Fix What\’s Broken – Ricardo Salvador

For too many it is basically a no win situation if you\’re a farmer and so they ask \”How can I get off this treadmill?\” The dream of farming can become a nightmare in a broken system explains  Ricardo Salvador, the Director of Food and Environment for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Farm choice has traditionally been either playing the low value, high volume commodity game or high value crops where farm families can make a living on small acreage. Ricardo shares the fact that very few farmers make enough money that they can live off of faming alone. The majority subsidize their income from an off farm job.  Of the 2 million \”farms\” identified by the USDA, about 300,000 are attempting to make a living from faming. Just 70,000 farmers are turning out 75% of Agriculture\’s output. The mechanized industrialization of the food system increases output but has led to \”de-skilling\” and other issues from farm to tables. Ricardo Salvador explains the problems and the solutions. www.ucsusa.org