John Ikerd is Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri - Columbia, MO
American farmers, on average, receive only about 20 cents of each food dollar spent. The remainder goes toward the expenses of processing, packing and distribution. Farmers who sell food direct to local customers, on the other hand, receive the full value for their product cutting out the costs to middlemen.
- My Top Ten Reasons for Eating Local, John Ikerd
http://web.missouri.edu/ikerdj/papers/Alabama-Eat%20Local.htm
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“Get big or get out” is a refrain with which American farmers are all too familiar. Small farms are seen as being too small to survive, and thus, unworthy of serious consideration. For example, government programs, including publicly funded research and education, tend to focus on large, commercial agricultural operations as the future of American agriculture. In fact, the opposite is true. Most large, commercial farming today are too big to survive. Small farms are the future of farming in America. "
- Many Farms Are Too Big To Survive, John Ikerd
http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/SFT-Too%20Big.htm
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"However, by managing more “intensively” the new farmers are able to net far more profit from each dollar of sales. They reduce their costs of purchased inputs through diversification, increase the value of their products through niche markets, focus on the things that they do best, and work together to do the things that they can’t do as well alone. As a result, their net return per dollar of sales may be 40 to 50 percent rather than the 15 to 20 percent for a conventional farm. Thus, the net returns on a farm with $100,000 in annual sales may be $40,000 to $50,000 and even a farm with $50,000 in annual sales may net $20,000 to $25,000 to support the small farm family. The bottom line is that 10 acres, intensively managed to produce high valued products, may generate more profits than 1,000 acres used to produce bulk agricultural commodities - corn, cattle, wheat, cotton, etc. Many small farms make some fairly big profits."
- Farming for Profit and Quality of Life, John Ikerd
http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/SFTkeynote.html
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"Sustainable farming systems must be ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially responsible. All three are essential; more of one cannot offset a lack of either of the other two. The three dimensions of sustainability are not a part of some formal or legal definition, but instead, are a matter of common sense. If the land loses its ability to produce, the farm is not sustainable. If the farmer goes broke, the farm is not sustainable. And if a system of farming fails to support society, it will not be supported by society, and thus, is not sustainable.
- The Family Farm on the Cutting Edge, John Ikerd
http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/YakimaFamilyFarms.html
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"The highest priority for American agriculture should be on reducing the fossil energy dependence of food production. Our current food system, including food processing and distribution, claims about 17% of total U.S. fossil energy use, with about one-third of this total used at the farm level.[9] In fact, we use about ten kcals of fossil energy for every kcal of food energy produced, not counting the energy use in final food preparation. This means that even at the farm level, American agriculture uses about three kcals of fossil energy for every kcal of food energy produced. In a world of rising population and dwindling fossil energy, the first priority of agriculture should be producing more food with less fossil energy.
- Agriculture after Fossil Energy, John Ikerd
http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/Iowa-FmUnion-Energy.htm
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