I consider
my days in the sun as a young, organic farmer
to be the most rewarding work I’ve done. The
days were long, hot, and unforgiving, but I
felt free. Farmers have my utmost respect and
I believe them to be the backbone of America.
But
for young people like me, becoming a full-time
farmer is nearly an impossible dream. If we
truly care about the future of our food, we
must unpack why — and offer solutions to
preserve America’s farming culture.
According
to the USDA,
the median age for agricultural producers
increased from 56.3 to 57.5 years old between
2012 and 2017 — making farmers among the
oldest workforces in America. People 35 or
younger account for only 9 percent of the
country’s farm producers.
Why
are so few young people going into farming?
The 2022
National Young Farmers Survey names
access to land, funding, health care, and the
cost of production as the top challenges.
The
average net income for family farms in 2023 is
expected to be less
than $40,000,
lower in real terms than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, the costs of agricultural land and
machinery have skyrocketed. Even a second
hand John
Deere combine can
easily run more than $750,000.
Only
a young person with family wealth could even
get a loan for that amount — and that’s if
they can afford to buy farmland in the first
place.
The
average price per acre of cropland reached
$5,050 in 2022, nearly double the 2009 rate,
according to USDA.
With high inflation, prices shot up by more
than 15 percent in the Midwest and by nearly
20 percent in the Northern Plains between 2021
and 2022.
We
need to do much more to clear
the
roadblocks stopping young
farmers
from taking their place in
the
agricultural workforce.
The
federal government spends billions every year
on farm subsidies, but most
of the money goes
to the largest and wealthiest operators. And
because of systemic racism, Black and
Indigenous farmers have faced particular
difficulty in accessing
these funds.
In 2022, white applicants for government
support were approved 72 percent of the time —
compared to just 36 percent of Black
applicants.
In
2021, Congress set aside $4
billion in loan forgiveness for minority
farmers to
address the long history of discrimination
against Black farmers. But the courts blocked
the program, claiming it would be unfair to
white farmers.
So
what can be done to address the crisis of
America’s aging farmers? The negotiations over
the new Farm Bill are a huge opportunity to
change course. Congress passes this omnibus
legislation every five years.
The
last one, in 2018, allocated some
funding for
loans and other support for a multitude of
farming operations and rural healthcare. It
supported outreach programs for beginning,
veteran, and historically under
served farmers,
as well as youth agricultural employment. But
these initiatives made up just 1 percent of
the 2018 Farm Bill’s total spending.
If
we’re serious about cultivating the next crop
of young farmers in
America, we need to do much more to clear the
roadblocks stopping young farmers from taking
their place in the agricultural workforce.
I’ve
been privileged to be able to experience what
it’s like to work the land. At the end of
every day, I slept well, partly from sheer
fatigue but also because I felt the
satisfaction of knowing I was helping to put
healthy food on someone’s table.
I want
other young people to have the opportunity to
share in the experience of cultivating the
earth, connecting with nature, and
understanding the true value of sustainable
food production.
This commentary is also
posted
on OtherWords.org.
