Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty ... - Yale University

new farmers
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New Farmers
Report by Avery Cohn
A session on new farmers might seem an odd choice; throughout the Americas many
farmers and ways of farming are rapidly disappearing. The second half of the 20th
century brought a flurry of government policies and practices that have hindered the
viability of small farmers and have caused a widespread and deepening rural exodus.
These policies and practices have occurred against a confusing political backdrop. At
times, governments have trumpeted the importance of small farmers, and at times
they have argued that farming is a backwards lifestyle that stands in the way of
development and modernization.
Moreover, government rhetoric doesn’t always match government practice. The
Hightower Report 1 details how land grant research and Congressional farm bills put
the squeeze on U.S. small farmers by favoring agribusiness – even as politicians speak
about these as ways of supporting the mythical “family farmer.” Likewise, throughout
the 1990s the Mexican government continued to express support for campesinos,even
as policies like ejido privatization and the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) accomplished the stated – but not publicized – goal of reducing Mexico’s
rural population by 1.5 million during the decade. Rural populations all over the
Americas are declining as a result of these and other policies. Moreover, greater
population shocks may be looming. The average age of U.S. farmers is 72. In Mexico,
many rural areas have had so much out-migration that there are not enough men
around for population replacement to occur.
However, even as many farmers leave the countryside in response to the more
trying political-economic conditions there, new farmers of differing backgrounds
and with differing livelihood strategies are taking some of their places. A rapid rise in
minority farmers in the United States, the landless movement in Brazil (the MST),
and land reforms in Central America during the post-civil war 1990s have meant an
influx of new people to rural areas. These new farmers and the farmers who stayed
behind have had to start anew in order to farm successfully in the ever-changing
global economy to which they are linked. This session explored both new farmers and
new ways of farming.
Much of the discussion centered on a basic paradox, articulated by Nikhil Anand,
from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies: If farming has always been
challenging and is now becoming more difficult, why would anyone begin to farm?
1 Hightower, Jim (1978). Hard
Tomatoes, Hard Times: The
Original Hightower Report,
Unexpurgated, of the
Agribusiness Accountability
Project on the Failure of
America’s Land. Hippocrene
Books.
yale school of forestry & environmental studies