The agricultural establishment tries to deny the existence of a crisis. They say the demise of independent family farms is a sign of technological and economic progress. The experts enjoin family farmers to prepare for a place in the corporate contract labor pool as if this were their only option. The census definition of a farm has even been changed so as to hide the precipitous decline in numbers of true farmers. In spite of the tinkering, the 1997 Census of Agriculture showed a 9 percent drop in those who consider farming their primary occupation between 1992 and 1997.The true American farm continues to disappear at an alarming rate.
Crisis is chronic in agriculture, but the current crisis is different.
This crisis is not just a matter of farms continuing to become larger and fewer, instead it is a matter of completing the transformation of agriculture into an industry. The hope for the future of farming is found in those farmers who are committed to rediscovering ways to farm that make sense, regardless of how it all turns out. Hope arises from their conviction that real farming is the only right thing to do and from their commitment to finding ways to continue doing it. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It's not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.