This category could refer to the farm's owner, a member of the owner's family, a manager, a tenant, a renter, or a sharecropper. The USDA also makes a distinction between producers and employees known as farmworkers. In addition to being older and more male than the general population, farmers are more likely to be veterans.
Farmers are, by a large majority, white including Hispanic , with Hispanic or Latino farmers, regardless of race, make up 3. Texas leads all states with the number of farmers: , The largest state has the fewest farms: Alaska's , square miles only had farmers in The average size of the 2. However, Family-held farms, by definition owned by a single person or members of the same family, account for Forty-seven percent are classified as primarily growing crops rather than raising animals.
Sixteen percent of farms are predominantly classified as growing oilseed or grains like corn, wheat, and soybeans, while That year, , farms reported profits, while 1. Farmers play a significant role in the economy. Even though farms account for less than a percent of the value added to the national GDP, farm products contribute heavily to other parts of the economy, including manufacturing, restaurants, retail, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Understanding who they are and what they grow can help understand this integral part of the economy. The term producer designates a person who is involved in making decisions for the farm operation. Decisions may include decisions about such things as planting, harvesting, livestock management, and marketing. The census collected information on the total number of male producers, the total number of female producers, and demographic information for up to four producers per farm.
Keep up with the latest data and most popular content. In the American imagination, at least, the family farm still exists as it does on holiday greeting cards: as a picturesque, modestly prosperous expanse that wholesomely fills the space between the urban centers where most of us live.
But it has been declining for generations, and the closing days of find small farms pummeled from every side: a trade war, severe weather associated with climate change, tanking commodity prices related to globalization, political polarization, and corporate farming defined not by a silo and a red barn but technology and the efficiencies of scale.
It is the worst crisis in decades. The nation lost more than , farms between and ; 12, of those between and alone. Farm loan delinquencies are rising. Suicides in farm communities are happening with alarming frequency.
Even large companies are facing unprecedented challenges; Dean Foods, a global dairy producer that buys milk from thousands of small farmers, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, November 12, and is seeking a sale, a move that could further hamper farmers looking for places to sell their milk.
Farmers have always talked of looming disaster, but the duration and severity of the current crisis suggests an alarming and once unthinkable possibility — that independent farming is no longer a viable livelihood.
In the dairy industry, small farms accounted for just 10 percent of production. The disappearance of the small farm would further hasten the decline of rural America, which has been struggling to maintain an economic base for decades. A perfect storm of factors has led to the recent crisis in the farm industry. After boom years in the beginning of the 21st century, prices for commodities like corn, soybeans, milk, and meat started falling in The reason for these lowered prices are the twin forces upending much of the American economy: technology and globalization.
Technology has made farms more efficient than ever before. But economies of scale meant that most of the benefits accrued to corporate farmers, who built up huge holdings as smaller farmers sold out. Even as four million farms disappeared in the United States between and , total farm output more than doubled.
Globalization brought more farmers into the international market for crops, flooding the market with soybeans and corn and cattle and milk, and with increased supply comes lower prices. Global food production has increased 30 percent over the last decade, according to John Newton, the chief economist of the American Farm Bureau. After the United States slapped tariffs on Chinese goods including steel and aluminum last year, China retaliated with 25 percent tariffs on agricultural imports from the U.
China then turned to other countries such as Brazil to replace American soybeans and corn. Smaller farms have found it especially hard to adapt to these changes, which they blame on government policy and a lack of antitrust enforcement.
The government is on the side of big farms, they say, and is ambivalent about whether small farms can succeed. The number of farms with more than 2, acres nearly doubled between and , according to USDA data. The number of farms with to acres fell over that time period by 44 percent. Many small American farmers are routinely selling their crops for less than it costs to produce them.
Prices are so low that farmers like the Rieckmanns are trying to figure out other ways to come up with the money to keep their farm going. But like many other rural areas around the country, their town of Fremont does not have a bustling economy. While farmland may stretch far and wide, farmers and ranchers themselves make up just 1.
Today, there are about 2 million farms in operation in the US, a steep decline from , when the number of farms peaked at nearly 7 million. In , global market research company Mintel found "widespread mistrust" among consumers in how food is made.
This mistrust has helped usher in support for farmers' markets and growing food at home. It's also increased the demand for traceability, or the ability to to track every step in the process of food production. While soy may conjure images of tofu, the plant is heavily used for cooking oils and feed for livestock, especially as incomes in China rise and the demand for meat and dairy ticks up. But the US soybean industry may be in jeopardy: On Thursday, a report stated China has halted imports of American soybeans amid the escalating trade war with the US.
Jobs in agriculture don't necessarily take place in a field. New hires may find themselves in a lab, an office or perhaps even an open-concept coworking space. Read more: 13 mind-blowing facts about Florida's economy. According to agricultural science company Corteva , new technology powered by the Internet of Things has the ability to trace the journey taken by a single piece of fruit or stalk of celery on its way to the grocery store.
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