How do we know if small farms matter?

Do small farms matter? 

Or, in other words: do they actually make a difference? Or are we all just fooling ourselves? 

This is a question I see posed often on social media. Why? Because farmers love to argue about it. It doesn’t matter the type of farmer - big, small, vegetable, livestock. All types will go round and round on it. 

I’m not much of a social media person, and I don’t like to argue online with others. But, more importantly, I think this is the wrong question to start with. 

Instead, I'd ask this first: Does it matter if you have a choice over your food? 

And, relatedly: Does it matter if you can decide how you want food raised? Or where you want it raised? Or who you want to receive it from? 

Of course it does. That’s why you’re reading this. You know your choices at the big box store aren't really choices at all, and you know that you deserve something different. 

It’s why companies at all scales, but especially big companies, try to act like small ones, with “handwritten” notes on mass-produced boxes of granola bars, or “sustainability” claims on laundry detergent, or “local” stickers on Costco-produced honey. 

Food choice always matters. Connection to real people always matters. Even if they’re only giving you the illusion of choice, big companies that have monopolized the industry still want you to think there is a choice when it comes to those things. 

They're hoping that you can buy the box of mass-produced things and still pretend that "Annie" isn't really General Mills is disguise. Or that you can believe the cute little farming family on the back of your bag really inspected your oats. 

And that’s why small farms matter, right? Because operate outside of the system. And because of that, they actually give you a real choice. 

Since small farms don’t participate in a standardized, industrialized system, they can raise food differently. And that means you can pick and choose what you like, or don’t like. 

It means you can ask direct questions and get direct answers from the person who's actually doing the work to grow your food. It means that you can filter out ingredients you want to avoid, and support practices you believe in. 

It means you can pinpoint a specific place - street address, city, state, zip code - and say that's where my food comes from. And guess what? They're open this day. I'll go see it for myself! 

So if we want to argue about whether small farms will help us solve climate change, or reduce cancer rates from fertilizers leaking into drinking water, then, no, we probably don't need to focus on small farms. Those are problems that Big Ag created, and that Big Ag needs to solve. 

But it doesn't mean that small farms don't matter. Because if you're buying from a smaller farmer? You know that it matters very much. 

Small farms give you the power back that you deserve. And when you have that power of choice back, you can decide. Do I want the food that's better - better for my body, better for the land, better for the animals - in my home? 

Only you can decide that. But we're here to give you the chance to ask that question at all.