Will Small Farms Survive?

Since their peak number in the 1930’s the number of farms in the United States has decreased. Economics have driven farm consolidation. It’s becoming even more challenging for the small farm to survive.

by Chad Steiner

This week’s blog post takes a bit more of a serious tone… the intent is to inform and inspire. As I was considering what to write about this week – shedding light on the “sustainability” of small farms was on my mind. Then I saw the letter in Chelan Ranch’s weekly blog articulating the unprecedented challenges they’re facing. Without agriculture and farms we’d all be hunting for our food. Today’s efficiencies with farming allow more people than ever to take on a daily life outside the farm. Many people tell us how much they dream of doing what we’re doing or how much they enjoy our farm. It is not for the faint of heart. The farmer takes on the majority of the risk – weather, price, varietal decisions, safety and more. And many of us would say we’re incredibly happy to do this work. I like to remind visitors that our farm is super small. None the less, we’ve invested our heart and sole into sharing our farm with you. Even though our story matches up with Chelan Ranch – we’d like to highlight the leadership role their taking in articulating what farmers are faced with. Chelan Ranch is a leader in our Valley and produces amazing products. Please check them out, please see what they’ve written by going here.

Will small farms survive? How small is small? Since the peak “number” of farms in the 1930’s, farm numbers have steadily gone down. See the chart below from last week’s blog post. As the number of farms decrease, it most often means other farms lease or purchase the acreage. In other words, the small go away and the large get larger. It makes sense from an economics and efficiency standpoint. But does it make sense from a diversity of our food system standpoint. Is it the most resilient way to produce food? Will we end up with more and more mega farms? Does it make sense to see the small growers go away. 2024 is a challenging year for all tree fruit growers. Wages have steadily climbed (for many industries), input/production costs have climbed and the prices we receive for our crops have declined. Our farm produced almost 2 times as many Golden Delicious in 2023. Yes, twice the crop as the 2022 crop. We’ll receive only 60% of the income from 2023 as we did from 2022. So what do we do?

We’re facing a time where policies around farming and agriculture will be made by individuals who did not grow up on a farm or around agriculture. This isn’t throwing stones, its related to the numbers – i.e. there are far fewer farms for people to grow up on today than in the past. It means we’ll need to work harder to educate Washington D.C. and State Capitals. How can you help? Consider some of the following:

• Educate yourself.
  • Get to know a farmer if you can. Ask them how they’re doing and what they have going on.
  • Get to know your State of Federal representative. Ask them what the current issues facing agriculture are.
  • Follow growers you might know on social media.
• Buy direct from the grower or from a group of growers you know and trust.
• Write to you State of Federal representative if you feel knowledgeable and passionate enough.
• Understand what you’re voting for before voting.
  • There are many changes that have been brought to farming with new legislation in the past 10 years.
    • E.g. – agriculture used to have an overtime exemption where employees could work over 40 hours per week and the farmer didn’t pay overtime. This worked well for many people because of the seasonality of farming. They could work hard for 6 months, then take 6 months off. Since the legislation has passed the people working for us overall pay has decreased because we cannot afford to pay overtime.

As I wrap this up a couple things hit me… yeah, I created a list above, but I imagine it still might leave you feeling a bit lost on how to be more informed… maybe we can help by providing more resources/info?? The other thing that hit me is that I haven’t provided very clear hope for how the small farm will survive. All I can speak to is what our plan is. Chelan Valley Farms plan to sustain itself into the future is to create our own destiny. Similar to what Chelan Ranch, Rootwood Cider, Brownfield Orchard and many other small farmers have been doing – finding ways to go direct to the consumer. Our plan is to connect with you directly. Not only do we love connecting with and hosting people, but we love creating products for you to enjoy. Combine our direct-to-consumer approach with sustainable farming practices (which in some cases may help us reduce our input costs) and we feel there’s a better chance for success. With the struggles this blog talks about, the room for error is very small. The costs keep going up and prices have decreased at the warehouse. A huge thanks to every one of you for following our journey and letting us figure out how to share all this information with you. Farmers are by nature winners, love what they do and will do whatever they can to keep the legacy going.