Small Farms

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=ST164484-0-4374&artno=0000110555&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=What%20makes%20a%20small%20farm%20successful&title=What%20Makes%20a%20Small%20Farm%20Successful%3F&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N

    When a "small farm" is brought up, I usually think of a farm that treats its animals humanely and doesn't poison it's crops with pesticides.  Also, when I think of small farms, I don't think of a producer of food for a lot of people, like the way agribusiness feeds millions. Even though it seems like small farms are outnumbered by the larger ones, small farms make up 94% of all farms and 73% all farm assets.  However, another question to ask is how sustainable can these farms be if they only account for 38% of output despite having the majority of farms.

    What is good is that the article suggests that these small farms have the capability to adapt to economic demands and become larger producers. They can achieve this through management practices like planning and control of the marketing and financing of the business. The implication of this is that we have a small farm making adjustments that don't even involve the production of crops and animals to improve efficiency but most likely keeping their humane practices that the big businesses lack. This is the "light at the end of the tunnel" for our farming industry so we can take back the industry from the huge corporations that make huge profits off the backs of the small farmers.