Most farms are small businesses. We just don’t talk about them that way.

During Small Business Week, we celebrate entrepreneurs, founders, and local business owners who keep our communities running. Coffee shops, boutiques, service providers, startups. The businesses we see every day.

But farmers are rarely included in that conversation. And they should be.

When most people think about farming, they picture the physical work. The long days in the field, the early mornings, the unpredictability of weather, the care of animals and land. And while all of that is true, it only tells part of the story.

Farms are not just places of production. They are businesses.

Behind every farm is an operator making constant decisions about pricing, distribution, product mix, customer relationships, and long-term sustainability. Farmers are navigating rising input costs, fluctuating markets, and external pressures that are largely out of their control. At the same time, they are responsible for generating revenue and maintaining profitability, just like any other small business owner.

Growing the product is only half the job. Selling it is the other half. And that’s where a major gap exists.

Farmers are expected to wear an extraordinary number of hats. They are soil scientists, meteorologists, veterinarians, equipment operators, and conservationists. Increasingly, they are also expected to be marketers, building a brand, attracting customers, creating content, and communicating their value in a crowded and competitive landscape.

But most farmers were never taught how to do that.

They were not taught how to position their products, how to differentiate themselves in the market, or how to build a customer base that comes back week after week. They were not taught how to price for profitability or how to translate the realities of farming into a story that resonates with today’s consumer.

And yet, their success increasingly depends on it.

This is the disconnect that led me to start The Farmer's Feed.

If we want farms to survive and grow, we have to expand the conversation beyond production. We have to recognize that farming is not just an agricultural activity, it is an entrepreneurial one.

Marketing is not a nice to have for farms. It is a critical part of running a sustainable business.

When a farm struggles, it is not always because they do not know how to grow. In many cases, it is because they do not have the time, resources, or support to grow the business side of what they do.

And when farms disappear, the impact extends far beyond the farm itself. We lose local food sources, open land, economic activity, and a piece of the community’s identity.

So during Small Business Week, it is worth asking a simple question: are we treating farms like the small businesses they actually are?

Are we supporting farmers not just as producers, but as entrepreneurs?

That question is at the core of my work with The Farmer's Feed, helping farmers and local food brands grow by making their businesses more visible, more connected to their communities, and better equipped to compete in today’s market.

If you are thinking about how to better support local farms, or if you are a farmer trying to navigate the business side of what you do, I would love to connect.