Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Both commercial & subsistence famers struggle with
generating enough income (money or food) to farm
• Challenges for Commercial Farmers
– Victims of their own success
– Efficient production of large quantities leads to lower prices
– Prices kept low for consumers AND to generate income for
large corporations (agribusiness)
– Overproduction in Commercial Farming
• Surplus due to new seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, machinery,
management practices, etc.
• Dairy Farming in U.S. – yield per cow has tripled since 1960
• Supply has increased but demand mostly constant
– Market saturation (abundance, consumption not changing based on price)
– Low population growth
• Fast food restaurants – created demand for standardized &
homogenized meat products
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Challenges for Commercial Farmers
– Farming & transportation advancements have given large
farms/businesses advantages over smaller farms
– 3 U.S. government policies to address excess capacity
(outlined in Farm Bills, passed every 5 years):
1) Encourage farmers to not produce crops in excess supply (plant
fallow crops like hay and clover to restore soil)
2) Pay farmers subsidies when commodity prices are lower than
government target price
3) Buy surplus and sell or donate to foreign governments
– Food stamps provided to low income Americans facilitate buying of food
• The U.S. spends billions of dollars annually on farm subsidies
• Europe’s farming is more subsidized (but higher food prices)
– Desire to maintain agriculture in EU member states
– Preserve rural village life and some traditional farming practices
– More committed to promoting sustainable/organic agriculture
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Challenges for Commercial Farmers
– Sustainable Agriculture
• Meant to preserve & enhance environmental quality
• Results in lower revenues; costs to farmers may be lower
• Organic is 1 type of sustainable agriculture though some larger
organic farms rely on heavy use of fossil fuels (not considered
sustainable)
– US Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets organic standards
– No chemicals used, free range animals, no GMOs, limited to no
antibiotic use
– Most organic farms grow fruit and/or vegetables; Some organic eggs,
milk, meat; Grain farms are rarely organic
– Organic farming is growing in U.S., but still lags far behind non-organic
– Big businesses have NOT adopted many organic practices in crop or
meat production today
– More organic agriculture in Europe, Australia
– Organic products are typically more expensive to purchase – more
time and money to produce (not as efficient)
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Challenges for Commercial Farmers
– Sustainable Agriculture
• 3 practices that distinguish sustainable agriculture from conventional:
1)
2)
Sensitive Land Management
» Reduce erosion, preserve soil quality (minimum soil disturbance, less
compaction, better water-holding, more organic matter & earthworms)
» Less investment in machinery required
» Ridge tillage – planting on ridge tops formed during cultivation or harvest
(plant on same ridges in same rows each year)
» Similar yields to conventional but more labor-intensive
Limited Use of Chemicals
» Genetically modified seeds have been engineered to be resistant to
herbicides & pesticides in conventional agriculture
» Chemical use affects soil and water quality, affects food safety
» 5 “dirtiest fruits” – apples, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, grapes
according to USDA
» 5 cleanest – avocados, corn, pineapples, cabbage, sweet peas
» Limit use of chemicals (or none in organic) – more time/labor
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Challenges for Commercial Farmers
– Sustainable Agriculture
• 3 practices that distinguish sustainable agriculture from conventional:
3)
True integration of crops & livestock
» Not confined, more free-range
» Allow to graze and consume crops on fields (not feedlots)
» In mixed crop & livestock, many farmers either choose crops or livestock
and buy/sell with one another
» Government policy & technology encouraged specialization
» Sustainable attempts to return to traditional mixed practices
» Complexities:
• Must balance/correctly distribute livestock because prolonged
exposure can permanently damage vegetation & crop yield
• Free range vs. confined – more free leads to higher soil fertility &
less soil/water pollution but can increase smell & reduce cropland
• Extreme weather – droughts can impact herd size & crop yield
• Flexible feeding – feed costs are highest variable cost; must monitor
carefully
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Challenges for Subsistence Farmers
– Rapid population growth in LDCs – rapid increase in food
needed
– International trade approach – tends to focus on export rather
than producing food for direct consumption or domestic
consumption
– Subsistence Farming & Population Growth
• Malthus…
• LDCs today – rapid growth (Stage 2), rapid urbanization
• Ester Boserup – Boserup Thesis states that population growth compels
subsistence farmers to provide enough food
• 2 ways to increase food supply:
– Shorter fallow time (intensification of farmland)
» Forest fallow (20 years) up to annual cropping (few months fallow) and
double cropping (never fallow)
» Shifting cultivation vs. intensive subsistence
– New farming methods (better tools, more weeding/manure/irrigation/terrace
» More labor due to pop. Growth; more yield per land area
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Challenges for Subsistence Farmers
– Subsistence Farming & International Trade
• Exchange food/cash crops for high-yield seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, and
machinery
• Difficult to get loans for high costs of modern farming
• Dual economies – much land and energy dedicated to export crops
rather than food for country’s population
• Must import food to eat (grain)
• Example of Kenya – gender role divisions
– Men work in distant cities for wages (do not share with family)
– Women grow subsistence to feed family, make handicrafts for income
– Drug Crops
• Largely a product of a few LDCs (especially Latin America & Asia)
– Marijuana – cultivated around world, much of U.S. supply grown in Mexico
(drug cartels, violence, trafficking)
– Cocaine – coca leaf; Bolivia, Colombia, Peru (processing by Colombian cartels)
– Heroin – opium poppy
» Golden Triangle of SE Asia (Myanmar/Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam)
» Golden Crescent of SW Asia (Afghanistan & Pakistan)
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Strategies to Increase Food Supply
– 4 strategies:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Expand land area used for agriculture
Increase productivity of land now used
Identify new food sources
Increase exports from surplus countries to other countries
① Expand Agricultural Land
• Main form used to increase food supply historically
• Industrial Revolution – increase in population, people moved to cities
OR to farm uninhabited land on the frontiers of western N. America,
Pampas of Argentina, central Russia
• 1950 – population increasing faster than farmed land
• Only 11% of Earth’s land cultivated (expanding in Africa, declining but
could expand in N. America)
• Farmland abandoned in areas due to lack of water
• Desertification – spread of desert-like conditions in semi-arid regions
due to over-farming, over-grazing, tree cutting, rapid population
growth; major problem in the Sahel of Africa (just south of Sahara)
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Strategies to Increase Food Supply
① Expand Agricultural Land
• Desertification estimated to result in loss of 70 million acres annually
• Excessive water also a problem (over-irrigation)
– Land may become water-logged if not drained properly (humid areas of Asia &
South America)
– In dry regions, over-irrigation can lead to the buildup of salt in the soil (soilsalinization) which damages crops
» Middle East (Mesopotamia)
• Urbanization reduces much prime agricultural land
② Higher Productivity
• Today, most increase of food supply is occurring due to technological
advancements (modern practices, transportation, etc.)
• Biotechnology – exploitation of biological processes & organisms for
food, medicine, industrial, & other purposes
• Green Revolution (beginning in 1950s & 60s)
– High yield seeds
– Expanded use of fertilizers & machinery
– Benefitted primarily LDCs in E, S, & SE Asia and Latin America
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Strategies to Increase Food Supply
② Higher Productivity
• Green Revolution (beginning in 1950s & 60s)
– 1950s – “miracle” wheat; higher yields, shorter, stiffer, more hardy grain; less
sensitive to drought, faster maturity, responded better to fertilizers
– 1960s – “miracle” rice; hardier, higher yields
– High yield corn & soybean more recently
– Rapid diffusion of practices (India’s wheat production doubled in just 5 years in
1960s/70s
– Machinery & technology (and therefore money/loans) required to take full
advantage of new seeds
– 3 major fertilizer components: nitrogen, phosphorus, & potassium (potash)
– High costs, traditional cultural practices, & government policies or instability
can prevent adoption of Green Revolution (Africa)
• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
–
–
–
–
More than just selective breeding
Includes altering of genetic composition of an organism
Pros – higher yields, potentially greater nutrition, resistant to pests, taste
Cons – health concerns, labeling (for Europe, possibly U.S.), increased
dependence on U.S./MDCs for seeds, unable to re-use seeds, higher costs
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Strategies to Increase Food Supply
③ Identify New Food Sources
• Cultivate Oceans
– Large, but harder to “tame”
– Increase in fishing 1960 – 2012 (27 million tons to 132 million tons)
– Overfishing has led to decline in fish populations (tuna, swordfish, cod, etc.)
» North Atlantic Ocean (Europe, U.S./Canada) & Pacific (Japan, Peru,
U.S./Canada)
» Peru nationalized fishing to protect anchovy population
– Exclusive economic zone (UNCLOS) of 200 miles for fishing
– Arctic Ocean & Mediterranean Sea
– Grand Banks – New England & SE Canada
– Gulf of Mexico (overfishing & pollution from Mississippi River runoff &
farms/industries/cities)
– Aquaculture
» Cultivation of seafood or fresh water organisms under controlled
conditions for commercial purposes; essentially “fish-farming”
» Sometimes fed to livestock like pigs; most raised for human consumption
» Raising of non-native species like Asian Carp in Arkansas – many escaped
into waterways and have upset the ecosystem across MS River Valley
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Strategies to Increase Food Supply
③ Identify New Food Sources
• Develop Higher-protein Cereals
– Hybrid seeds or genetically-modified to fortify cereal grains with added
protein, minerals, & nutrients
– Achieves better nutrition without changing eating habits
– Difficult in LDCs where they eat the crops they grow themselves (higher-cost
seeds, laws protect corporations from allowing farmers to reuse seeds from
year to year)
• Improve Palatability (Taste/Attractiveness) of Rarely Consumed Foods
– Encourage consumption of foods avoided for religious/social/cultural/taste
reasons
– Soybeans in North America – used mainly as hidden ingredient or to feed
animals; sometimes in burgers, hot dogs, oil
– Soybeans in Asia – consumed more widely; even used as a soft drink
– Krill (small crustaceans in oceans)
» Overfishing of whale has increased krill population
» USSR harvested krill for livestock feed
» Krill tastes bad to humans; improve taste & it could increase food supply
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Strategies to Increase Food Supply
④ Increase Exports
• Top 3 export grains:
1)
2)
3)
Wheat (Canada, U.S., Australia, France, Russia are top 5 exporters)
Corn/maize (U.S., Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, France)
Rice (India, Thailand, U.S., Pakistan, Vietnam)
• In 1980, North America was only net exporter of grain
• Now, South Asia & SE Asia are also net exporters (Green Revolution
• Japan is leading importer of grain as a country; Middle East is leading
importing region
• Food Security
– State of having reliable access to sufficient, nutritious food
• Undernourishment – lack of calories due to lack of food
• Malnourishment – lack of specific nutrients
– Green Revolution helped many LDCs, especially in Asia & Latin
America became more self-sufficient with grain/food (but NOT
Africa)
Key Issue #4: Why Do Farmers Face
Economic Difficulties?
• Food Security
– Still almost half of the 795 million undernourished worldwide
live in South or East Asia (India, China)
– Africa faces a food crisis, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa
(population growth more rapid than food production)
• 1961-2003 – grain production has tripled, population has increased 6x
(about 1/3 of Africans undernourished)
• Famine threat is particularly severe in Horn of Africa and the Sahel
– Sahel – semiarid band of dry grassland along southern border of Sahara
– Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad
– Rapid population growth has led to overgrazing of land, clearing of sparse
trees, overfarming, reduction of fallow time
– Human activities has created soil exhaustion & desertification
– Food prices globally have increased dramatically 2006-2014
•
•
•
•
Poor weather for crop growing in North America, South Pacific
High demand in India & China
Little increase in productivity (few recent technological breakthroughs)
Use of crops as biofuels instead of food (especially in Latin America)