Federal Definition Of ‘Farm’ Sheds Light On Honolulu Debate
What is a farm, anyway?
Last week, Civil Beat published a story titled “Tightening Farm Rules Might Sound Good, But Could Hurt Real Farmers” that jumped into the debate over a controversial proposed Honolulu ordinance.
After the story published on June 2, Civil Beat member Rory Flynn emailed me to alert me to the federal government’s definition of a farm, a definition that contrasts sharply with the city’s emphasis on the size of a farmer’s house rather than the productivity of his or her farm.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a farm as “any operation that sells at least one thousand dollars of agricultural commodities or that would have sold that amount of produce under normal circumstances.”
It’s a simple, inclusive idea. A thousand dollars per year breaks down to just $20 per week, which means that you don’t need to run a plantation to qualify. But there is a distinct line between growing yourself some tomatoes in the backyard and going through the effort to sell your haul to consumers at a market.
The definition is certainly not designed to be exhaustive, and even says that we are not constrained by this definition and that there are many different ways of segmenting farms into different classes. And maybe the county’s proposal is one way of doing that.
In light of the discussion we started last week, I thought it was interesting enough to highlight here. I’d be interested to hear what you think of this bare-bones federal standard.
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