Wikipedia defines a family farm as, "a farm owned and operated by a family, and passed down from generation to generation."
Not quite what you were thinking? What about the below image, provided on the USDA website?
Still not what quite what you had in mind? While Wikipedia and Google are great, we'd like to hear more from those of us in the industry.
Do you consider your farm to be a family farm? If so, why? Has your definition of a family farm changed at all while you've been in the industry? What image would fit your definition of a family farm?
We look forward to your feedback!
Below is an excerpt from Dairy Herd Management's editorial, "What Defines a Family Farm?"
On the surface, labels are convenient. They organize items, people, even farms into clean, tidy categories, or so the theory goes.
The problem is the definitions are not always equally clean and tidy. It’s well defined and understood what a teacher or a pilot does, because the public readily crosses paths with those professions. But today, the public no longer crosses paths with folks in agriculture. Consequently, they have little idea beyond story books what a farmer or rancher does, much less what constitutes a “family farm”.
Today, the labels factory farm and family farm are tossed about freely and easily, yet with conviction. They are used to pass judgment about what is wholesome, fair and right.
But, what constitutes a family farm? The definition literally depends on the individual—even amongst those of us in agriculture.
Often people point to the farmer’s market vendor as a family farm. In reality, that may or may not be the case, depending on the market and where the vendor gets his or her products. Just as often any farm producing organic or natural goods is granted the same consideration, even though a growing number of those are large corporations.
That raises another reasonable point, for tax purposes and any number of other reasons farms and ranches, regardless of size, organize as corporations, limited liability partnerships or other business structures. Are they family farms?
Is a farmer who raises hogs on contract for another producer on a farmstead that’s been in his family for four generations a family farm? Is a second-generation farm now owned by four siblings, but who rent the land out still a family farm?
Then there’s the size issue; at what point is a farm too big to be a family farm? I would argue that size doesn’t matter.
The 20-cow dairy involving a husband, wife and three kids is a family farm. But so is the dairy owned by two adult brothers who milk 3,000 cows, which involves their families and 15 employees.
Read the full article on dairyherd.com.
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