Less Farms and Older Farmers
About a year ago, I read an article by Chuck Abbot published in the Successful Farming journal. The take aways have stuck with me — that farming in the US has reached a precarious point where those who are ready to retire won’t necessarily be replaced. With inflation, supply chain concerns, and impending climate changes, there’s a need to seriously consider what the future of food production looks like.
This article was heavy on the statistics and each of them is relevant to the story of aging farmers and the monopolization of agricultural production While the United States is considered a global agricultural power, the number of operational farms has been steadily declining since the early 1970’s. Before that, a huge plunge in farm numbers happened in the four decades after 1930 — mostly attributable to the green revolution’s changes to efficiency and the reduced need for laborers.
Today the U.S. has the smallest number of farms — 1.9 million — since 1850 when there were only 31 states and four territories. More concerning is the surging average age of farmers. Nearly 40% of farmers were over the age of 65 in 2022 while this number was only 33% in 2017. Though already a startling increase, this difference would be greater if not buffered by the increase in the number of beginning farmers with less than ten years of experience (who have an average age of 47.1 years in comparison to the U.S. average age of 58.1 years) in addition to those farmers under the age of 35.
A long line of surveys has demonstrated that the decline in the nation’s number of farms and farmland continues and grows more concerning. Six percent of farms own and operate almost a third of the nation’s farmland and generate three quarters of sales with an annual revenue of more than $1 million. This is while 75% of U.S. farms have sales of less than $50,000 a year, with many of them relying on off-farm income. The financial stress of meeting stricter regulations, rising supply costs, lack of available labor, and natural disasters create a situation where most small farmers find it impossible to remain economically sustainable.
Almost every single (95%) farmer in the United States is white and does not face the additional burden of systemic racism. While this article does not make mention of it, according to Table 55 in 2022’s agricultural census, the majority of them are men. The previous Secretary of the USDA made mention that there needs to be an entirely different model of federal aid to support small- and medium-sized farmers. Creating pathways to build strong small and diverse farms is more important than ever before.
