Keeping Small Family Farms Viable

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

There are several organizations that advocate for policy to support American farmers, but not all farmers have the same priorities. Iowa farmer Anna Pesek owns Over The Moon Farm, a pasture-raised direct to consumer poultry and livestock business.

Pesek… “ But especially in this moment where we're looking to the next farm bill, it's really important that voices like mine are at the policy-making table. I live and farm in Iowa and often in the... my type of farm, a small, independent direct-to-consumer farm we're often unrepresented, both on the state level but also on the federal level.”

Pesek is one of the founding members of the recently formed FACE Ag Network to bring farmer voices like hers to the policy table.

Pesek… “ I think oftentimes small, mid-size independent farmers like myself see that viability in the system is very hard unless we look to policy change. We can farm really well. We can do all of these things. We can work together on our production practices. But unless we make some fundamental changes to some major policy, it's really hard for farms like ours to financially and otherwise be viable.”

FACE is an acronym short for Farmers for Animals, Communities and the Environment.