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Taxation and Food Production

How our tax system favors corporate farming, animal factories, pesticides, chemicals and food processing over family farms, animal husbandry, organic farming and fresh produce.

Competing Farm Types

• Corporate farms
• Full-time family farms
• Speculative "hobby" farms

How tax policy

• Encourages speculation and drives up farmland prices
• Makes it almost impossible for ordinary people to own farms
• Shifts the competitive advantage away from family farms
• Discourages organic farming
• Favors raising livestock and grain over produce
• Favors factory farming over raising free-range livestock
• Favors nationally distributed processed food over locally distributed produce

Things to consider:

• Full-time family-owned farms have higher yields per dollar value of farmland than corporate farms or weekend "hobby" farms.
• Taxes on farmland give a a competitive advantage to family-owned farms.
• Tax breaks on farmland and "clean and green" land attract speculators and corporate monopolists, driving farmland prices out of the reach of potential farming families.
• States with the lowest farmland taxes are far more dominated by corporate farms than those with the highest farmland taxes.
• Farmland ownership concentrated through the decades from 1860 to 1890, but grew less concentrated as government began taxing real estate more heavily from 1890 to 1910. As governments gradually shifted away from real estate taxes between 1910 and 1990, farmland ownership concentrated once again.
• Raising livestock and grain for feed requires more land and less labor than raising produce for human consumption.
• Shifting taxes from land values to labor and labor products favors raising livestock, and particularly favors labor-efficient "factory farming" over raising fruits and vegetables.
• Large food processors are very labor efficient, but waste produce, making them land inefficient. Taxes on labor shift agriculture toward processed food, while taxes on land value shift it toward fresh produce.
• Because produce is perishable, small farmers turn to livestock, which is not bid down by large buyers at harvest time. Many would prefer to raise produce if not for the market domination of large buyers.
• Organic farming requires labor with levels of skill and dedication rarely found on corporate farms.