YOUR TEXAS AGRICULTURE MINUTE

The decade of family farming

By Gene Hall
Publisher

The United Nations (UN) has designated 2019 to 2028 as the “decade of family farming.”

Fortunately, there is a nation with a highly successful family farming blueprint. That would be the United States, where more than 97 percent of all farms are of the family variety.

Of course, the U.S. model is highly diversified. There are small farms and really big farms. Some of them are incorporated for tax purposes or to ease transfer to the next generation.

Family farming is sometimes a subsistence practice. But to thrive, family farmers can look to America for things that work. Capitalism and free trade are good things to copy. Farmers must be profitable.

How about access to technology? Planting crops with natural pest resistance and drought tolerance would boost family farming everywhere. Some nations would need to clean up outdated and counterproductive rules.

If the UN wants to encourage global family farming, why not turn to a model that works.

The preceding commentary is brought to you by Texas Farm Bureau, the “Voice of Texas Agriculture.” Called “Your Texas Agriculture Minute,” TFB will issue thought-provoking editorials each week—via print and audio—to spark understanding of agriculture in the Lone Star State and its impact on each and every Texan.

You may read this week’s editorial above or listen to the audio version.

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