Farming In Kansas

America was built on the principles of farming and, therefore, has always been fairly independent. Kansas has always been even more so due to our vast open plains, as well as the people living in Kansas. However, today, when it comes down to business, farming, they have become, in a way, controlled by their own system to make them dependent and reliant on everyone except for themselves. In Kansas, farming is everything to us, and, whether farmer or not, you are affected by the farming economy. The economy fluctuates and changes, farmers don’t know why, but everyone is affected. However, in the past, farmers never needed to rely on an economy because they provided for everyone, until the 1920’s when farms began shifting away from a traditional

Farms were self-sustainable, the operation cost was cheap, you didn’t farm as business, and most importantly, you didn’t have to rely on anyone. In the twenty-first century, farming has become like any other business with corporate offices, income summaries, bills, and a need for multiple people to make everything function. The way farming is versus the way farming was are totally different. In today’s world, we are seeing the sustainable family farm dying off. These farms provide high quality food and produce, challenge and compete between other small farms to create this high quality market, and don’t use up our natural resources. However, with the rise of corporate farms, food quality has been compromised, they kill off smaller farms and lessen the competition, and they are depleting the natural resources we have. On the flip side of each, though, sustainable farms cannot produce in mass quantities, it is much more labor intensive and harder to manage and take care of, and it there is much more to pay attention to. While corporate farms, on the other hand, can produce mass quantities because the whole system is geared to their crops, tractors make everything much easier and less labor extensive, and they create a number of jobs supporting

When people first set foot in America in the 1800’s, there was immediate farming taking place because people had to eat. Of course, the Indians had been farming way before the English white-man landed here, but many of the crops we grow today come from Europe, as well. Farmers and consumers alike were always open to different and better farming methods because change are a good thing. Therefore, self-farming did nothing but grow, adapt, and feed people, without the government being involved, for roughly 150 years. In fact, this was even stated in the constitution. Article I, Section 8 provides “no role for the federal government in regulating American farmers.”(Origins of Subsidies) Under the secretary of agriculture, J. Sterling Morton, even during times of economic hardships, he would not let the government step in and hand out subsidies by simply following the instructions of constitution.(Origins of Subsidies) The government allowed success and failure, instead of creating its own prices to make a fake front of the market so farmers could succeed. However, going back to what was previously mentioned, farming wasn’t just a job, it was how you kept your family fed, and; therefore, everyone was a farmer to a certain degree. The concept which is really important to grasp hold of is there was no farm economy because there was no need for one. Generally speaking, you were dependent