Modern Farmer

MAY 7, 2024

Murphy Family Farms (later bought by Smithfield Foods) helped out with the loan needed to get started. The Faaborgs farmed hogs for 30 years. When Tanner Faaborg came back to the farm as an adult, the family began thinking about ways to transition out of hog farming. “We

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Farming Farming Greenhouse Poultry 108

Modern Farmer

MAY 7, 2024

In part one and part two of our series on transitioning out of factory farming, we heard from both farmers who have made or are making the transition, as well as the organizations that support producers through this process.

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Farming Farming Contract Farming Processing 120

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 23, 2024

The pet food industry traditionally relies on factory farm byproducts for its ingredients, a practice the industry touts as more sustainable as it produces less waste and cheaper food. Farm Hounds Family farms often struggle to stay profitable as agriculture becomes more concentrated.

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Food Farming Farming Compost 113

Food Tank

MAY 3, 2024

Iowa is the number-one pork producer in the United States, but it has relatively few hog farms. Large factory farm facilities have replaced smaller family farms. The state lost nearly 90 percent of its hog farms from 1982 to 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census data.

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Ruralism Farming Farming Ranching 116

Food Tank

APRIL 29, 2024

But the grain surpluses incentivized by the Wall Street Farm Bill led to subsidized cheap feed, giving rise to the sorts of industrial factory farms that make up the Hog Baron’s empire. Although the Wall Street Farm Bill has been repeatedly extended and tweaked since 1996, the core of the law has remained the same.

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Family Farming Acre Farming Farming 98

Sustainable Food Trust

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Worse still, many of them have invested large amounts of money in huge buildings to house factory farmed animals, and they are financially exposed with no alternative deployment for the infrastructure they have borrowed on.

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Modern Farmer

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

The tips are especially helpful for folks hoping to make a go of farming on smaller plots of land. Given the challenges in an industry dominated by factory farms, such as slim profit margins and little control over pricing and markets, between 52 percent and 79 percent of small family farms are at high financial risk.

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Farming Farming Acre Marketing 123