SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Original URL: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm
Liz Whitehurst dabbled in several careers before she ended up here, crating fistfuls of fresh-cut arugula in the early-November chill.
The hours were better at her nonprofit jobs. So were the benefits. But two years ago, the 32-year-old Whitehurst — who graduated from a liberal arts college and grew up in the Chicago suburbs — abandoned Washington for this three-acre farm in Upper Marlboro, Md.
[...] This new generation can't hope to replace the numbers that farming is losing to age. But it is already contributing to the growth of the local-food movement and could help preserve the place of midsize farms in the rural landscape.
"We're going to see a sea change in American agriculture as the next generation gets on the land," said Kathleen Merrigan, the head of the Food Institute at George Washington University and a deputy secretary at the Department of Agriculture under President Barack Obama. "The only question is whether they'll get on the land, given the challenges."
The number of farmers age 25 to 34 grew 2.2 percent between 2007 and 2012, according to the 2014 USDA census, a period when other groups of farmers — save the oldest — shrunk by double digits. In some states, such as California, Nebraska and South Dakota, the number of beginning farmers has grown by 20 percent or more.
(Score: 3, Funny) by idiot_king on Sunday November 26 2017, @04:45PM (7 children)
...of the upcoming American Workers Revolution against the Trumpenfurher's Nazi Hordes of Evil??
This communist can only dream...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 26 2017, @05:01PM (6 children)
Hardly. There is a great deal of satisfaction, working close to nature. It never has paid well, but it's good for your spirit. As long as I've been alive, life in the big city offices has been described as "the rat race". If I had to sit in an office all day, and kiss some son of a bitch's ass just to keep my shitty, but high paying, job, I'd go postal. Yes, you would probably have read about me already, gone crazy, and blew away that asshole boss, and HIS asshole bosses. No, I wouldn't have shot people at random - just assholes who needed to be shot.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday November 26 2017, @09:26PM (4 children)
Besides that, farming is probably the best thing you can do if you graduated from a liberal arts college.
Granted you'd be starting years behind the Ag major you laughed up your sleeve at when attending your 10 year reunion.
And a small truck farm and 8 chickens is probably all you have a clue about managing.
At least you won't be further damaging society with your liberal arts skilz.
Oh, that drone flying over the fields across the road? Don't worry about that, its not the CIA. Just that hick Ag Major measuring the nutrient levels in his GPS Mapped crops, which are always a month earlier and a foot taller than yours.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @12:18AM (2 children)
Someone sure is bitter. Try meditation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @12:37AM (1 child)
Don't you mean medication?
(Score: 1, Troll) by Gaaark on Monday November 27 2017, @02:00AM
Don't you mean masturbation?
Oooooooo.....probably already HEAVILY covered. Yeah.....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday November 28 2017, @04:47AM
You do know that a liberal arts education traditionally includes such useless skills as:
- mathematics
- biology
- physics
- astronomy
- music
- logic (philosophy)
That is, a liberal arts education is in contrast with an engineering, research/academic, or technical education. A liberal arts education provides the skills necessary to participate as a free man in society, hence liberal, from the Latin liberalis meaning free (also as in libre, free software). Skills like public speaking, math, and natural sciences are needed to intelligently participate in government and public discourse (at least, in a more civilized age).
There are still quite a few "real" liberal arts colleges, so why don't you sheath that ego next time? Might cut yourself with that edge.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @05:17PM
Given that your subjunctive rampage would have been in an office in a city, how would one even tell the difference? From my perspective as neither a city person nor an office person, the intersection of those groups looks exactly like "assholes who needed to be shot".