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Small Scale Farmers — The People Left Behind?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

Robert L. Christensen ,
George A. Ecker  and
William H. Wallace
Robert L. Christensen
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts
George A. Ecker
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
William H. Wallace
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
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Extract

Over the past few years there has been a heightened interest in small scale agriculture. Increasing food costs, concern for the quality of food, a concept of self-sufficency, and a reawakening of interest in the positive attributes of rural life are among the reasons for this new attitude. At the national level, the problems of small farms has been explicitly recognized in the 1977 Farm Bill. The following amendments to the Rural Development Act of 1972 were enacted (U.S. Congress, 1977):

“(c) SMALL FARM RESEARCH PROGRAMS – Small farm research programs shall consist of programs of research to develop new approaches for initiating and upgrading small farmer operations through management techniques, agricultural production techniques, farm machinery technology, new products, new marketing techniques, and small farm finance.”

“(d) SMALL FARM EXTENSION PROGRAMS – Small farm extension programs shall consist of extension programs to improve operations of small farmers using, to the maximum extent practicable, paraprofessional personnel to work with small farmers on an intensive basis to initiate and improve management techniques, agricultural production techniques, farm machinery technology, marketing techniques, and small farm finance, and to increase utilization by small farmers of existing services offered by the United States Department of Agriculture and other public and private agencies and organizations.”

Type
Rural Renaissance and Agricultural Colleges
Information
Journal of the Northeastern Agricultural Economics Council , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , October 1978 , pp. 93 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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References

Brockett, J. E. Management for Part-Time Farmers. Extension Bulletin ________, The Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
French, Forest. Management for Maine Small and Part-Time Farmers. Extension Bulletin 602, University of Maine.Google Scholar
Keller, Luther and Justus, Fred E. Minimum Resource Requirements and Optimum Enterprise Combinations to Attain $7,000 Net Farm Income in Selected Areas of the South. SCS Bulletin 214, University of Tennessee. December 1976.Google Scholar
Metzger, H. B. and Flanders, N. E. Improving the Income of Small Farm Families in Coastal Maine. Research Bulletin 742, University of Maine. October 1977.Google Scholar
Public Law 95–113. 95th Congress. September 29, 1977.Google Scholar