Farms have gotten larger as equipment has gotten larger and more effective. This isn't particularly shocking. But much of the consolidation has been individuals and families building up large farms over time.
It certainly appears that production will continue to concentrate under fewer and fewer operators, so the scary stories about the corporate takeover of farming can still come true.
The majority of our food comes from huge farms running huge machinery. Thousands and thousands of those huge farms are owned by small groups (there's a few million farms in the US, so even 1% of them is still a lot). Are those groups families? Some of the are, some of them aren't.
It is worth noting that my family/their farm qualifies some of them as 1%ers (bayfront house in Newport which has architectural significance, members of several country clubs, etc). Personally I have decided to forego 100% of my inheritance and let my sisters take it (I have no problem with being rich, but I do believe that having an inheritance hanging over your head is an innovation killer)
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib-economic-informatio...
Farming is still an industry of family businesses. Ninety-nine percent of farms are family farms, and they account for 90 percent of farm production. Small farms make up 90 percent of the farm count and operate 46 percent of the Nation's farmland. Most farm production, however, occurs on midsize and large-scale family farms.
It's also worth asking the question, "Is the term 'family farm' meaningful in many of these cases?"