Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Sunday November 26 2017, @04:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the count-me-in dept.

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday November 26 2017, @09:38PM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday November 26 2017, @09:38PM (#601845) Journal

    Let the land tree in. Or have a proper mixed forest planted on it. Your local DNR can probably help.
    Your kids or grand kids can harvest the wood and start again.

    Its better for the environment, and you are hopeless at farming anyway, and apparently so were your parents.
    Nobody needs that hay.

    The reason there is so much of that happening to land everywhere is that there is no longer any need to have that much land under cultivation.
    Especially land in that particular area. Dairy was all it was really ever good for - maybe sheep, but you clearly don't seem interested in that.

    So give the world a gift of trees.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4