The Disappearance of the Middle Size Farm. Models to Respond to Growing Markets for High Quality, Differentiated Food Products

Very small and very large farms and ranches have increased in numbers, farms-of-the-middle have been “disappearing”.  Caught in the middle as the American food system divides into global marketing of agricultural commodities, on the one side, and direct marketing of food to local consumers, on the other, many traditional family farms across the country are increasingly at risk. Mid-sized “farming occupation” farms have been challenged as they are often too small individually to compete successfully in international agricultural commodity markets and not positioned well to directly market food to local consumers. A significant part of the peril is the result of increasing concentration in the processing and retail sectors of the system which creates power imbalances in market relationships. Such imbalances enable strategic behavior in traditional agrifood supply chains that often seriously disadvantage the least powerful participants, notably farmers and other food enterprises in the middle like regionally-based food processors, distributors, and retailers.  Restoring balance to these agrifood economic relationships will require changes in both private sector business models and public policy.  Shifts are occurring in the food system and in the larger social economy that can provide significant opportunities to develop farming and food systems in which a re-formed agriculture-of-the-middle can prosper.  Following Europe’s lead and emphasizing issues of social justice and environmental responsibility, a growing “fair trade” movement has developed in the U.S. Progressive leaders in some sizeable food corporations are recognizing the confluence of their interests with the maintenance and regeneration of an agriculture-of-the-middle. Farms-of-the-middle have both the capacity and the flexibility to partner with each other and with other supply chain parties to respond to these expanding markets for significant volumes of high-quality, differentiated food products.