Good News! America Fertile Ground for Small Farms
See How To Use 28 Winter Farm Market Vegetables and Fruits.
To what no doubt was great shock to the Department of Agriculture, the number of small farms in America went up from 2002 to 2007.
This is great news for local, sustainable agriculture and let's hope for lots more of the same. But most of these farms are not yet self-supporting, and their owners have day (or night) jobs to stay afloat.
According to Andrew Martin in Sunday's New York Times, 40% of U.S. farms (900,000 of 2.2 million) earn less than $2,500 a year in sales. Agribusiness predominates: 5% of farms (125,000) account for 75% of production. But what a great sign this is of good things to come. Let's hope the USDA wises up and puts some support behind this welcome trend.
All this comes from the USDA's 2007 Census on Agriculture. Check out the nifty slide show link on that page for a quick overview of the facts and figures.
Marion Nestle
Noted author Marion Nestle is a Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. She is the author of What to Eat.read full bio.
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What To Eat: Expert advice on food, health and nutrition issues that are in the news.
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