I recently attended the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company Garden Show in Mansfield, Missouri. One of the vendors was selling bedding plants for fall gardens and serving herb tea; he also sold tea bags, which make his herbs a year-round business, He does this on one acre, with half an acre open and a small greenhouse. So is he a vegetable grower, a greenhouse manager, a small farmer, an agri-preneur, or all of the above? He is halfway to his goal, as his small acreage provides half his net income.

Another couple at the show raises garlic and herbs, and buys organic produce—tomatoes, peppers, etc.—from other growers for resale. Are they farmers or brokers? A banker who spoke at the National Small Farm Trade Show & Conference raised 20 acres of pumpkins in a subdivision on rented ground. Was he a banker, a farmer, or an agripreneur?

Elliot Coleman of national fame grossed $100,000 on 1.5 acres of greenhouses and netted $25,000. This disappointed him, so he furnished some seed money for two guys to build prototypes of tools to improve the efficiency of his work force—him, his wife, a farm manger, and two hired part-time hands at $9/hour. With more efficiency, he thinks he can gross $150,000 and have a bigger net income with the same labor. Is Elliot a market gardener, an author (he has written several books), a machinist and tool inventor, or all of the above?

The best farmers have always been known for being creative and inventive, but some of the ideas here use farming as a base or “leg up” into other businesses and markets.

In Missouri, the rural population has grown by 13%, while the city population grew by 8%. Missouri is second only to Texas in the number of farms.

“The significance is that Missouri farms are as much or more places to live as they are places to make a living,” explains Daryl Hobbs, an Extension senior associate with the University of Missouri’s Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis. “Computers and online jobs make the economy more diverse than ever, which means people are less restricted in where they live and work.”

Women are greatly changing agriculture. In the 1999 Census of Ag Economics and Land Ownership, women owned and rented 5% more land than men on all the farms in the U.S. In Vermont Farm Women, by Janet Majure, it is stated that women are the largest and fastest growing group buying small farms: “In ten years, 75% of the American farmland will be owned by women.”

Retired farmers number 290,000; these are people who are continuing farming after retirement or people in their 50s and 60s entering agriculture as beginning farmers.

Community Supported Agriculture, local production, direct marketing to the consumer via farm sales or farmersÕ markets, and farmers becoming food processors are just a part of the many changes taking place today. Our readers may consider themselves small farmers, family farmers, gardeners, market gardeners, hobby farmers, truck farmers, part-time farmers, homesteaders, ranchers, retired farmers, agripreneurs, entrepreneurs, businesspeople, marketers, sellers, or landholders. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but may not be recognized by another name—we want our title to reflect the changing face of American agriculture and to be recognizable by those doing the changing.

All of the changes in agriculture have prompted us to add to our name—Small Farm Today—to more clearly represent our changing agriculture. The addition—Town & Country Landholder—recognizes the many small places right on the edge of or just outside town, like the people I mentioned earlier. Many of these landholders farm, but do not consider themselves farmers. For example, food processing jams and jellies is an add-on value opportunity, but it is totally foreign to conventional farmers. We want to acknowledge everyone that does all the “farming stuff” and yet may not consider themselves farmers.

Times are changing and we want to keep up with the changes so we can continue to present the best of both the old and the new.