No, you don't need 50 acres to call yourself a farmer

There is a lot of misinformed discussion about what it means to be a "farmer" floating around the internet today. We need more small-scale farms in this country, whether the big farms like it or not.

“You’re not a real farmer! All you do is sell stuff at a farm stand,” many have said to me online. They’re speaking from an outdated view on what it means to be a farmer, or own a farm, in our country today.

I get where that view comes from. Big farms continue to grow in size as they swallow up the little guys countrywide. It’s a good thing for a few corporate sharks at the top of that arrangement. But it’s a very, very bad thing for our food supply chain, environment, soil, animals, small farming families, and future of America’s open spaces.

This outdated view is what stops so many from buying an acre or two of America’s rural land today. They don’t believe they can “farm” just two acres of land and still make it work. They buy into the idea that you need dozens and dozens of acres of land, a tractor you’ll never pay off, and plenty of pesticides to make a go at it.

I believe it’s critically important we shed this view - and soon. Not only can you feed your entire family on 1/3rd of an acre, but you can sell surplus at a farm stand or farmer’s market from that same slice of land.

People have been doing that for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the last century that we developed a method of farming thousands of acres at a time, reliant on pesticides and foreign fertilizer to feed the population.

Now, I am not commenting on what happened to the American farmer here. The markets were set against them from the beginning. Pesticides became a way to ensure a steady paycheck. And because of that, we find ourselves in a serious environmental situation today.

It’s this environmental situation that makes the re-learning of what it means to be a “farmer” paramount.

Farming, defined

If someone were to ask you, right now, what the definition of farming is, you’d probably say to them it’s making somewhere around $15,000 a year from agricultural products OR working 50+ acres, right? We tend to think in big numbers.

The USDA definition of what constitutes a farm may shock you.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA):

A farm is any place that produced and sold (or normally would have sold) $1,000 or more of agricultural products during the year.

The Internal Revenue Service generally defines farming as:

The business of cultivating land or raising/harvesting agricultural commodities for profit.

Under New York Agriculture & Markets Law (Section 301), a farm operation includes:

Land and on-farm buildings used in the production, preparation, and marketing of crops, livestock, and livestock products.

Nowhere in any of these definitions is there a 1) acreage minimum or 2) monetary requirement that you make $15,000/year. The USDA definition sets a very doable goal of just $1,000/year, which can be easily reached with a farm stand, and the IRS doesn’t even apply a monetary requirement to their definition.

But what do all of these definitions have in common? They involve taking land, of any size or variety, and using it to grow food, create agricultural commodities, or raise livestock. That’s it.

That means that yes, you can turn your 1/4th of an acre backyard into a farm. And so many are documenting their journeys on social media right now of doing just that.

Instead of relying on one or two corporations to feed our towns, we could rely on 10 or 15 different families, all working just an acre or two to add some surplus produce or livestock products to their farm stands. Pretty soon, in the north, our farmer’s markets will be back outside, where local families come to town and do exactly that, presenting the community with food for 50 to 100 people.

Many of these vendors at the farmer’s markets tell me they work just a few acres of land. Some even share land or have arrangements with other farmers where they all grow and work the land together. Some still live in apartments, even, but travel to their acre or two each day to resume working the land.

ALL of it constitutes farming.

The great wealth transfer

We are living through the largest wealth transfer of our lifetimes in the form of farmland. Having started in 2023, $24 trillion dollars worth of farmland is now changing hands through 2043 (source: the Farmer’s Almanac). As I am sure you have noticed from headlines today, this farmland is certainly changing hands, and not in a good way. Foreign corporations, investment funds, big solar and wind companies, and developers are snatching up this land left and right. They know this wealth transfer is occurring.

We need everyday people to access this wealth transfer as well… even if you’ve never farmed before. I am in the same boat as you. To garden or to farm is to be human. I promise you that you will be able to figure it out.

But for people to be brave and take up the art of gardening or farming on just a few acres, we need the outdated view of what it means to be a farmer to drift into the sands of time.

I cover the American farmland transfer, buying land with loans, financing farmland, starting a homestead (solo), and the big solar takeover of the U.S. right here on my Substack, so stick around.

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