[z_jdav]

2000 acres is a "small" "family" farm?? The myth of farming in the United States far over-estimates the where the _value_ in farming lies. Yes, John Deere is exploitative - but what about the wealthy land owners that profit off the backs of poorly paid _farm workers_? Or the huge government subsidies paid to growers of commodity grain? The idea of the "family farm" as a productive and legitimate sector of the economy is mostly a myth[0].

[0] See "Farm and other F words" by Sarah Mock for a more complete treatment.

[alvah]

This only seems large by European standards I think. The 50-100 acre farms in my homeland are a relic of pre-industrial times, and can't be competitive in a world market without vast EU subsidies.

[freddie_mercury]

It is large by American standards.

The USDA says that only 4% of farms in America are 2,000 acres or larger.

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2019/2017C...

The average farm in America is 446 acres, according to the USDA.

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistic...

The OP is completely out of touch thinking that 2,000 acres is small.

[cyanydeez]

>Since 1974, the Census of Agriculture has defined a farm as any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year.

That's a weird definition.

Acres of contiguous land controlled by a single owner is how people tend to use the word farm.

In reality, farmers are often equipment owners and negotiate with landowners to manage X acres.

None of this discussion is worth wile in referencing farms.

Best could be said : a farmer who has to service equipment equal to a 400 acre farm benefits by laws protecting their farm equipment.

[alvah]

Here in Western Australia, the average cropped area per farm is almost 3,000 acres. From my perspective, 2,000 acres is a small-ish farm, and the 50-100 acre farms surrounding my parents' house in Scotland are comically small, heavily-subsidised gardens.

GP may be wrong about the USA as a whole, though I'm sure there are areas of the US where 2,000 acres would indeed be a small farm.

[rendaw]

Do you have any references on small farm size efficiency? In Japan ~90% are < 50 acre both by land mass and count, and seeing the 100m^2 farms in my neighborhood I can't believe it's anywhere near efficient, even when sharing farm equipment.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/agricultural-land-area-by... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-farms-size?country...

[throw0101b]

Japan has a bunch of issues with agriculture and too-small farms is part of it:

* https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/11/25/japan-strugg...

* https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/japans-farms-wea...

* https://thediplomat.com/2014/09/japans-agriculture-dilemma/

Small family farms are good when a country is still developing and has excess labour, but once industrialization gets going folks move to urban areas for factory jobs and farms need to consolidate and mechanize. This has been the story over history for all countries have been 'developed', and in the post-WW2 is generally true of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Though this mechanization never really happened in Japan.

How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region goes over this quite well:

* https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16144575-how-asia-works

[diordiderot]

You can operate a 2000 acre farm with 4 people. That's a family farm bub.

[asebold]

Exactly, thank you.

Also, let’s be clear: we’re talking about the US. I’m sure it’s different in other countries.

[cyanydeez]

There's an issue with how the census defined a farm.

[throw0101b]

> 2000 acres is a "small" "family" farm??

The 'farm vlogger' channel Laura Farms operates a 2000 acres (800 hectares; 8 sq. km) farm:

* https://www.youtube.com/@LauraFarms/videos

[ackbar03]

I'm pretty sure this is what led to communism