Have you noticed that there are considerably fewer locally owned grocery stores, specialty stores, restaurants and gas stations operated by someone in town?

Some have been able to stay in business, but others simply have been too small to compete with larger chain stores.

And just like other businesses, family farms have had to get bigger in order to survive. Large family farms in Virginia are still family-owned and family-operated.

“Anyone who says that large farms are not family farms is giving an inaccurate statement,” said David Hickman, an Accomack County vegetable grower and Farm Bureau member. His family farm has grown about eight times in the past 35 years.

“Part of that was to accommodate another generation, but it’s also to be profitable,” said Hickman, who has had both of his sons join the family business.

He explained that overhead costs for farmers—equipment, fuel, insurance, feed and fertilizer—cost so much more than they did 30 years ago that he must farm more acres to cover expenses and be profitable.

“You used to be able to buy a tractor for $50,000, but today it’s $125,000,” Hickman explained. “You have to have enough acres to spread out the additional expense.”

So it’s economies of scale: Farms have to get bigger in order to survive. But as they get bigger, they’re still owned by families.

And those family farms are supplying Virginians with a safe, fresh, locally grown food supply.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 98 percent of all U.S. farms are owned by individuals, family partnerships or family corporations. Some people refer to these as “corporate farms,” but they usually are incorporated among two or three family members, a father and son or daughter, or other family partnerships.

People also mistake family corporations for “factory farms,” which are run by one corporation that often owns or controls all aspects of the production process, including animal rearing, feed production, processing, packaging and distribution. Those corporate operations make up only 2 percent of U.S. farms and account for only 14 percent of U.S. farm product sales.