Will Family Farms Die Like Mom, Pop Stores?

Introduction | Task | Process | Guidance | Conclusion | Questions

Introduction
USA Today, November 1, 2000
     Once upon a time, in little towns like this across the USA, every business was family-owned.
     Mom and Pop ran the grocery store. Also the butcher shop. Drugstore. Movie house. Gas station. Most of their customers were area farm families.
     I grew up here. Worked at Rosser's Butcher Shop part time while in high school. Got $1 a week and all the salami and cheese I could eat.
     Rosser's is gone now, as are virtually all of the other mom-and-pop places. Not just here, but everywhere. Replaced by the Wal-Marts of the world.
     Family farms also are dwindling; many gobbled up by the huge, national agribusiness corporations. The national picture:
1950: 5.6 million farms, averaging 213 acres each.
1998: 2.2 million farms, averagin g 432 acres.
     The farm scene is a bit different here. South Dakota's revised constitution prohibits agricultural operations by outside corporations. They can manufacture farm products here, but can't farm the land.
     Result: There are fewer and bigger farms here, too. But most of the big owners are natives, who bought out relatives or friends who wanted to split for the coast.
     Example: Stanley Kopfmann, fourth-generation local farmer. Not only do he and his family now farm thousands of acres, but he started Stan's Feed & Grain elevators here, which ship out most of the area's soybeans, wheat and corn.
     Kopfmann also lured to town a Wisconsin manufacturer who produces Jack Link's Beef Jerky. Link's factory, just a little more than a year old, already has 444 employees. Many are area farm wives.
     "Things are going OK around this little farm town," Kopfmann said, grinning with pride. "We only have a population of 250 in town, but the one biggest business employs nearly twice that many from all around here."
     Many more old-fashioned family farms may go the way of mom-and-pop stores. But tough and smart new-style farmers such as Kopfmann will go and grow.
     

The Task
You are currently working for a state agency that collects data on various businesses. There will be a business fair at a major city in your state. Your assignment for the fair is to prepare a brochure that shows data on farming or ranching as a business. If you prefer, you can make a Web page that will be displayed on a computer at the fair or that can be viewed by people who cannot attend the fair. Your brochure or Web page must include the following information:

• at least five graphs or tables that show statistics about farming or ranching either over time or for a recent year. The statistics you find should be about farming or ranching in all fifty states;
• at least one scatter plot that shows some farming or ranching statistic over time from which you can make a prediction about farming in the future;
• a short description of what each graph or table shows;
• pictures or artwork that will make your brochure or Web page attractive.

You will get some ideas about how to complete your project from the Exercises in the textbook in Lessons 12-4 and 13-5.

The Process
To successfully complete this project, you will need to complete the following items.

• Find statistics about farming or ranching. For help, try these Web sites.
  www.infoplease.com and search for farming, ranching, or agriculture
  www.usda.gov/nass
  apps.fao.org
  www.statistics.com
  www.census.gov
  www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/trends/timecapsule.htm
  
• Find statistics about farming or ranching in your own state. The Web site address for each state is www.nass.usda.gov/ and then put the abbreviation for your state after the slash, such as ca for California.
• Make five types of graphs for the farming or ranching statistics. See the Exercise in Lesson 12-4 for an example. Try to use different types of graphs. For ideas on types of graphs, try these Web sites.
  How many people could stand side-by-side around the perimeter of the structure?
  www.usda.gov/news/usdakids/index.html
  www.usda.gov/nass/aggraphs/graphics.htm
• Make at least one scatter plot showing one farming or ranching statistic over time. Make a prediction for the future using your scatter plot. See the Exercise in Lesson 13-5 for an example.
• Write a short description of what each graph or table shows.
• Be creative. Add some additional data, information, or even pictures to your brochure or Web page.

Guidance
Here are some additional questions and ideas you may want to consider for your project.

1. What was the dust bowl of the 1930s? Read this article at
   www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/timeline/.
   
2. How does weather affect farming or ranching?
3. What are the expenses involved in operating a farm or ranch?
4. How is a computer helpful to a farming or ranching business?
5. What training is needed to successfully operate a farm or ranch?

Conclusion
Here are some ideas for concluding your project.

• Present your project to your class or at a family night.
• Present the information on a Web page. Have other students critique your project and help you to make improvements to your project.
• Write a one-page summary of your project, including what you have learned from researching this topic.
• Interview a farmer or rancher. Find out the advantages and disadvantages of operating a farm or ranch.

Questions

Lesson 12—4
For your brochure, you find these data about the number of farms per state as of 1999. (The number of farms is given in thousands.)

1. Choose a scale and an interval. Then make a frequency table for the data.
2. Make a histogram of the data.
3. You want to use data about the number of farms in your presentation about farming in America. What other data would be useful in helping you to decide whether farming is declining as a business in the U.S.?
4. Describe another type of graph you could make with these data.

Lesson 13—5
You find these data about gross cash income for farms in the U.S. from 1930 through 2000. Gross cash income is income before expenses.