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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.


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  • (Score: 2) by aclarke on Monday November 27 2017, @01:52AM

    by aclarke (2049) on Monday November 27 2017, @01:52AM (#601911) Homepage

    Do you live in the US? This article is about Americans returning to farming. I live in Canada so I don't have a lot of first-hand American farming knowledge, but I can say that around here in Ontario, farming is a pretty lucrative business. The farmers don't want you to know that though. It's almost impossible to get a start in this area due to skyrocketing farm prices. This means that only well-capitalized existing farmers can generally afford to buy into the game. This is one reason why you see farms going from 100 acres to 800 or whatever. Nobody else can afford the land, but farmers have the cash flow to swing another overpriced farm. They're certainly not making enough money off that extra 100 acres to pay the mortgage on it.

    All the full-time farmers around here are doing very well. They may not be driving Mercedes-Benz, but they're driving a $250k tractor or four. Plus they're sitting on millions in land values, have a nice house, and the lifestyle they want.

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