Controlling Corporate Farming Essay -- Agriculture Farm Essays Papers

Controlling Corporate Farming 'Sixty-one percent of America's agriculture output comes from corporate farms' (Abbey, 2002). 'Nationwide there are 163,000 corporate operations and 63% of these are under contract to a consolidated firm' (Abbey, 2002). Stated by Fred Kirschenmann, 'If current trends of consolidation continue, and all the farms in Iowa become 225,000 acre farms, there will be only 140 farms in the entire state' (Abbey, 2002). Large corporations are coming in and taking over the farming industry. They are making it almost impossible for small, family operated farms to survive. 'The six and a half million small farms of 1935 decreased to 575,000 by 1998? (Abbey, 2002). The large corporations are using the land like miners-they strip it down and get what they need, but they don't put anything back to it. Studies have shown that the family farms take care of the soil and put back the nutrients they use. There are different anti-corporate farming laws around the country that are trying to protect the small family farming industry. ?Contrary to misinformation, the world?s embattled small farms are two to ten times more productive per unit than large, tax-subsidized and chemical based operations run by corporate agriculture? (Earth Island Journal, 2000). Many people agree that the larger corporate farms are producing more, but studies show that small farms are more productive because they keep the soil usable for longer periods of time. Corporate farms are becoming like mines as they are stripping the land of its organic matter and nutrients that are essential to crop production. The corporations usually produce a single commodity under contract with a consolidated... ...celdf.org/cdp/cdp13.asp>. Krause, Kennith R. Corporate Farming: importance, incentives, and state restrictions. Washington D.C: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1983. Lyson, Thomas A. "Agriculture industrialization, anticorporate farming laws, and rural community welfare." Environment and Planning A 37.8 (2005). McDonough, Molly. "Down On The Farm." ABA Journal 89.11 (2003). "Power of Frames". Turn On the News. Nov. 2, 2005 . "Small Farming is Beautiful." Earth Islan Journal 15.1 (2000). Thompson, Nancy. "Anti-Corporate Farming Laws as Environmental Policy". Core 4. Nov. 2, 2005 . Welsh, Rick. "Anti-Corporate Farming Laws, the "Godschmidt Hypothesis"". Friends of the Constituion. Nov. 2, 2005 .