Also in attendance were the Honorable Eva Clayton, Congresswoman from North Carolina, along with representatives of minority farmers. What the Commission heard and read confirms the appropriateness of Secretary Glickman's action in appointing this Commission and in charging it with looking into the status of America's small farm operations and making recommendations on needed changes. But the trends in the size distribution of farms, and even more, the trends in the structure of agribusiness, are troubling. All of these farms had a negative rate of return on equity. And some are.
Many factors contribute to the disparities in economic performance.
Hence, the cost of inputs has increased much faster than the prices for products. There is a belief that research and technological developments, in general, have not been as size-neutral as postulated, but may have favored large volume production units. Government payment formulas have favored large production units. Only two sales classes had significant farm earnings as a share of average household income. Only 56.5 percent of those farm operations had a favorable financial situation.