Most farms in the United States - 98 percent in 2003 - are family farms. They are organized as proprietorships, partnerships, or family corporations. Even the largest farms tend to be family farms, although they are more likely to have more than one operator. Very large family farms and nonfamily farms account for a small share of farms but a large - and growing - share of farm sales. Small family farms account for most of the farms in the United States but produce a modest share of farm output. Median income for farm households is 10 percent greater than the median for all U.S. households, and small-farm households receive substantial off-farm income. Many farm households have a large net worth, reflecting the land-intensive nature of farming.

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Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: 2005 Family Farm Report

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1925&context=usgsstaffpub

Land change variability and human-environment dynamics in the United States Great Plains

Small farms play a crucial role in conserving the agricultural biodiversity that underpins long-term food security worldwide. Particularly in centers of crop genetic diversity – such as Mesoamerica in the case of maize (corn) and the Andean region in the case of potatoes – small farmers are the ‘keystone species’ in agricultural ecosystems of great value to humankind. Today, however, a formidable nexus of market forces and political forces threatens both small farmers and the biodiversity they sustain. Countervailing public policies are urgently needed. These should include the removal of existing policy biases against small farmers; social recognition of the contribution of in situ conservation to human well-being; development of markets for ‘traditional’ varieties of crops and livestock; the provision of local public goods in areas where farmers cultivate diversity; payments for the environmental service of on-farm conservation; and support for part-time farming as an element of diversified household livelihood strategies.

/pdf/a-future-for-small-farms-biodiversity-and-sustainable-3lseeb9t3r.pdf

A Future for Small Farms? Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture

This dissertation examines the particular path of technological change after World War II, how farm people adjusted to that change in their work and identity, as well as the policy implications of the numerous ramifications of the 20th century farm technology revolution. The rapid farm population decline that began with World War II continued to the end of the 20th century. This farm population loss combined with growing commodity surpluses, a Cold War atmosphere, and the transformation of farms into modern businesses to create tensions within federal farm policy that had for decades pursued the unified goals of improved farm living, increased production and technological adoption. "The farm problem," as it became known, highlighted the popular concern that farming was changing too quickly and would result in the extinction of the family farm, an ideal based on the agrarian myth but shaped by modern concerns of the growth of corporate farming and the international presence of collective farming in the Soviet Union. Under such conditions, tensions arose within farm policy between the older values and new concerns for the continuation of the family farm. These tensions often resulted in jumbled and contradictory federal farm policy that failed to stem the loss of smaller farms or the implementation of more technology.

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The family farm in the post-World War II era: Industrialization, the Cold War and political symbol

Farmer bankruptcies, bankruptcy rates, and related issues are explored from the beginning of modern bankruptcy legislation over a century ago. Farmer bankruptcies historically have been controversial because they are thought to indicate changes in the economic well-being and structure of the rural economy. Concerns about farmer bankruptcies were heightened twice during the past century. The first was from 1920 through the Great Depression and the second was during the 1980s. Bankruptcy data for Chapters 7, 11, and 13 exist for farmers for the 1899-1980 period, but there are no Chapter 7, 11, or 13 farmer bankruptcy data available beginning in 1980. However, data are available for the 1986-2002 period for Chapter 12, the Family Farmer Bankruptcy Act of 1986, that became effective on November 26, 1986, in response to the farm financial crisis of the 1980s. Some 22,519 Chapter 12 cases were filed through 2002, with the highest rate being in 1987. Farmer bankruptcy filing rates trended down after the late 1980s because of improved economic conditions and institutional changes.

Farmer bankruptcies and farm exits in the united states, 1899-2002

Chapter 12 bankruptcy filing rates from 1986 to 2001 are compared with farm bankruptcy rates from 1898 1979. Data are also presented on Chapter 12 discharge rates. Although Chapter 12 filings are reorganizations and exclude liquidations, Chapter 12 filings per farm in the 1990s exceeded filing rates in earlier decades with comparable economic conditions. Higher proportions of Chapter 12 cases filed in the 1990s failed to receive discharges than Chapter 12 cases filed in the late 1980s. This finding may indicate more debt restructurings are taking place outside of Chapter 12 and that a higher proportion of filings are “hard cases.”

Sixteen years of chapter 12 bankruptcy: evolution of filing and disposition rates

Factors Affecting Chapter 12 Bankruptcy Filings in the United States: A Panel Data Model

Farmer bankruptcies often are viewed as an important measure of rural economic well-being and of the success or failure of various Federal agricultural and rural policies. But the level of farmer bankruptcies is not a good indicator of rural financial health. Bankruptcies are only a subset of all farm business exits and a lagging indicator of economic stress. They do not reflect overall economic conditions in most rural areas because farming is a relatively small part of rural economic activity.

Are Farmer Bankruptcies A Good Indicator of Rural Financial Stress

Chapter 12, a special section in the bankruptcy code enacted in 1986 in response to the farm financial crisis, will expire on October 1, 1998. It has succeeded in keeping some farmers in business and has encouraged informal lender-farmer settlements out of court. But it has increased costs by encouraging both inefficient farmers who would otherwise liquidate and efficient farmers who would otherwise continue their operations at greater expense to reorganize their businesses and charge off part of their debts under the protection of bankruptcy. Some of these costs could be mitigated by allowing lenders the option of recapturing writedowns in secured debt as asset values increase.

Jerome M. Stam

Papers

Farmer bankruptcies and farm exits in the united states, 1899-2002

Sixteen years of chapter 12 bankruptcy: evolution of filing and disposition rates

Factors Affecting Chapter 12 Bankruptcy Filings in the United States: A Panel Data Model

Are Farmer Bankruptcies A Good Indicator of Rural Financial Stress

Do Farmers Need a Separate Chapter in the Bankruptcy Code