Small Scale Farming

For some people their way of life consists of being able to walk outside in the morning and being able to hear the noises of farm animals and being able to pull fresh vegatables from their gardens. Our country was founded upon these smaller sized farms. Small farms come in the types of hobby farms and mid-sized farms. Hobby farms are pretty common in America, these are the farms run by the people who love the fact that they can grow their own food but can't do it for a living because there is no way they will make enough money for their family to live on. Mid-sized farms are still relitively common throughout the United States although we are starting to see less and less of them. These mid-sized farms are seen mostly producing dairy or beef products. A mid-sized dairy farm will normally milk between 100-400 cows. Beef operations are another common mid-sized farm but are mostly only seen in the mid-western United States. There are also sub-types to these farms. You have your commercially run farm which means your cows are going to be kept in the barns most of the time and the food will be brought to them and they are going to produce a lot more than normal. You also have you organic farms which means they only use organic products with their animals, organic feed, organic pesticides and so on. Then you have your grass-fed farms which means what it says, the cows only eat grass and thats it, no grain, no corn, just grass. You will also see that a lot of your grass-fed farms also tend to be organic as well. Small farms are highly important in our culture for each individual person.

The english settlers of the early 18th century are the ones who started agriculture in America. Without farming Ameica would've crumbled. Most of the farms we see today are generational farms meaning they have been passed down through the family for at least two generations but most times many more. Hired help wasn't always a thing becasuse of it being a family run farm they either didn't want the help or didn't have the money to hire help. But if they did need the help most times it'd be seasonal help, either meaning they would only be working about 9 months of the year or only during planting and harvest seasons.

The children that grew up on family farms were also taught very valuable life skills and foundational morals. These families were good character-driven because of all that farming had taught them. Those children had great mental devoplment because of all the different stimuli they were exposed to.

Farmer's markets narrow the divide that occurs between people and the places where local food is produced. Eating locally has many many benfits. One huge benefit is that it supports the local farms and they need that support. Another is that it helps to keep you healtheir by not eating processed foods or crops full of pesticides. Knowing where your food comes from and knowing that it's fresh is a really good feeling, you automatically know it's better. Eating organic can also be a bigger step in eating better and locally. Organic farms don't use harmful pesticides and they're animals are most of the time also grass-fed because of the USDA pasture rule. The USDA pasture rule means that any organic ruminant animal, animals with fou compartements in their stomach to help break down food, must have access to grass during grazing season. Another benefit to eating locally is that you can interact with those who are producing your food, you can know exactly what is going on with the animal in which you are eating.

The benefits that are given to us by small farms are really important. They help to keep families in touch with one another by forcing them to work together to get a job done. Eating locally helps keep these small farms going for generations to come and in hope that with these farms continuing the average age of the farmer will be younger than it is now which is around 58 years old. These farmers aren't going to last much longer without our help. Eating locally can also help to improve our health. Each persons support is needed to keep these farms going.