Have you ever wonder what kind of farm is better? Nowadays, people have a lot of demands for food namely: quality, price and environmental effects. This makes many debates between family farm and company farm. Therefore, this essay will help people have a better understanding about family farm and agribusiness by comparison and contrast advantages and disadvantages of these two types of production methods.
To begin with, what is family farm and agribusiness? According to the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (2005), “Family farm is one in which the majority of the business is owned by the operator and individuals related to the operator by blood, marriage, or adoption, including relatives that do not live in the operator household family”. When it comes to the definition of agribusiness, Merriam-Webster dictionary stated: “Agribusiness is an industry engaged in the producing operations of a farm, the manufacture and distribution of farm equipment and supplies, and the processing, storage, and distribution of farm commodities”.
In regard to family farm, it is true to say that small-scale farm has significantly benefits. Firstly, some people believe that the local food which is produced by family farm usually has high quality. In other words, small farm may make more effort and spend more time than that agribusiness makes their food with to make sure that local food is fresh, safe and healthy. One explanation for this is that family farm often produces limited amount of products and immediately sells them for local people. Thus, food from small farm is quite fresh. In addition, local farm produces food with a little or none of pesticides, hormones and antibiotics (“Industrial vs. Family Farms Comparison”, n.d.). Obviously, this provides healthy food for customers. Secondly, it is true to say that family farm help protecting the natural environment. Many people claim that small farm is likely to use fewer chemicals than large farm