I agree that it's extremely difficult to get into farming, not just with the often extensive capital needs, but with the way under valued (and under paid) labor involved, and the increasing overhead of property taxes levied to support those who "can't" work or support themselves (in the extravagant manner the county can provide for them - don't get me started...). Not that one CAN'T start with a suburban lot and a hoe and grow from there, but as others have pointed out, the "lifestyle expectations" are a lot more than they ever were when "we farm kids of the 50's and 60's" grew up with old shoes, patched jeans, and if the antenna was adjusted right, a choice of 3 regional channels of news to watch and the amazing new science of weather forecasting (in black-n-white), but only after dinner and before evening chores, and some on Sunday after Church. There wasn't time to be watching TV (or texting, or checking facebook, or making forum posts) back then. There was that thing called "work ethic", which seems to be dying faster than old farmers and family farms.
No, the family farm isn't dead, yet, but on average it keeps getting older with fewer young people filling the void those dying off leave. My better half and I average 61.6, and there isn't any relative going to take over this farm when we can't go anymore. Some days that seems a lot nearer than others.
Just as important as the loss of farmers, is the loss of the knowledge of how to fix things with the 'junk' that was set aside for later (like how to pull an old hay rake from a hedgerow and make it work when the "new" one fails and you can't get parts on a holiday weekend), how each acre "works" best and for what, how to "read" the soil, and livestock, and weather for your area. Maybe some geeks will program an algorithm for all that, and computers will figure out how to extract a theoretical maximum production on a theoretical average of climate, but programming the "art" of farming isn't going to happen for a very long time. Not that it ever should.
As Wendel Berry has pointed out in many of his essays, there is far more to agriculture than just providing food and fiber to people who eat and dress - it is the very basis of culture itself, and without our collective feet firmly in the soil, we lose our "roots", our connection with the earth and living things. He (and I) and other thoughtful people are not sure we can survive such a disconnect without killing ourselves and our posterity. Machines might be able to nearly eliminate the need for human labor on farms, but they can't eliminate our need for the connection with the earth that feeds and clothes and inspires and sustains us in ways that machines can never be programmed to understand, or provide.
Or maybe that's just me, and when I and others of my era are dead, the last of the humans thinking of the earth as a partner rather than just a resource will be gone, and not missed by the growing number whose mantra is "cheaper", rather than "better", regardless of what the cost is to someone or something or some time else - just as long as it isn't costing "me, now". It's that "me, now" attitude that will never allow those holding it to become farmers. Maybe that will change when food becomes increasingly scarce, which in our global economy could happen for any number of political reasons, but if left to N America providing for itself, simply because there aren't enough people involved with producing a diversified variety of things any more. There may be more than enough corn, or soybeans, or milk, but not enough of other more labor intensive things we all too often import (because labor overseas is far cheaper).
In the past, hunger was a great motivator to work. Not likely so much anymore. I won't hypothesize further - it's too unpleasant to think about. Besides, I need to get back outside and work for my dollar an hour, gross. It's a good day if there is any 'net'.
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Today's Featured Article - Grain Threshing in the Early 40's - by Jerry D. Coleman. How many of you can sit there and say that you have plowed with a mule? Well I would say not many, but maybe a few. This story is about the day my Grandfather Brown (true name) decided along with my parents to purchase a new Ford tractor. It wasn't really new except to us. The year was about 1967 and my father found a good used Ford 601 tractor to use on the farm instead of "Bob", our old mule. Now my grandfather had had this mule since the mid 40's and he was getting some age on him. S
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