When John Ikerd talks about industrial agriculture in the United States, the professor emeritus at the University of Missouri is referring to a farm system supported by big business, the government and most schools of agriculture across the nation.
“We are told that industrialization is the inevitable consequence of human enlightenment and technological progress,” said Ikerd. “But the industrialization of agriculture is neither enlightened nor progressive.”
Ikerd is a believer in the small farm and in sustainability. His book, “Small Farms Are Real Farms,” is a battle cry, a call for a revolution in agriculture.
But Ikerd, who spent 30 years in various professional positions at North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University and the University of Georgia along with Mizzou, knows what he’s up against.
“The sustainability revolution is not one that will be fought on the battlefield, in the streets, or even necessarily in the halls of Congress. Instead it’s a battle for the hearts and minds of the American people,” said Ikerd, who believes the stage is set for change.
The present industrial model is propped up by government subsidies, he said. People are still hungry in this country while many others are suffering from health problems due to the food being raised. Our rural communities have been devastated by industrial agriculture while environmental issues abound, said Ikerd.
The idea is not to simply get bigger and bigger, the ways farms have been developing in this country but to adopt a sustainable model that allows for smaller farms to prosper, he said.
“The industrialization of farming—with its mechanization, hired labor, genetic selection, irrigation, agrochemicals, antibiotics and hormones, and more recently, genetic engineering—is the result of farmers’ historic struggle to establish control over the chaos of nature,” said Ikerd.
“The failure of industrialization is seen in the ever-growing ecological and social costs, which are not reflected in food prices but borne by society in general,” he said.
"There is an alternative," said Ikerd, referring to a system that involves small farms, a system which can be financially successful. "Small farmers focus on creating value, as well as reducing costs--they are niche marketers. They give individual consumers what they want, rather than produce bulk commodities for mass markets," he said.
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