Farm Management

Synonyms

Agricultural systems; Farmers’ choices

Introduction

Interest in agricultural systems has surged in recent years for the eating public. Bestsellers like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Food Inc. are household names, and most Americans have considered the meaning of food terms like “organic,” “conventional,” and “GMOs.”

Behind the neatly packaged terms is a complex web of management choices about such details as labor practices, soil fertility, and pest invasion. The set of choices available to a modern farm manager is heavily shaped by government policies and corporate influence, while the specific choices they make are based on his/her resources, skills, climate, land base, economic situation, and social context.

This entry endeavors to paint, with a very broad brush, a picture of the kinds of decisions farm managers face and the larger implications of those choices.

Decisions Faced by Farmers

Managers create systems to control the following primary factors that affect farm success.