The increase in size of U.S. farms has been motivated by the quest for economic efficiency in an effort to reduce the financial costs of food. However, the “true” cost of food also includes costs that are not currently reflected in the costs of production—these are instead “externalized” or imposed on society and nature.

The external economic costs of farming have risen as farms have grown larger, so it’s reasonable to believe a relationship exists between farm size and external economic costs. The “true” cost of American food, however, must include the non-economic social and ecological costs that cannot be converted into economic costs or internalized. Furthermore, there are good reasons to believe the non-economic costs of large farms may matter even more than the external economic costs.

An implicit assumption of “true cost accounting” is that costs should include the cost of sustainability—in the case of food, this means including the full economic, social, and ecological costs of sustainable farming. Previous concerns for ecological and social externalities have now merged into concern for sustainability: an ability to meet the needs of all in the present without diminishing opportunities for the future.

Most advocates of sustainable agriculture seem to believe that in farming size doesn’t matter. They contend that farms can be managed sustainably or unsustainably regardless of how large or small they may be. I readily admit that most small farms today are probably unsustainable. However, I believe today’s so-called “modern” large farms would need to be managed like well-managed small farms in order to be sustainable.