Kate Swift
Jennifer Tabler
Grant Taillieu
Daljit Randhawa
September 29, 2003
Agriculture 1000
Group 7
Summary of Presentation #1
Pg 159-181
DALJIT:
Industrial Agriculture to Present
•
In the developed countries the pace of agriculture change
picks
up dramatically.
•
New types of equipment and agriculture chemicals are
introduced.
•
Tractors and chemical fertilizers are used far more.
•
Land concentration and farm labor reduction occur at a much
faster pace.
Major Trends:
•
Use of chemical fertilizers surge in the US and Soviet Union.
•
Tractors are for the first time typical fixtures of European
farms, as are power
tillers on Japanese Farms.
Technical Change: Mechanization
•
In the United States, the total number of farm machines goes
from
300,000 in 1940
to 3,000,000 in 1960.
•
Especially significant is the mechanized harvesting of crops
previously picked or
dug by hand.
•
Mechanization of sugar beet harvesting- cutting the tops and
loading the roots
takes place between 1944 and 1957.
•
Tomato harvesters are adopted during the 1960’s after breeders
provide custom made
varieties whose fruit ripens all at the same time.
•
Lettuce, grapes and tree fruit harvesting are partly
mechanized
in the 1970’s and
early 80’s.
•
Post WW2, the average number of tractors per farm increases
from
one to about one
and a half by 1965.
•
Tractors, once used only for tillage are increasingly used in
spraying, dusting,
to pull harvest machinery, and other operations that extend their use
over the entire season.
•
There is a huge increase in the numbers of tractors used in
Europe, where the
total numbers jump from around 1.8 million to over 4.5 million between
1955 and 1968.
•
The change in the Soviet Union followed the recovery of the
war.
The change was
not as dramatic, as many farms remained labor intensive.
•
Japan used power tillers (walk behind tractor). Only a
handful
were found before
1950, but grew to 2.5 million in 1965.
KATE:
Sent separately
GRANT:
Land Concentration and the Farm Work Force:
•
At the start, the pace of land concentration and farm size
vary
greatly among the
developed countries.
•
Large farms better utilize new machinery, they buy at quantity
discounts, manage
more competitively, and bring in higher incomes.
•
The # of US farms peaked at nearly 7 million in 1930, and
continued to decline
gradually until there are only 2.7 million in 1978. This trend will
eventually reverse in the 1980’s.
•
Because of less labor requirements, better machinery,
herbicides
and factory-style
livestock operations, the farm work force declined sharply throughout
the 20th century. (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand)
•
Higher yields arose from the greater use of chemical
fertilizers.
•
Japanese agriculture remained labor intensive. (they are
family
farms)
Is Land Concentration Inevitable?
•
Land Concentration is the increase in farm size.
•
The problem when talking about land concentration is the lack
of
a good definition
for a large farm. Orchards need much less land than a cattle ranch,
and a large farm in Japan may be considered quite small in North
America.
•
Land concentration is opposed today for the fear of its
effects
on rural culture
(as farms grow, the # of workers for a given area decreases, thus rural
towns start to lose business and people).
•
Land Concentration is partly attributable to economics of
scale.
However, studies
have shown that the largest of farms are well beyond any optimum (they
have passed the point where a larger farm means more efficiency and a
higher return).
•
Small farms however, are not in danger of dying out. The
trend
of land
concentration in Western Europe is very slow, and almost negligible in
Japan. The farms that are in the greatest danger are those that used
high amounts of borrowed money in order to expand. Those farms that
are more conservatively managed are surviving.
•
Many small farms have found specialized markets that larger
farms
can’t exploit.
These include specialty crops and unusual livestock. (Not always wise
as we can see with the deer and elk farmers as of late).
•
The drawback of this niche seeking is not always wise. (e.g.
the
large firm
takeover of the mushroom culture in the US from those small operations)
•
For most farmers, smallholder survival is sought in three
ways;
cooperation,
off-farm employment, and subsidization.
JENNIFER:
Cooperation
•
Can offer a reliable economy to small organizations.
•
May work best in the way of offering loans through credit
unions
and cooperative
banks
•
Cooperatives tend to operate large organizations such as
fertilizer plants, rural
electrification networks, packing plants, slaughter houses and dairies.
They are
very successful in operating and owning these organizations which is
shown by the large transactions.
•
They were mostly applied in Denmark, Yugoslavia and Israel,
much
more so than in
the United States.
Cooperation in Denmark
•
Was the primary practice of agriculture
•
Had a balanced economy between farm and non-farm profits
•
Gave the small and medium farms a chance by improving their
profit margins. An
example of this was the development and operation of creameries which
earned the reputation of having a very high quality.
Cooperation in Yugoslavia-socialist nation
•
Postwar goal was to expand the collective farming
•
Cooperatives operated under state planning and in turn
supported
small private farms.
•
They felt it was important to support private farms as there
was
a persistence
of fragmented private holdings. With their cooperation and
the importance of machinery cooperatives, there was a positive outcome.
•
Cooperative and collective features were still under control
of
the state.
Cooperation in Israel
•
There was an equal understanding of the need for cooperation
between farmers.
•
A major contributing factor in combining their farming efforts
was the growing
popularity of tractors.
•
Despite this, their average holdings experienced very little
growth
•
With this came the interest of the children seeking out
opportunities outside of
farming.
Off Farm Employment
•
Very significant social development
•
Part time farming incomes are still much lower than full time
farming
•
The expansion of Industrial employment (off farm employment)
and
government
policies are beneficial to part time farming.
•
A good example of this is in Japan.
Off Farm Employment in Japan-strong system of cooperatives
•
There is a large number of part time farms and farmers in the
total agriculture
land use and production compared to the small size of almost all farms
•
This is due to the dense settlement and large population that
combines with rapid
economic growth making many opportunities for off farm employment
•
These off farm workers will send back some income to the farms
Off Farm Employment in the United States
•
Is a necessity as statistics show that two thirds of the farms
have gross sales of
less than $20,000. This includes the fact that these are part time
farms where the household contributes 200 or more workdays a year to
off farm work.
•
Direct marketing to consumers has the same effect as working
off
the farms in
keeping these small farms operating.
Subsidization
•
Price supports, protection from import competition and direct
payments help to
keep small farms in business and slow down land concentration
•
Enables small farms to be very productive by meeting marginal
costs of inputs and
this encourages their use where they might not otherwise be economic
•
The European Economic Community’s (EEC) Common Agriculture
Policy’s (CAP) goals
are: to slow down concentration to preserve rural communities and to
ease the concentration towards individual small holders (small farmers)
•
This proves to be beneficial
Corporate Farms vs. Family Farms (in the United States)
•
Corporate farms are farms owned by corporations
•
Corporates help boost sales and have a great influence over
family farming
•
This is due to the fact that family farms are losing their
independence of action
to creditors and contracting firms because banks are reluctant to lend
money to small producers
•
Small farming is considered a risky business as management is
complex and the
risks of long term decisions are high, so there is a need for corporate
farms to step in.