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From your link: Our research found that family farms remain a key part of U.S. agriculture, making up 98% of all farms and providing 88% of production. Most fa

From your link: Our research found that family farms remain a key part of U.S. agriculture, making up 98% of all farms and providing 88% of production. Most farms are small family farms, and they operate almost half of U.S. farm land, while generating 21% of production. Midsize and large-scale family farms account for about 66% of production; and non-family farms represent the remaining 2.1% of farms and 12% of production. My point was that the use of "family farm" with no additional context (as in the article), is very difficult to interpret. You've linked a description that includes several types of farm under the label "family farm" but elided the "small" that reflects the statistics you quote.

jelliclesfarm 5y ago
I am not sure I understand your point. Please clarify. In the United States, the average size of a farm is around 400 acres.
- maxerickson 5y ago
  You wrote "Family farms operate about half of America’s farmland and they are responsible for about 21% of production". The resource you link identifies those as small family farms and gives much larger ownership and production numbers when larger farms that are also classified as family farms are included. The article linked for HN discussion uses the term "family farm", which we can see doesn't mean a lot in the US. Now you are discussing, probably, mean size, which the article you link makes clear doesn't mean a lot (because there are many many tiny, not very productive farms).
  - jelliclesfarm 5y ago
    ‘Farms’ can mean a lot of things and they are not all producing food calories. So what is your definition of ‘productivity’? A farm can be profitable not growing anything and collecting subsidies. Many ranchers have a small herd and use their ‘farmland/ranches’ for endangered mitigation purposes as there is a lot of federal dollars for conservation. There are ‘farms’ that have upto $250k/year tax write off for an alpaca farm.

jelliclesfarm 5y ago

I am not sure I understand your point. Please clarify. In the United States, the average size of a farm is around 400 acres.

maxerickson 5y ago
You wrote "Family farms operate about half of America’s farmland and they are responsible for about 21% of production". The resource you link identifies those as small family farms and gives much larger ownership and production numbers when larger farms that are also classified as family farms are included. The article linked for HN discussion uses the term "family farm", which we can see doesn't mean a lot in the US. Now you are discussing, probably, mean size, which the article you link makes clear doesn't mean a lot (because there are many many tiny, not very productive farms).
- jelliclesfarm 5y ago
  ‘Farms’ can mean a lot of things and they are not all producing food calories. So what is your definition of ‘productivity’? A farm can be profitable not growing anything and collecting subsidies. Many ranchers have a small herd and use their ‘farmland/ranches’ for endangered mitigation purposes as there is a lot of federal dollars for conservation. There are ‘farms’ that have upto $250k/year tax write off for an alpaca farm.