As long as there is a chance to lock in low fuel and fertilizer prices per year farming is a profitable and the granddaddy of green industry. Seed and Implement costs have been extrema but those are historically set by the pricing of the previous years crops. The rest is very low speed gambling and market watching.
Wonder if anyone figured out this leads to 3rd world having less choice in feeding people? All the critisim as ethonol as transport fuels is present in taking productive farmland off the market. Lets be real, marginal farm land in this market will be sold off to the newest sucker traveling the plains in search of green money.
By small farms I meant no more than a few hundred acres and many less than ten. In my area you can actually make a decent income from a farm stand along with feeding your family with locally grown vegetables. In Puerto Rico you can easily feed yourself and a family with two acres and so much grows in the wild you can harvest locally. High fuel costs are having the same impact on those with wood lots. It once again pays to heat with wood if you can do it.