Oi Stoney! Making a living on a small farm

[Boots]

Just found this and thought you might like a read of it. Makes good sense and I found it good to reflect on.




Making a Living on a Small Farm



John Ikerd

University of Missouri



Published in Sustaining People through Agriculture column, Small Farm Today, November/December, 2000 issue



In times past, forty acres, a mule, and a lot of hard work were all that it took to make a living on a farm. But those times are gone. A family could live well on a lot less money in those times, but hard work also was worth a lot more back then – regardless of whether it was done by a mule or by a man. The conventional wisdom was that anyone who was willing to work hard enough could make it on the farm. During the financial crisis of the 1980s, many farmers virtually “worked themselves to deathâ€Â