Are farmers a class?

A friend was asked at a seminar recently if farmers are a class – this is my off the cuff answer. To begin with the basics you have to consider two aspects: what is a farmer and what do we mean by class? For me, class fundamentally is a relation to the means of production: are you a worker, an owner or something a bit in-between. And within farming there are multiple positions within that. Generally-speaking there are graduations within classes. I don’t subscribe to a sociological theory of class that will integrate forms of social differentiation like upbringing, income, culture and so on. Doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re unimportant in understanding people and society etc. but for me class shouldn’t be confused. I.e. just because someone has a regional accent doesn’t mean they’re working class, which unfortunately in the UK is probably the most common everyday way that people determine someone’s class position, which I think causes all sorts of confusion. The term farmer can be used confusingly and without specificity: I run with the most common understanding that the farmer is the person who is in control of the farm. Usually they’re the business owner (and often the landowner), but sometimes they’re a senior manager.

In farming, firstly there are those who are fully farmworkers, and this group is divided into two broad categorisations based on citizenship rights. Those who are not UK citizens are subjected to less rights than those who are and this has significant impact on the quality and security of their job and domestic life. Migrant workers represent roughly a third of all farmworkers in the UK who are not in a position of ownership or control. Of the rest a large number (no idea if the data exists – haven’t seen it) will come from another farm, usually a family farm. This might indicate that their own farm isn’t economically viable enough by itself or it might be they’re from a big family that can’t employ everyone or they’re younger and after new experiences and skills. This complicates the picture as to a straight divide between workers and owners in farming. They might work on other farms for 10 years to build their own skill and knowledge base before going back to a farm they will take over and inherit (or join the family partnership etc. – there are variations on this pattern). And of course a percentage of farmworkers will always be workers – they will never own their own farm or become a tenant. Some will find a position of management one day which can bring significant perks like a very good wage, a house, a car etc. and some will stay in a more precarious position. Therefore within the class of workers on farms meaningful distinctions exist.

Within the class of farm owners there are multiple distinctions too. A basic one is that there are large farms and small farms. Larger farms will of course have a larger asset base (will be worth more) but are not necessarily more profitable but generally they can receive more subsidy income. And if we’re at a time of appreciating land prices then they will earn more from this than a smaller farm. Sometimes smaller farms are more heavily capitalised – i.e. they’ve invested in big sheds or polytunnels in order to increase the amount they can earn per acre. On many farms, large and small, someone in the family (and most farms are organised around the family unit) will need to earn money off the farm. Or failing that, they’ve undergone some form of farm business diversification into say tourism. Some farms employ people, some employ many, and lots don’t employ anyone outside of the family. It varies by sector with the most labour intensive sectors like horticulture or intensive poultry requiring the most labour to be hired.

Some farms are managed by tenants, who are business owners, and thus capitalists, but not always landowners and if so they don’t profit from the appreciation of land prices. But then it’s very common for landowning farmers to also tenant land too. usually the tenancy is more supplemental than foundational, but not always. For me the kind of true tenant position are those who tenant (lease) farms in their entirety and this usually includes their house – but not always because they might live off the farm in the village or town. Talking about tenants leads nicely into landowners to whom they pay a rent. Landowners also come in multiple flavours. Some are full-time or part-time farmers who own land. Some are landowners who rent out all of their land. Many inherit it and some buy into it with wealth accumulated from elsewhere. Sometimes the landowner gets the subsidy sometimes the tenant or the managing company. Sometimes it’s bought as a tax dodge.

Within the grand scheme of society under capitalism most farmers i.e. those who run farm businesses are not really making loads of money but some do and some do very well. Intensive poultry and pigs can look at £150,000 per year of profit. An upland extensive sheep or cattle farm might only earn £20,000 per year. Even the largest most profitable farms are still small fry in the world of capitalism and thus tend to fall into the category of what Marxists call the petite bourgeoisie – the small capitalists. But some landowners are from the class fraction of the bourgeoisie – the class of big capitalists. James Dyson would be an extreme version of this, as would the royal family. Lots of smaller landowning farmers also own other small business or have a portfolio of financial investments. As with all the above there are gradations and differentiation!

So are farmers a class? No is the short answer. Maybe they represent a class fraction but I’m not entirely sure yet that holds. Most important I think is to be clear about what we mean when we say farmer. My problem is that the term farmer is often used without being clear of all the variation that exists. Variations that are vital for trying to analyse farming today and which necessitates thinking through the place of race and gender as well. For as long as we think of an undifferentiated idea of the farmer we’re going to make mistakes. The farmer functions, if anything, not as a class but as a cultural identity.