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Because farming is so central to our nation’s identity—and its idea of itself—this future can feel fraught. In 2012, the USDA forecast that most (70 percent) familyfarms would transfer hands over the next 20 years. Will familyfarms as we know and love them survive, and how do the ones that are thriving now do it?
American Farmland Trust (AFT) is raising money to support farmers and ranchers affected by recent federal funding losses or delays.The goal is to provide 200 farmers a grant each up to US$10,000. Now in its fifth year, the Brighter Future Fund has helped more than 400 farmers across the United States and over 50,000 acres of farmland.
The American familyfarm is the cornerstone of our nation—but is its existence in jeopardy? As the land of the free and home of the brave, the American familyfarm has been a foundational part of this nation and the meaning of independence. According to the 2022 ag census, familyfarms still dominate U.S.
The Monis family, whose roots in Wisconsin date back to 1847, share on the past and future of their familyfarm. They are protecting their lands legacy for future generations with help from Tall Pines Conservancy and the Wisconsin Farmland Protection Partnership.
As a participant in the BIOS program run by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Russ collaborated with fellow orchard farmers to share best practices for ecological farming, furthering his commitment to environmental stewardship.
Outside of Charleston, South Carolina, in the picturesque marshes of the Kiawah River, sits more than 100 acres of working farmland. But unlike neighboring farms that focus on production for faraway markets or keep a single family afloat, the farm at Kiawah River is supporting 185 families who live in the surrounding homes.
Instead, the Wall Street Farm Bill directed most of the subsidies to incentivize overproduction of a handful of key commodities, particularly corn and soy. Under the New Deal Farm Bill, a farmer faced with low corn prices could switch to another crop or even idle a portion of farmland in exchange for financial support.
In the face of all sorts of adversity—challenges posed by agricultural consolidation; threats from farmland conversion; injustices that farmers of color have faced for centuries and still face today—it is affection, rooted in a deep connection with the land itself, that inspires their devotion and care. Why stay instead of sell? It’s honest.
My Land Advocacy Fellowship with the National Young Farmer Coalition empowered me to share my experience of growing up on the familyfarm with my senators and representatives offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Across the country, farmland is being lost to development at a rate of more than 2,000 acres per day.
It’s even worse when the owners of large-scale farms don’t live in or meaningfully contribute to the community. Recognizing the value of farmland and the fact that, as a popular phrase goes, “they’re not making any more land,” investors are buying up agricultural acreage. Brooks grew up on a small familyfarm in rural Tennessee.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of seeds that get sown in the fall, and without rain, they’re not going to germinate,” said Amy Hepworth, owner of Hepworth Farms, a seventh-generation familyfarm located just off the Hudson River in New York state.
In addition, over the last decade, farmland prices have doubled nationwide and risen far higher in areas with pressure due to real estate development or commodity prices. Every piece of land purchased as a result of this project will be ushered through a three-pronged approach to increase farmland ownership by underserved farmers.
In the months before Patrick Brown was born in November 1982, his father, Arthur, lay down on a road near the familysfarm to prevent a caravan of yellow dump trucks from depositing toxic soil in his community. Patrick currently operates Brown FamilyFarms on the land that Byron worked as a sharecropper once he was freed.
Farmland is disappearing and the average age of the farmer is on the rise—do you have a farm succession plan in place? This poses a serious threat to the future of American familyfarms and ultimately compromises our domestic food security. Over the last 75 years, 28 percent of agricultural land has been lost.
farmland that is rented or leased. At the same time, the number of farms and farmland in the U.S. lost nearly 142,000 farms from 2017 to 2022. During that same period, an estimated 20 million acres of farmland went out of production. Since 2002, there has been a steady increase in U.S. has been in decline.
The proposed $100 million of annual funding over ten years will complement the Department’s existing farm production and conservation programs, and be available to a wide variety of entities, such as tribes, municipalities, non-profits, and cooperatives. “The Young farmers desperately need access to quality, affordable farmland.
Steven says that this gave the Imhoffs the opportunity to invest in quality equipment that make other aspects of day-to-day farm life easier. The Imhoffs were also able to begin raising hogs for Niman Ranch using their current farmland and facilities, rather than investing in expensive conventional housing.
Between the years 2017 and 2022, America lost almost 20 million acres of farmland. Despite this rapid decline, the average farm size increased five percent to 463 acres. This ag census data highlights the trend toward farm consolidation as more and more familyfarm operations are feeling the pressure to go big or get out.
Treehouse Almonds sources nuts from roughly 50,000 acres in California’s Central Valley, and Gardiner’s familyfarm provides about 20,000 of them. The farm has changed a lot since his grandfather ran it and grew tomatoes and potatoes. There’s also the loss of farmland due to a confluence of factors.
The number of farms in urban fringes has decreased considerably over the last decade and it is unclear what will ultimately happen to Yew Tree Farm. The demands of growing cities are increasingly impinging on farmland. The story of the Knepp estate, is a story of renewal and regeneration and one that is deeply inspiring.
While these programs haven’t always been used to make farms climate resilient, they all have the potential to do so—and more funding and specific guardrails specified within the IRA would make that even more likely. Seth Watkins, a farmer from Clarinda, Iowa, was able to save his familyfarm with the help of conservation funding.
The debate surrounding industrial agriculture and farm consolidation is complex and multifaceted. On one hand, industrial agriculture is criticized for contributing to the decline of small familyfarms and promoting unsustainable practices. Large-scale farm operations own 42 percent of U.S. farming sector was $543.1
The hearing covered various topics, including the lack of data on farmland tenure, foreign ownership of farmland, and rising land values driven by non-farming buyers. The Issue of corporate ownership of farmland and farm consolidation is very, very important. The Farmland for Farmers Act (S.
According to the recently released 2022 Census of Agriculture , the largest four percent of US farms (2,000 or more acres) control 61 percent of all farmland. Similarly, in 2015 , 51 percent of the value of US farm production came from farms with at least $1 million in sales, compared to 31 percent in 1991.
This region is one of the top producers of blueberries nationwide, as Michigan blueberries are grown, harvested, packed, and processed by 575 familyfarms annually. This year was the 60th anniversary of the National Blueberry Festival in South Haven, Michigan!
After the lupine was discovered on the Mallonee familyfarm, the Department of Fish and Wildlife told Maynard Mallonee to come up with a rotational grazing plan for his cattle that protected the lupine. A report by The American Farmland Trust has concluded that managed agricultural land can support both food production and wildlife.
Brooks Lamb is a writer, and the land protection and access specialist at American Farmland Trust. He grew up on a small farm in Marshall County, Tennessee, and lives in Memphis now. I should mention that our farm was, and still is, a familyfarm in the strongest sense. A childhood photo from the familyfarm.
Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced bipartisan legislation to increase transparency and oversight of foreign ownership in the American agricultural industry. Youth members of Farmers Union from around the country participated in the 85th National Farmers Union (NFU) All-States Leadership Retreat.
It was founded in 2013 in the Champaign-Urbana area by a group of researchers, students and farmers that were interested in exploring how perennial agriculture and agroforestry could benefit Midwestern farmlands. The organization focuses on Illinois and Wisconsin but also does support work in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana.
Maybe you formed a joint venture or partnership to run crop production activities through or you farmland for family members through a crop sharing arrangement. These arrangements are common in familyfarm operations and may be based on generations of operating without formal agreements. If so, you aren’t alone.
Conservation on the Farm One way to do this is by using less fertilizer on the field. Another is to introduce on-the-field and edge-of-field conservation practices, like Tesdell is doing on his Iowa familyfarm. Tesdell’s farm is not the typical Iowa farm, which averages 359 acres. Tesdell’s is 80.
“Of 400 farms in our county, only five are organic,” says Matt Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Organics in Hutchinson, Minnesota. His 2,500-acre familyfarm is patchwork across 40 miles of land the family owns and leases, and grows organic corn, soy, wheat and specialty crops such as beans and peas.
Prime farmland, it attracted countless farmers, including the Black farmers seeking to fulfill the promise of “40 acres and a mule” that followed the American Civil War. But Black farm ownership has dropped dramatically over the years, with just 1,500 estimated to remain in Arkansas today.
Funding through the Increasing Land Access, Security, and Opportunities Act will provide critical resources to both individual producers as well as community-led organizations to implement farmland access, retention, and transition projects. Young farmers desperately need access to quality, affordable farmland.
The increased volume of water may cause rivers, dams, and levees to overflow, inundating nearby communities and farmland. Small- and medium-sized familyfarms, in particular, often have fewer resources to sustain damages and don’t have the luxury to prepare for the next growing season.
The USDA Conservation Reserve Program is essentially where farmers get rental payments for environmentally sustainable farming practices and the Emergency Conservation Program is on that provides funding and technical help for farmland affected by disasters. What makes these Conservation Programs unique?
A few years back, while building a fence on her farmland, Hemmes suffered her first bout of on-the-job heat exhaustion. This [farm] has been in my family for over 125 years, she said. So its all on me, and its my familyfarm. Keeping her farm well-managed is a responsibility she doesnt take lightly.
Global Growers Network (GGN) Working with a network of 175 families, many of whom are resettled refugees, GGN connects food producers to sustainable agriculture resources and quality farmland. In 2021, they acquired a 23-acre property that will offer a home to farmers who face barriers of access to land and capital.
He continued, “We’re very grateful to have the seashore’s federally recognized and affiliated tribe be part of this project.” “By getting rid of these small familyfarms, we’re forcing dairy farms to get bigger and bigger and the whole food system to be less environmentally friendly and produce lower-quality food that’s not organic.”
Farm Hounds Familyfarms often struggle to stay profitable as agriculture becomes more concentrated. There were 141,733 fewer farms in the US in 2022 than in 2017, according to the Census of Agriculture. Is there a way to make healthier dog food that won’t burden the planet so much?
Agronomy, Crop, and Soil Science Societies (ASA, CSSA, SSSA) AgTexas Farm Credit Alabama Ag Credit Alabama Farm Credit Altamaha Riverkeeper Amcot American Beekeeping Federation American Biogas Council American Bird Conservancy American Chestnut Land Trust American Farm Bureau Federation American Farmland Trust American Pulse Association American Rivers (..)
CalCAN is one of hundreds of sustainable, organic, and familyfarming organizations across the country that is engaged in farm bill advocacy this year. Sponsors: Representatives Dan Newhouse (WA-04), Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), and Chellie Pingree (ME-01) See here for more information.
As westward expansion swept across the region in the late 1800s, settlers began draining the 40-foot deep lake for farmland. Despite the resilience of family [farms], the mega-trend is undeniable,” says Raudabaugh. These state incentive programs all help to keep familyfarms in business while advancing innovations. “It
Christine shared her experience seeing how speculative investment in agricultural land has increased farmland values and made it really challenging to find affordable land. Don’t sell the familyfarm because you will never get it back. That is one way to give back if you can no longer farm it yourself.
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