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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: 2) by qzm on Sunday November 26 2017, @10:23PM (3 children)
Ummm. No. No you cannot.
Not even close.
You really don't have any clue about farming, do you?
What these people are doing is a lifestyle, not a job.
3 acres would barely feed a small family on average, let alone anything else.
It is a large back yard, not a farm.
I am sure they enjoy doing it, and feel good about themselves, however it has very little to do with farming.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Sunday November 26 2017, @11:28PM (1 child)
That's right. 3 acres is a joke, a veggie garden, not a real farm. Anyone who thinks otherwise is woefully clueless.
In the 1930s, my grandfather farmed 80 acres in Iowa with a team of horses, and even then that was small. With the arrival of the tractor on their farm in 1939, they needed to expand. Needed 160 acres, minimum. Instead, my grandfather kept farming on just 80 acres and took a job as a postman, while my grandmother got a job as a schoolteacher. Today, you need at least 500 acres, if you have livestock. If you're only going to grow crops, you need 1000 acres. There's no freaking way a few people can cover that much ground without serious farming equipment.
The sorts of stuff you see in food commercials, of people walking up and down the rows carrying sacks from which to sow seeds by hand, or swinging scythes to harvest grain, is extremely antiquated nonsense.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aclarke on Monday November 27 2017, @01:43AM
No, no, no. See my other comment.
You need 1000 acres if you're farming like the kind of farmer who needs 1000 acres. Think like a farmer who only has three acres, and your viewpoint changes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aclarke on Monday November 27 2017, @01:41AM