thumb|Eastern European farmerA
farmer is a person who raises living organisms for food or raw materials.
Definition
The term
farmer usually applies to a person who grows field
crops, and/or manages
orchards or
vineyards, or raises
livestock or
poultry such as chicken and cows. Their products are usually sold in a
market or, in a subsistence economy, consumed by the family or pooled by the community.
In some countries, a farmer engaged in raising cattle, horses, or sheep for profit is usually referred to as a
rancher (US),
grazier (Australia) or
stockman. Special terms also apply to other people who
husband domesticated animals, namely
shepherd for
sheep farmers and
goatherd for
goat farmers. The term
dairy farmer is applied to those engaged milk production. A
poultry farmer is one who concentrates on raising
chickens,
turkeys,
domesticated ducks and
geese, or is involved in
egg production. A person who raises a variety of vegetables for market may be called a
truck farmer or
market gardener.
In the context of
developing nations or other pre-industrial cultures, most farmers practice a meager
subsistence agriculture – a simple
organic farming system employing
crop rotation,
slash and burn or other techniques to maximize efficiency while meeting the needs of the household or community, using
saved seed which is native to the
ecoregion. In
developed nations however, a person using such techniques on small patches of land might be called a
gardener and be considered a
hobbyist. Alternatively, one may be driven into such methods by
poverty or, ironically--against the background of large-scale agribusiness--may become an organic farmer growing for discerning consumers in the
local food market. Historically, one subsisting in this way may have been known as a
peasant.
thumb|right|Farmers harvesting rice in JapanIn developed nations , a farmer (as a profession) is usually defined as someone with an ownership interest in
crops or
livestock, and who provides land or management in their production. Those who provide only labor are most often called
farmhands. Alternatively, growers who manage farmland for an absentee landowner, sharing the harvest (or its profits) are known as
sharecroppers or
sharefarmers. In the context of
agribusiness, a farmer can be almost anyone – and can legally qualify under
agricultural policy for various
subsidies, incentives, and
tax relief.
Farmers are often members of local, regional or national farmers' unions or agricultural producers' organizations and can exert significant political influence. The
Grange movement in the United States was effective in advancing farmer's agenda, especially in the early 20th century against the railroads and agribusiness interests. The
FNSEA is very politically active in France, especially on the
genetically modified food issue. Agricultural producers small and large are represented globally through the International Federation of Agriculture Producers (IFAP), which is the democractic voice for farmers' at the world level, representing over 600 million farmers through 120 national farmers' unions in 79 countries.
Nicknames
Farmers are sometimes given
nicknames and these vary between countries:
- * Cow-cocky, or simply, cocky
See also
