What is the Future of the Small Family Farm?

Bill 510 slid quietly through the congress recently without much fanfare. It could seriously affect how we consume food in this country, all in the name of "national security." It's even been called the "food safety" bill.

The bill could severely restrict the sale of seeds and make most farms (including the small ones) buy their seeds from companies like Monsanto. It would also give the FDA a lot more control over our food supply. It would turn our food over to Homeland Security in the event of an emergency.

Some even go so far as to say that natural and herbal supplements would be outlawed. Some folks believe that the bill will put most of our food supply in the hands of heavily- regulated factory farms.

My question is what will it do to the already beleaguered small family farm? The small family farm was just starting to make a comeback with the new "real foods" movement. Farmer's markets are becoming more and more popular. Was this becoming a threat to the huge food cartels?

I never grew up on a farm, but I once dated a girl for 8 years whose father owned a small farm near Steelville, Missouri. I went out there and stayed several times helping with some of the chores.

I learned how to milk cows and feed the chickens. The only heat that they had was a wood stove. They'd crank that sucker up so high at night that you could barely breathe. I had to stick my nose out the window at night just so I could get some air.

One time we had to load a bull onto a pickup truck to take it to the market to be slaughtered. I had known the bull for several years and viewed it more as a pet than a food source. But they thought differently.

We led the bull to the pickup truck, but of course, he refused to get on. We had to physically lift his front end onto the truck. Then his front leg broke and we were stuck with his front half on the truck and his back half off and him unable to stand up.

We had to physically push the rest of the bull onto the truck. Somewhere during this process, the bull let go all over my leg. I said: "This is a lot of bulls**t." It was, literally.

Living on a family farm is hard, dirty work. No wonder many young people don't opt for it any more. According to the Healthy Planet:

"Is it any wonder that most people are confused about our food system? It's hard to know what a farm is. The factory farm model is one which has produced unsafe food that has no taste, and the small family farms are few and far between. Still, the future of humanity is still as dependent on real farms today as it ever was. We can ignore natural law but we can't ignore the consequences."

The family farm is a self-sustaining unit, unlike the factory farms which release pollutants into our water and soil. All the waste on a small family farm is returned to the earth. Go to your local farmer's market and buy some eggs. Then compare them to the ones you get at the mega market. You definitely won't mind paying a little more for the fresh family farm eggs.

Source: http://www.thehealthyplanet.com/dec2010_small.htm