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0 pointsRetric6mo ago0 comments

American farmers aren’t some universal entity here. Of course it’s farm subsidies and tariffs that most heavily influence the economy reality for most American farm land, but the average small farm in the US isn’t particularly profitable. In many cases it’s closer to a hobby project than the sole income for a family.

It’s not even just a question of economies of scale, many east coast farmers grow corn just fine without any irrigation systems that’s a lot of capital you can spend on something else. Being able to lease out a tiny fraction of your land for a co-located wind farm alongside agriculture is a huge boon for many. And so it goes across a huge range of different situations.

All this variability is why you don’t see 20+% of US farmland under one giant corporation the way you see in many other industries which benefit more from economies of scale.

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bryanlarsen6mo ago

The average "small" farm in the US is very large and very mechanized compared to an average farm in Europe, Asia or Africa. But when I say the advantage derives from being large and mechanized, it does imply that American farms that are less large and less mechanized do not do nearly so well.

RetricOP6mo ago

When talking about all those “family farms” in Europe with less than 10 acres that’s not the majority of farmland or necessarily a major revenue sources for those families. I known a few people in America who call a several acres of plants their garden, so in many cases there are direct parallels they just don’t call them farm or get agricultural subsidies.

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0 pointsRetric6mo ago0 comments

All this variability is why you don’t see 20+% of US farmland under one giant corporation the way you see in many other industries which benefit more from economies of scale.

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bryanlarsen6mo ago

RetricOP6mo ago

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