Differentiate between industrial agriculture and subsistence agriculture Subsistence farming and intensive farming are two very different farming methodologies. To start of subsistence farming, otherwise known as subsistence agriculture, is a very simple type of farming. The farmers in this methodology just raise or grow the right amount of food for their families to consume, no more and no less. Subsistence farmers grow sufficient crops that are assured to last for the entire year for a predetermined number of heads. Industrial farming is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops. The methods of industrial agriculture are technoscientific, economic, and political.