Food Politics

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

It summarizes the highlights: Number of farms: 1.9 million (down 7% from 2017) Average size: 463 acres (up 5%) Total farmland: 880 million acres of farmland (down 2%), accounting for 39% of all U.S. Farms with sales of $50,000 or less: 1.4 million (74% of farms); they sell 2%. For example: What more to say?

Agriculture 288

Agriculture Agriculture Farmland Acre 288

Modern Farmer

APRIL 24, 2024

Nearly four decades ago, Ron Mardesen and his wife Denise stopped using antibiotics on their hog farm, A-Frame Acres, in Elliot, Iowa. As the owner of a multi-generational farm, Mardesen has seen industrial agriculture and factory farming take increasing control over meat production in the last few decades.

Cattle 144

Cattle Food Acre Ranching 144

Civil Eats

MARCH 11, 2025

Mismanaged farm waste on CAFOs has a climate toll as well, responsible for as much as 7 percent of global farming emissions. And methane emissions from ruminants, like cattle, are another significant source of climate impacts. Fossil fuels have enabled us to soar past our ecological limits.

Food 123

Food Pesticide Fertilizer Processing 123

Food Tank

APRIL 29, 2024

That’s why less than 10 percent of farms still have animals. Previously, it was cost-effective for farmers to graze their cattle or grow their own feed. Meanwhile, Black ownership of farmland has declined significantly, from 16–19 million acres in 1910 to fewer than 3 million today.

Family Farming 98

Family Farming Acre Farming Farming 98

Sustainable Food Trust

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Worse still, many of them have invested large amounts of money in huge buildings to house factory farmed animals, and they are financially exposed with no alternative deployment for the infrastructure they have borrowed on. This is typical of quite a large number of farmers around here.

Food 141

Food Farming Farming Tractor 141

Modern Farmer

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

Just a Few Acres Farm in Lansing, NY has nearly 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, where seventh-generation farmer Pete Larson posts videos with titles like “The basics of cutting hay” and “Playing in the Dirt with Pregnant Pigs”. Pete Larson on his farm. Photography courtesy of Pete Larson and Just a Few Acres Farms.

Farming 123

Farming Farming Acre Marketing 123

Daily Yonder

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

In 2017, the year the previous report covered, the country had 2,042,220 farms. In that same span, the number of farmed acres dropped from almost 900 million acres to 880 million—a loss in area the size of all the New England states, minus Connecticut, Vilsack noted. The farm then creates a second source of income.”

Agriculture 96

Agriculture Agriculture Manure Farming 96