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Comment by mpatobin | Hacker News Reader

I don't know the breakdown of farms in the US but in Canada "family farms" supppsedly make up 98% of all farms. This includes mega farms that are owned by families

Source: industry published reading material at a farming AGM

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I don't think the parent meant 'mega farms that are owned by families' to be the same thing as 'family farms'.

but they are pretty much the same. One of my uncles(by marriage) runs a multi-million dollar farm with his brother. They started it from nothing about twenty years ago and now they grow millions a year in crops. This isn't some giant mega corp, this is two guys who have grown their business. Banks are thrilled to loan my uncle money to get more land, equipment, etc because he has a proven track record of turning loans into profits and returning their money.

Sure its just anecdote, but based purely on personal experience i feel like the family farms that go out of business are because they are not any good at business. The farms that are good at business just get bigger.

A "multi-million dollar farm" is also known as a farm. People who grow crops on 10 acres of land are basically doing it as a hobby. The dividing line isn't between farms that have $500,000 in revenue vs. $5,000,000 in revenue, it's between "family" farms that have ~$5,000,000 in revenue and farm companies that have $5,000,000,000+ in revenue.

Like many statistics, that number can mean what you want it to mean. I would venture to guess that the percentage of food grown on family farms, vs mega farms, is under 10%.

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