People no longer spin their own thread, weave their own cloth, and make their own clothes.
Most of the metal objects we own are cranked out by the millions in a factory, not hand-forged by the village blacksmith.
And so on.
To the extent those activities still exist, they are hobbies, or maybe skills exhibited as part of a tourist attraction.
For some reason, though, the "family farmer" still has mystique, while the "family weaver" and the "family blacksmith" don't. There are a number of reasons for that, but on a basic level, the situations are exactly the same, and are occurring for exactly the same reasons -- large-scale mechanized production is simply more efficient on every level.
When clothes were spun, woven, and tailored by hand, most people could only afford one or two garments.
When all metal objects were hand-forged by a smith, they were scarce and super-expensive. Sometimes people would burn down old buildings just to salvage the nails.
Same thing with food. Other than for psychological or medical reasons (anorexia and such), it is very, very rare for people to starve to death in modern Western societies. That wasn't the case in the era of the "simple family farmer".
"the "family farmer" still has mystique" It has a mystique because its a useful political fairytale that still proves effective. It is probably spun and refined in the lobbying arms of the large corporate farms in much the same way the "personal carbon footprint" is in the lobbying / advertising arms of oil companies. Large farming companies have massive political / lobbying influence and use it to their financial benefit, family farms get almost none of that. Similar to how politicians use soldiers as shiny tokens but for the most part do almost nothing for them but the large defense firms sure do get a lot of dollars.
Agriculture specifically has been an important part of American mythology from day 1. For a lot of people, farming is either a personal/family identity, or part of a broader sense of identity in the USA.
It is also somewhat different from other "traditional" professions/trades in that it was not obsoleted by factories and mass production.
"Family weaving" disappeared because it became economically unviable. "Family farming" did not disappear because it is still economically viable, and it holds an extra-special place in the American cultural identity.
Mechanized agriculture is not at all like other forms of mass production. It comes with an environmental debt that must be repaid, or the land becomes barren. To call it more efficient is to ignore this debt, which we can get away with until all the fertile land is gone.
People romanticize small farms because they're stuck in crowded cities working industrial rat race jobs that are meaningless in the large scheme of things. Is it any wonder that the idea of space, beautiful natural surroundings and a hand in creating something really meaningful (and what is more meaningful than food?) would lead there?
People no longer spin their own thread, weave their own cloth, and make their own clothes.
Most of the metal objects we own are cranked out by the millions in a factory, not hand-forged by the village blacksmith.
And so on.
To the extent those activities still exist, they are hobbies, or maybe skills exhibited as part of a tourist attraction.
For some reason, though, the "family farmer" still has mystique, while the "family weaver" and the "family blacksmith" don't. There are a number of reasons for that, but on a basic level, the situations are exactly the same, and are occurring for exactly the same reasons -- large-scale mechanized production is simply more efficient on every level.
When clothes were spun, woven, and tailored by hand, most people could only afford one or two garments.
When all metal objects were hand-forged by a smith, they were scarce and super-expensive. Sometimes people would burn down old buildings just to salvage the nails.
Same thing with food. Other than for psychological or medical reasons (anorexia and such), it is very, very rare for people to starve to death in modern Western societies. That wasn't the case in the era of the "simple family farmer".