Research Review of Consumer and Small Farm Horticulture

Abstract

Abstract Those responsible for publicly sponsored agricultural research are frequently accused of serving only the interests of large-scale commercial agriculture and the agri-business and agri-chemical industries. Instead of denying this charge, spokesmen for federal and state research institutions often express the opinion that we must concentrate our limited research resources on the primary source of our impressive food and fiber production, which is large-scale agriculture. This kind of rhetoric has nurtured the impression that very little agricultural research is applicable to small farm or garden enterprises, because administrators of agricultural research do not consider these enterprises important. It seemed to us, therefore, that the first requirement in assessing the research and research needs of consumer horticulture was to ascertain the numerical importance of the likely beneficiaries of small farm research and the potential contribution to human welfare of such research. We chose to consider research for all small agricultural enterprises, because the same technology should apply to small, intensively cultivated plots whether they are home gardens, small commercial farms with high value crops, or subsistence farms.