Everything is stacked against the small farm. 9% of the Nations farms control over 40% of food production. These are large farms, not small local, family owned, nor near a city center. Take a stroll through your local farmers market, many of those selling produce are selling items purchased at auction mixed with their own produce, despite many farmers markets forbidding that practice. Most are more than 50 miles from their farms. Prices are controlled by an unnatural market practice.
This is why urban farming needs to be an essential element of cities. In Troy there have been officials, both past and present that say farming does not belong in the city, but that is just bull. Creation of internal markets to any urban environment will stimulate growth and income, both personally but municipally, through sales tax revenue, and even by allowing urban farmers to developing urban lots as a business to generate property tax income. Failure to think outside of the establishments predefined frame of what a city is, is a sure indication of continued failure of a municipality.
Add to that with farms within the urban frame that means even fresher and more diverse and desirable produce, and micro-livestock is now available without the overhead of moving it hundreds of miles each weekend just to set up at the local farmers market only to be undersold by another farmer who mixes auction produce with their own grown produce at a lower cost.
Read on for more on this and the effects this has on small scale farmers.
Chin up and happy farming,
John
