I am a fierce advocate for farms and farming.  But what is a farm?  And who is a farmer?

There are lots of social media posts on this topic.  I write often on this topic and have asked these questions most of my career.  Who am I serving?  When I taught, I asked my undergraduate students these questions.  There are a multitude of valid definitions that are not the same one.

In December, I introduced the Biomass Rules framework of relevance in the post, Industry Terminology has a Powerful Policy Impact – Definitive Power.  If the topic falls on the production side of agriculture (supply side) it will be oriented toward macroeconomic and policy context, or microeconomic technology contexts.  On the demand side, is consumer choice, or consumer satisfaction.  In the Venn diagram of these three contexts, there is plenty of overlap with one or two of the other regions.  Sometimes there is no overlap.

Last week, three relevant, important farm meetings took place, nearly at the same time.  They each offered the farm audience information in a specific context.

• The American Farm Bureau Federation, Annual Convention, an member policy meeting.
• FARMCON, a technology showcase, industry-driven frontier of emerging technology.
• An a more regional, Top Farmer Conference, at Purdue University (and virtual), a state-of-the-art, Extension-style farm decision benchmark meeting.

All three of these meetings have policy, technology, and Extension decision-making (choice) happening.  In fact, it is difficult to monetize farmer values (demand) that shape their policy-making work (long-run supply).

The annual American Farm Bureau (AFBF) Meeting is an internal meeting for its farmer members.  It is easy for farmers in the business of farming to become a Farm Bureau producer member.  I served as a Farm Bureau economist for 8 years, 30 years ago.  I was always amazed at the Farm Bureau ability to bring farmer values to the national level and moving forward on their behalf.  Farm Bureau is an industry association and for over 100 years has provided a conduit for bringing goods and services to rural America when no one else was getting it done.  These include farm inputs, rural insurance, and even the first farm educators that later moved into farm Extension.  Farm Bureau meetings, even at the national level, have a feel of going to a large church meeting.  In all three areas: policy, technology, and choice, Farm Bureau advances their values.

It is difficult to describe marvel of what it means to coordinate the values of all their member states that often do not hold the same values.  For the most part, the attending members are part of an enormous family and are filled with passion to convince their farm ‘siblings’ from across the country to side with them on various emerging issues.  Farm Bureau has been doing this for a long time and it works pretty well.

FARMCON is an industry showcase of what is on the horizon. While the AFBF Convention is about moving forward while preserving values (and policy) in their industry, FARMCON is the exciting wild west of tomorrow for the farming industry.  It represents the industry frontier of possibilities.  There is a cost of not staying relevant in technology adoption in the very competitive production sector of agriculture.  The registration fees for FARMCON are much higher than for the AFBF Convention, and still they have sold out the last two years.

Information is expensive.  Riding on the breaking wave of production technology for the attendees of FARMCON is worth the additional costs.  When you snooze, you lose.  FARMCON provides a menu or catalogue of emerging tools and technologies to keep adapters competitive in the challenging commodity production markets.

Purdue’s Top Farmer Conference provides evidence-based decision points for regional farmers to make the best business choices.  To be successful, these conferences must also fit within the context of farmer values (AFBF) and address the emerging leaders in the production technology field (FARMCON).  The $150, 1-day conference made it the most accessible and therefore cost-effective return on one’s registration.  It was 4 hours to commute to West Lafayette, Indiana (Purdue).  It was offered virtually also, but networking is one of the meeting attendance benefits for Biomass Rules.  I opted not to make the trip or attend virtually.

There are farms and farmers that would consider attending all three events (if it were logistically possible).  There are farms and farmers that would only ever consider attending one of the three types (technology, policy, or decision-making benchmarks).  All three venues provide valuable information for the production sector of agriculture.  It also highlights the very broad diversity of US farms and farmers.  There are also farms and farmers that fall outside of the intended audiences of these three farm-oriented events.

I follow a small farm on social media that I was certain when I met them at a University Extension meeting that they would not last long.  That was over a decade ago and they are still growing.  They continually remind me that motivated entrepreneurs can find a way to succeed on the ever-changing frontier of production agriculture.   They recently posted that their breeding herd of goats were mostly ‘knocked up’ and they were expanding their goat barns.  This young farm family is amazing in their creativity and level of energy.  They also remind me that I still have more to learn.

While US farms and farmers may never fit into a universal definition, a relevant framework for analysis is still a benefit.  The three meetings discussed here happened within days of each other across the nation.  I was struck by how diverse the need for farm information is for the US farming industry.

To be successful requires an ability to adapt and pivot, while also not wavering from the enterprises that are delivering well.  As accurate as that statement is, it does not snap the farming industry into a neat framework of analysis.  Therefore, the continued need to attempt to define the industry players.  The economic lens through which the economy is viewed also matters.  Three natural breaks through which industries operate are technology (short-run supply), policy (long-run supply), and consumer choice (demand).