June 6, 2018 Agriculture

The difficulty of small-scale farming

The agricultural industry has developed into an industry of great difficulty for small-scale businesses. In the United States each year the number of small privately owned farms is on the decline. Larger operations (factory farming) are making it difficult for small farms and businesses to continue their practices. Competition is the biggest hindrance to their success. Factor farms are able to produce more products and provide their goods at low prices that small operations are not able to make a profit or even cover costs. Additionally, the farming industry has lost its appeal to the younger generation. Young people are no longer willing to opt to take on these physically demanding jobs or continue a multigenerational business due to the changing political, social and economic landscape. The United States is not alone in the paradigm shift. All around the world, this shift is occurring. 

Today we went to a small scale packaging plant. Predominantly this business produces and processes citrus, lemons and olives. These three resources are abundant in Greece and many other countries that are situated on the Mediterranean. While travelling around Crete I noticed that many of the fruit-bearing trees still had much of its offerings. To me, this was very bothersome due to my interest in food insecurity. On the bus, Professor Vamvakas explained to the group that farmers within the area are letting trees bear their fruits because there is not a great enough incentive for them to collect and process the fruit. Additionally, farmers are pulling up citrus trees, to plant avocado trees due to demand and trend. At the packaging business, the owner toured us through his facilities, showing us the conveyor belts, olive processor and the fridges. 

This tour was interesting for me. Going in I wanted to ask a series of questions focused on the amount of waste, pesticide use, and environment impacts. The owner answered to the best of his abilities. Much of what he said was what I expected. The agricultural industry is a very wasteful one, and much of this is due to the consumer. Primarily consumers will not buy products that are deemed “damaged”. Produce that has slight appearance defects are generally not sold. The stores and markets that purchase produce are not willing to purchase products that appearance defects due to the belief that consumers will not buy them. This generalization is not wrong. Consumers are conditioned to buy products that are perfect. This ideology is what contributes to massive food waster around the world. The owner showed us a pile of Lemons that would not be sold to markets but will be sold to another business that will press the fruit instead of selling the fruit directly. The owner estimated that roughly 30% of the cultivated land would go to waste but that these numbers are not certain. He additionally went on to tell me that they use pesticides that are harmful to the environment due to the rise in fly population-that has the ability to devastate entire crops. 

Our visit proved to be an interesting one. All I can say is many thanks to Yota and her family.