Family Farmer: Who Decides?

I Kiss a Family Farmer. 

Some of the land he farms has been in his family for almost one hundred years.  He does all the work himself at this point in his farming career, except for harvest time when two or three other folks have to help.  Often those are even all family members, including his town dwelling wife at times.  (I can pack a pretty tight module if I do say so myself.)  But lately I have come to realize that many of those out there who are critics of farming think that the Farmer I Kiss should not be allowed to be called a Family Farmer.  They think that he has too much land, too many tractors, a barn that is too big...they contend that he is "Big Ag" or "Corporate Farming."

My View of the Perfect Family Farmer

This leads me to look for a definition of any Family Business.  There is a family here in town who own my three favorite Mexican Food restaurants.  Because they own three restaurants does that disqualify them from being a Family Business?  Are you only allowed to own one restaurant to be a Family Business?   Can that family hire employees to bus tables or do only family members have to bus tables?   If the Farmer I Kiss only owned one tractor, would the critics then let him be called a Family Farmer?  Sounds a bit bizzare when you put it in these terms, but often bizzare ideas are quicker to float around the social media world than truths and facts. 

Is this tractor too big for a Family Farmer?

I recently saw a comment on a blog post which reflected the opinion that most farmland is being farmed by corporations.  I sited the EPA's numbers that show 98% of farmers are Family Farmers.  The commenter promptly said that may be so, but those 98% only farm 2% of the land.  He had no information to site for his numbers, which is pretty common in social media.  Just make something up and throw it out there.  Other facts from USDA show that his comment is completely incorrect.

Do you have to hand harvest to be a Family Farmer?

I have been around farmers and farming since the day I was born.  I have yet to personally know some huge, faceless corporation that farms.  Where are they?  Who are they?  So I started looking at all the farmers I know more closely.  I do in fact know some corporate farmers.  I won't use names, because it's just plain rude to start talking about folks on the internet without their permission.  But for example, lets take a dad and his two sons who farm about 2500 acres with lots of tractors and plows.  They have their operation set up as an LLC, Limited Liability Corporation.  This makes very good business sense, and it provides some protection of their home and personal assets from lawsuits against the LLC.  Now, the dad and his sons do 98% of all the work.  They drive all the tractors, plant all the crops, harvest all the acres (except maybe an extra person or two to build modules at harvest, which most likely is a nephew or the Farmer Wife they Kiss.)  But, since the dad and the two sons operate under "Dad & Sons Farms, LLC," do they no longer get to be considered as Family Farmers?  Are they now a huge, faceless corporation?  No.

It seems to me that a lot of this labeling or refusing to allow a label may be a reflection of the class warfare being waged in our country.  There are those who want to put a limit on what is ok to have or have not.  If Farmer One has too many acres, he is too big, he can't be considered a hard working Family Farmer.  Is it only Farmer Two, who has a five acre garden he handpicks himself, who can be considered a hard working Family Farmer?  Is it really too many acres, or is it that Farmer One apperas to be more successful than Farmer Two?  I hope our country is not going toward a time when the American Dream of running a successful Family Business of any size will be looked upon as a bad thing. 

I have decided to create the definition of a Family Farmer that will apply to this blog site for the rest of the blog's life:  Family Farmer  (noun)  person or persons growing food, fiber and fuel who are actively engaged in the day to day operation and process of growing a crop regardless of the size of the operation or processes.  The person or persons must care for and about the land they use to grow said food, fiber and fuel.  They must go about the growing process in a responsible manner following strict guidelines set forth by the UDSA, FDA and EPA.

I Kiss a Family Farmer.

Follow our adventure on https://www.facebook.com/KissedAFarmer

It will be a circus without the safety net: Crop Insurance under attack

Family Farmer: The Next Generation

The Farmer I Kissed is one of my clients.  You see, I am not only a farmer kisser, I am a crop insurance agent.  I have been in this business for 20 years.  In all those years, 2011 was the most hectic time I have ever experienced.  100% of my clients had losses, and most of those were total losses.  The majority of my clients are dryland cotton farmers, just like Daniel and I.  The seed that they planted in June finally sprouted in September. Until then, they were lying in dry, dry dirt, in the same condition as when they came out of the bag.  With that said, let's visit the Fortune Teller at the circus and imagine yourself in this situation:  Through no fault of your own, you will receive no income for 12 months.  None. 

That's what it was like to be a farmer in Texas last year.  The tight rope broke, and there was no cotton to harvest, no cotton to take to the gin, no cotton to sell to the merchant.  Enter, the safety net:  Crop Insurance.  Crop insurance is not like you homeowners insurance, where you have a small deductible, say $2500, and if your house burns down, insurance pays for the rest to build you a new house.  The deductibles on a crop insurance policy can be up to 50% of your crop.  That means, in 2011, you would collect 50% of an average crop through an insurance indemnity.  So the tight rope broke, you landed in the safety net, instead of zero you have 50% of your income and at least you are not selling the farm. But you have half your income to meet 100% of your obligations AND somewhere in there you have to prepare for next year's crop.  Land leases don't stop just because there was no crop produced.  Equipment payments don't stop.  The land still has to be cared for, to keep it from eroding, blowing or growing up in weeds.  Thank goodness for that safety net!  It's the only reason the majority of Texas farmers are getting to plant cotton this year!

Family Farmer: The Next Generation

What would happen, if that safety net were taken away?  The land will still be there, food and fiber must still be produced (or we will be hungry and naked pretty fast!) Who could start producing our food and fiber on that land without a safety net?  It wouldn't other family farmers, like the one I kiss.  They would be out of business too.  It would be huge management firms, overseas investors, financial institutions.  We don't want to be in the stands watching that three ring circus.  We MUST keep our family farmers on the land.  Everyone needs to understand, there are many different kinds and sizes of family farmers.  But the key is that they ARE "family farmers" and care deeply about the land and about what they produce for the kitchen tables across this country.

Family Farmer: The Next Generation

Crop insurance is a public-private cooperation.  Private companies deliver a product overseen and regulated by the USDA's Risk Management Agency.  It is a highly successful program that has been duplicated in other countries around the world.  Keeping our food and fiber supply stable and affordable is a matter of national security, so the government aspect is essential.  But right now, an assault is being carried out against the safety net by some of those in Congress that don't realize what would happen if family farmers gave way to the circus.  An assault on the farm safety net is a direct assault on the family farmer.  If amendments being presented are passed, the cuts and limits to crop insurance would cut the wires, leaving the family farmer walking the tight rope without a safety net.  When that happens and we see another 2011 disaster, send in the clowns folks, the circus just hit town.