Obama's Rural Jobs Initiative Plan Fails on Unionized Corp Farming

8/4/2019 Obama's Rural Jobs Initiative Plan Fails on Unionized Corp Farming

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Obama's Rural Jobs Initiative Plan Fails on Unionized Corp Farming

Either you buy the equipment or you join with many other farmers andall chip in to buy then each take turns using equipment. Someone isstuck with a Tax burden or all of you have to elect to set a CorpFarming name and now your paying increased taxes and earnings goabove the tax setting Obama aimed to setup, each have less overhead.Are you now Obama's Pawn?

Downloadable Documents Included This Manuscript Reproduction...(1) EIB66_ReportSummary.pdf(2) EIB12c.pdf

Economic Research Service July 2010 U.S. Department of Agriculture

This is a Summary see Full Report athttp://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib66

Also see companion brochure athttp://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib67

Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms

Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition

Robert A. Hoppe and David E. Banker

Broad descriptions of farms based on U.S. averages can mask variationamong different sizes and types of farms. Small family farms dominatethe farm count and hold most farm assets, including farmland. Butlarge-scale family farms and nonfamily farms account for the bulk offarm production. Averages such as sales per farm, therefore, can bemisleading. Information on the different kinds of farmsand thefarmers who operate themis important for understanding the economicwell-being of farm households and the impact of farm policy.

What Is the Issue?Agricultural policymakers require information on how U.S. farming isorganized. USDAs Economic Research Service (ERS) produces a periodicreport with that information. The Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition,is the most recent in the series, providing agricultural policymakerswith an accurate, detailed, and unbiased source of information on thestructure and finances of U.S. farms, including the relationship offarm size and type to agricultural production, financial performance,sources of farm household income, and the extent of operators off-
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib66http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib66


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farm work. The report provides a sense of the financial position offamily farms in general and for different types of family farms.

What Are the Major Findings?

Small family farmsannual sales less than $250,000made up 88 percentof U.S. farms in 2007. They also held about 64 percent of all farmassets, including 63 percent of the land owned by farms. Ascustodians of the bulk of farm assetsincluding landsmall farms havea large role in natural resource and environmental policy. Smallfarms accounted for 76 percent of the land enrolled by farmers inUSDA land-retirement programs, largely in the Conservation ReserveProgram.

Nevertheless, very large family farms and nonfamily farms produce thelargest share of agricultural output. Large-scale family farms(annual sales of $250,000 or more), plus nonfamily farms, made uponly 12 percent of U.S. farms in 2007 but accounted for 84 percent of

the value of U.S. production. Although small family farms producedonly 16 percent of agricultural output, they made more significantcontributions to the production of specific commodities: hay,tobacco, cash grains and soybeans, and beef cattle.

For the most part, large-scale farms are more viable businesses thansmall family farms. The average operating profit margin and rates ofreturn on assets and equity for large farms (annual sales of $250,000to $499,999) and very large farms (annual sales of $500,000 or more)were all positive in 2007, and most of these farms had a positive

operating profit margin. Small farms were less viable as businesses.Average operating profit margin and rates of return on assets andequity were negative for most small-farm types.

Nevertheless, some farms within each small-farm type (see table forfarm types) had relatively high operating margins of at least 20percent.

Small-farm households rely on off-farm income. Given small farms

poor financial performance, why do so many continue to exist? Small-farm households typically receive substantial off-farm income and donot rely primarily on their farms for their livelihood. Most of theiroff-farm income is from wage-and-salary jobs or self-employment.Households operating retirement farms, however, receive most of theiroff-farm income from such sources as Social Security, pensions,dividends, interest, and rent.


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Farm operator households, generally speaking, cannot be consideredlow-income, but limited-resource farms persist. Median householdincome for only two types of farm householdsthose operatingretirement farms or lowsales farms (annual sales less than $100,000)was below the U.S. median in 2007. Limited-resource farms, however,make up between 3 and 12 percent of all farms, depending on howlimited-resource is defined. (The definitions are based ondifferentbut lowlevels of farm sales, operator household income,and farm assets or operator householdnet worth.)

Different types of Government payments go to different types offarms. The distribution of commodity-related program payments isroughly proportional to the production of program commodities.Medium-sales (annual sales of $100,000 to $249,999) and large-scalefarms received 76 percent of commodity-related Government payments in2007. Likewise, large-scale farms received 60 percent of the payments

from working-land programs, which target production indirectly byfocusing on land in production. In contrast, land-retirement programstarget environmentally sensitive land rather than production. Thebulk of land-retirement payments (73 percent) went to retirement,residential/lifestyle, and low-sales small farms. However, most farms(61 percent) received no Government payments at all and were notdirectly affected by farm program payments.

How Was the Study Conducted?

The 2007 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) is the main

source of data in the Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition. ARMS is anannual survey designed and conducted by ERS and the NationalAgricultural Statistics Service (NASS), another USDA agency. Inaddition to ARMS, various censuses of agriculture and ERS farm sectorincome estimates are used in this report, particularly in theanalysis of long-term trends. The report uses the farm classificationsystem developed by ERS to examine farm structure in the UnitedStates.

ERS is a primary source of economic research and analysis from the

U.S. Department of Agriculture, providing timely information oneconomic and policy issues related to agriculture, food, theenvironment, and rural America.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/


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http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/18/298559/rural-jobs-obama-farms/

With Rural Jobs Plan, Obama Aims To Shift Aid From Big Agribusiness

To Family Farms

By Guest Blogger on Aug 18, 2011 at 9:30 am

Our guest blogger is Sarah Jane Glynn, a policy analyst at the Centerfor American Progress Action Fund.

President Obama spoke at the White House Rural Economic Forum inPeosta, Iowa on Tuesday, and unveiled a new plan to aid rural America[http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/ruralplan/#family]. The plan

covers a variety of issues impacting rural Americans, and while itaddresses everything from methamphetamine use, to infrastructure, toforeclosures, Obamas closing speech focused on one of its keycomponents [http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2011/08/16/rural-economic-forum-closing-remarks]: jobs.

The number of farms has fallen, and more than 90 percent of farmingfamilies now rely on off-farm income. Yet net farm income isanticipated to increase 20 percent from 2010[http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FarmIncome/nationalestimates.htm],

the second highest inflation-adjusted value in 35 years. How is thispossible? While small family operations make up more than 90 percentof farms, they control only 27 percent of production. The largest 1.6percent of farms (most of which are corporately owned) accounted for50 percent of farm sales [http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB12/EIB12c.pdf?] in 2002. Part of Obamas rural jobs initiative wouldshift the power balance in order to benefit family farms.

Part of Obamas plan includes encouraging young people to becomefarmers, as the average American farmer is 57 years old

[http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Online_Highlights/Fact_Sheets/demographics.pdf], and an influx of young people isnecessary to prevent small farms from disappearing. Obama will createa new program to train and develop the next generation of farmers,offer tax breaks to landowners selling to new family farmers, andtax-credits to off-set the cost of starting small farms. As he saidthis week [http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/16/closing-remarks-president-white-house-rural-economic-forum]:


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I saw some of these future farmers of America and their youngpresident right over there, and when you hear the enthusiasmandenergy that these young people display, and the fact that if they canjust get a little bit of a break when it comes to getting started onthe front end, get a little bit of help with capital, that they areready to take American agriculture to the next level it gives youconfidence, it gives you hope.

Organic farming is one of the fastest growing sectors of U.S.agriculture[http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/june10/Features/AmericasOrganicFarmers.htm], and organic farms tend to be smaller and aremore likely to be run by younger people. Obama will increase fundsfor the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program , whichprovides financial assistance to help farmers comply with organic

certification standards. The plan also calls for changes to theUSDAs crop insurance rate so that organic farmers are not penalized

organic produce is particularly susceptible to damage from diseaseand insects.

Finally, Obama has stated he will close loopholes that allow mega-farms to collect federal payments, by limiting eligibility to farmerswho are actively working the land, or landlords who are renting toactive farmers. In 2009, 62 percent of the $9.5 billion[http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/farmincome/govtpaybyfarmtype.htm]

in government payouts to farms went to those grossing more than$250,000 per year, even though they make up only 12 percent of allfarms[http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB66/EIB66_ReportSummary.pdf].

While this is a far cry from the overhauls the Center for AmericanProgress has proposed in the past, if we are all going to be focusedon Iowa, at least we are talking about how to help family farmsrather than who looks the best [http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/bachmann-corn-dog.jpg] eating

[http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/picture-of-the-day-mitt-romney-eating-a-corn-dog/243465/] a corndog[http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2011/08/16/rick-perry-latest-gop-candidate-photographed-eating-corn-dog/].

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