Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture

16. The Triple Bottom Line of Farming in the Future

224 The Triple Bottom Line of Farming in the Future American agriculture is in crisis. Contrary to common belief, a crisis is not necessarily a bad situation. The dictionary defines crisis as “a crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference, for either better or worse.”1 The crisis in American agriculture today is reflected in the disappearing middle class of farmers. Within this crisis are great risks but also great opportunities. Whether the ultimate outcome of this crisis is for better or worse is yet to be determined. As the national research and education project “Agriculture of the Middle” describes it, American farms have followed two new paths over the past several decades.2 On one path, giant corporate agribusinesses have established contractual arrangements with large, specialized producers to produce bulk commodities for both domestic and global markets. On the second path, small-scale diversified farms have thrived by successfully adapting to marketing food products directly to customers. The traditional full-time family farm has been left with little choice other than to choose one of these two paths, or the path out of farming. According to the 2002 Census of Agriculture, farms with sales of over $500,000 per year, by most accounts large farms, accounted for just 3 percent of total farm numbers but 63 percent of the total value of agricultural production.3 Farms selling less than $100,000 per year, which most would agree are small farms, accounted for 85 percent of all farms but only 10 percent of the total value of agricultural production. This left the farms in the middle, those with sales between $100,000 and $500,000—not too large, not too small—with only 20 percent 16 Triple Bottom Line 225 of the farms and 27 percent of the total value of production. The 2002 census simply confirmed the trend of the past several decades. The middle class of farmers is quickly disappearing. Most of the farming middle class produce neither bulk commodities under corporate contracts nor food products for niche markets. By 1997, 63 percent of the large commodity producers already were specializing in single commodities and were producing under corporate contracts.4 The percentage today is likely much higher. So far, very few of the farming middle class have been willing to accept producing for direct markets or niche markets as real farming. They seemingly would rather give in to corporate control or get out of farming than to admit to having to take the second path. The consequences of the disappearing middle are critical, not just to the future of farming in America but also to the future of America.5 The trend toward large-scale operations, operating under comprehensive corporate contracts, is promoted by those in the agricultural establishment as the only means by which American producers can compete in the global marketplace. However, the continued industrialization of agriculture is provoking increasing environmental and social concerns among rural residents. The agricultural establishment has attempted to label local opponents of “factory farming” as emotional, misinformed radicals who naively oppose all technological and economic progress. But the growing numbers of opponents and the growing body of scientific evidence documenting the negative environmental and social impacts of factory farms give increasing legitimacy to their concerns.6 More recently, however, concerns have focused on the economic future of industrial agriculture, specifically on whether American commodity producers can actually compete in a global economy. According to a 2004 usda report, “A decade ago, a scenario in which the value of U.S. agricultural imports would someday exceed that of U.S. exports seemed farfetched. Today, the improbable has become probable. Between 1996 and 226 New American Farmer 2003, the agricultural trade surplus shrunk from $27.3 billion to $10.5 billion. Although U.S. agricultural exports continued to rise, imports were increasing nearly twice as fast.”7 These rising imports were not for coffee, bananas, or exotic foods that can’t be produced in the United States. Instead, Americans increasingly are eating imported basic foods, particularly vegetables and fruits. The usda analysts went on to concede that if current trends continued, the current trade surplus would become trade deficit by the end of the decade. The inability of American farmers to compete in world commodity markets should come as no surprise. Costs of farmland and farm labor...