General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Farmers Rally at White House to Protest Monsanto's GMO Empire [View all]There's no corner on the market, except possibly the price of seed. Market prices are determined by supply and demand. I sold my beans at $15/bushel, the same price every other farmer got for them. The price was nearly twice what I was expecting, but the yield was very poor so I still lost money. I got 9.25 bushels/acre.
The biggest farmers don't really have a big advantage in what they sell, they have more land to spread the high capital costs between. It helps them control their costs better.
Keep in mind that many of the commercial farmers in this area may have 10,000 acres or so. Many of them inherited a family farm and grew it, by buying more and more land. The reason to do it is to be able to buy bigger and bigger equipment that cuts labor costs. You really can't farm full time with much less than 1000 acres. You just can't make enough money to support a family on.
As far as growing something else, this is something I have considered. If I wanted to go full time I could start a truck farm and attend farmers markets by selling tomatoes, sweet corn, chickens, beef. I have enough land to do that on, but it would be a full time job and very time intensive. I can probably make more money staying at work, so I do that for now.