many small farmers are trapped under a crushing amount of debt, and total farm sector debt is expected to increase 5.2 percent to a record $547.6 billion this year. In recent years, a growing number of small farmers have been forced to declare bankruptcy.
While small farmers are suffering, mega farms are raking in handouts from the federal government to prop up their operations. Government data reveal that federal farm support initiatives, such as crop insurance and payment programs and land conservation programs, overwhelmingly benefit the largest farms. The top 1 percent of producers have collected 27 percent of taxpayer-funded subsidies between 1995 and 2021, while the top 10 percent of producers received more than 79 percent of total subsidies. According to USDA data, less than a quarter of small farms with revenues under $100,000 receive federal subsidies, while 69 percent of larger farms do.
The consolidation and corporate takeover of American farming not only undermines the economic viability of small- and mid-scale producers but also threatens rural communities, consumers, workers, and the environment. As large corporations exert greater control over the food supply chain, they wield considerable political and economic influence at the expense of smaller operators. This allows them to bend legislation and regulations in their favor and avoid accountability for their irresponsible practices.
As a result, large farms and the corporations they supply are among the largest polluters in America; offer fewer employment opportunities and poorer working conditions than smaller operations; provide lower quality, less safe, and less nutritious food to consumers; and have “hollowed out” once-thriving rural communities.