BUSINESS OF FARMING
FAMILY AND FARM BUSINESS:
A FEW BEST PRACTICES IN THINKING ABOUT FARM RESILIENCY BY K E L L I R U S S E L L , P H . D . Ninety-six percent of all U.S. farms are family-owned, and the number for Alabama mirrors the national average.1 When talking about the challenges that family farms face, farmers often discuss factors directly related to production and farm profitability: the market, weather and agricultural labor. These factors are all outside of a farmer’s control and are known collectively as “extraordinary stressors.” In addition to these stressors that
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Cooperative Farming News
family farms have no control over, family farms face common or “everyday stressors”: the managing of family schedules, childcare, relationships and work/life balance, which are stressors also experienced by those who are not involved in agriculture. Research on family farm resiliency shows that sustaining and continuing the family business—the farm—can be difficult in different seasons of life depending on the extraordinary and
