[yamtaddle]

Most of the first tier and probably some of the second are rich-people tax-dodge "farms", I bet. The rest of the first category is hobby-farming—my family probably counted as among that group, at times, because my dad grew up on a farm and liked doing some farm-stuff on farm-zoned land as an adult, but it represented almost no actual income—he worked an ordinary job, the farming was a hobby with books that just happened to sometimes be slightly in the black.

[EDIT] Oh my god, wait, that's revenue, not profit? I take it back, the entire second tier is tax-dodges and hobby farms, too.

[fargle]

> the entire second tier is tax-dodges and hobby farms

nope. that's what some people live on. geez you expect HN to be entitled, but still

[lazide]

No one in the US is living on < 10k of farm REVENUE, and almost no one can live on < 100K of sales. They’d be lucky to clear 10-20% of that after costs, if that.

That’s not even hand to mouth/subsistence even in rural TN.

[fargle]

yeah, it's pretty sad, right? but that's what they do.

mostly it's subsistence farming - e.g. they raise enough food for themselves. and of course, every able bodied family member works for minimum wage somewhere, when they can. but that does NOT make it a hobby farm.

yes, in fact people in the US make the equivalent of less than 10K a year and still live.

[lazide]

That’s using the farm mostly to feed themselves, and then supplementing with a bit of income here and there for ‘hard currency’ - which is very different in my mind at least from supporting themselves with the farm (as a business). But I see your point.

That’s definitely subsistence farming, and common the world over in some form.

And agree, not a hobby farm at that point.