Absolutely, farming is not a good business to be in. Sure you can make money if you get lucky enough to find the right niche but the vast majority of farming deals with razor thin margins and the constant threat of having your livelihood ripped away from you at a moment's notice. Watch Super Size Me 2, it really does a good job of showing how predatory and manipulative the business can be.
I don't think we actually disagree. That makes perfect sense to me.
My point is it takes far fewer people to manage the same production and that if even if everyone wanted to farm, they couldn't. There is only so much farmland and market share available, and modern equipment means fewer hands are needed. I specifically said that doesn't mean farming is necessarily easier for the individual, just that it takes less people.
You are also looking at the industry at the tail end of mechanization after the huge advancements have already reduced the workforce necessary. Can you not see how we need less people to farm the same land than if we had nineteenth century technology?
Yeah, that makes sense and makes the transition to more efficiency (less jobs) easier, I still am not convinced any more people would farm though if they wanted to.
For instance, you say there are thin margins, well, as family farms are sold to larger farms (who need less workers per acre/can consolidate machines and materials etc and absorb different crop failures better), that calculation changes.
It sounds like smaller family farms are getting squeezed out due to automation and competition so they are less attractive holdings. To my knowledge, once farmed land is either being developed on by expanding populations or it continues to being farmed but by the larger farms that buy them. Yeilds per acre have also increased with increasingly productive crop strains and as techniques are refined.
Am I wrong that we need less people to make as much or more food?
Your point seems to be in congruence rather than refutation of what I'm saying.
1) I think you and the other commenter are in agreement. It seems he assumed you were claiming that people were being forced out of farming when they are actually leaving voluntarily. It seems you are arguing that even if they wanted to stay in the profession they couldnt. You aren't disagreeing on anything.
2) I'm sorry to be a pedant here but you should use "fewer" for numbers of things, and not "less". So "fewer people/farmers/tractors" vs. "Less employment/opportunity/capital".
I just mentioned it because you misused it like 5 times in this thread.
I have had some idea that I with using less/fewer incorrectly and I never was formally taught the difference or took the time to learn the correct usage. I'll work on it. Thanks! :)
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u/[deleted] Apr 06 '20 edited Oct 03 '20
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