Definition of the Farm Crisis

Definition of the Farm Crisis

Posted by Tawan , Reader : 159 , 11:23:22
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THE FARM CRISIS

Before discussing National Food Policy, we must first look at the history of agricultural crisis which seems to reoccur every 10 years and before deciding on the cause of the current crisis which has been suggested by the United Nations and the World Bank as a production problem or is it a distribution problem as suggested by the Asian Development Bank.

We begin by the definition of what is a farmer using the works of William D. Hefferman, PhD, Department of Rural Sociology University of Missouri and Mary K. Hendrickson,, PhD. The study uses current agreed upon definitions and trends from the 1960’s to 2004.

Webster’s Dictionary defines a farm as _a piece of land (house, barns, etc.) on which crops and
animals are raised._ This definition puts the emphasis on land, but the inclusion of house and barn implies particular type of farming system a dispersed farming system.

•A dispersed farming system is used in the United States.
•A village farming system is used in Thailand.
•An industrialize farm is used in globalization starting in the 1970’s with de-emphasis on house and barn and emphasis on managing and operations but does not provide labor or capital major managerial decisions are made in the vertically and horizontally integrated cluster food system.
•Key note small farms are now classified as hobby farms, retirement farms and part-time farms and not included in the USDA farm system. These farms have no access to marketing data or no marketing contacts beyond their local market. Studies in Parishes in Louisiana State indicate without access to markets poverty is passed on from generation to generation family and cultural ties to the land reinforces the cycle.
•The dictionary further describes a farmer as one that operates and manages a farm. In the industrialized model the farmer does neither therefore a farm does not need a farmer.
•Large grain farmers receive government subsidies, middle grain producers receive none small grain producers supplement income with non-farm jobs.
•Economist sees the trends as inevitable with only government tweaks needed since the market forces are so strong they cannot be changed as the world’s top 100 economies are designed and centrally planned to produce for the advanced markets that can afford an inconvenience as price increases are not life threatening NGO’s are in charge of food handouts to keep the population alive while waiting for investment funds to cultivate the land.
•Sociologists sees the trends as manmade and thus can be changed reason being the economic system is a social institution and its structure is a social design. The success of privatized central planning takes over markets and democracy.

Implementation of policy requires further discussion of the current food clustering industries in the global food chain and current local market developments that each country faces.