Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

[/pine]

A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm - The Washington Post

...For only the second time in the last century, the number of farmers under 35 years old is increasing, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture痴 latest Census of Agriculture. Sixty-nine percent of the surveyed young farmers had college degrees significantly higher than the general population....

 

[Streetcar]

The farmer in article has three acres, growing salad greens. Not what most people think of when they hear farmer

 

[sseelhoff]

The farmer in article has three acres, growing salad greens. Not what most people think of when they hear farmer

Everyone's dream starts somewhere.

 

[/pine]

The farmer in article has three acres, growing salad greens. Not what most people think of when they hear farmer

Methinks you missed the point...!

 

[Thomas]

That's a good thing. :thumbsup:

 

[smstonypoint]

A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm - The Washington Post

The article is behind a paywall for me, so I can't read beyond the first couple of paragraphs, Does the article say anything about the extent these young farmers are depending on non-farm income to support their farming operations?


Here are some data on economies of size in crop farming from https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/45108/39359_err152.pdf?v=4152.

Steve

 

[/pine]

The article is behind a paywall for me, so I can't read beyond the first couple of paragraphs, Does the article say anything about the extent these young farmers are depending on non-farm income to support their farming operations?
Steve

Below is about all it mentions:

...And young farmers face formidable challenges to starting and scaling their businesses. The costs of farmland and farm equipment are prohibitive. Young farmers are frequently dependent on government programs, including child-care subsidies and public health insurance, to cover basic needs.

And student loan debt which 46 percent of young farmers consider a 田hallenge, according to the National Young Farmers Coalition can strain already tight finances and disqualify them from receiving other forms of credit.

But Lindsey Lusher Shute, the executive director of the coalition, said she has seen the first wave of back-to-the-landers grow up in the eight years since she co-founded the advocacy group. And she suggested that new policy initiatives, including student loan forgiveness and farm transition programs, could further help them.

 

[Streetcar]

Methinks you missed the point...!

The point is that you can have a big garden and sell produce at a market and be consider a farmer.
My cousin lives by the North Carolina guy from tv show mountain men. He survives by getting young people to basically volunteer to work at his farm.
This article seems to be the same situation

 

[/pine]

The point is that you can have a big garden and sell produce at a market and be consider a farmer.
My cousin lives by the North Carolina guy from tv show mountain men. He survives by getting young people to basically volunteer to work at his farm.
This article seems to be the same situation

That's your point but it's not the point of the article...

 

[sseelhoff]

The point is that you can have a big garden and sell produce at a market and be consider a farmer.
My cousin lives by the North Carolina guy from tv show mountain men. He survives by getting young people to basically volunteer to work at his farm.
This article seems to be the same situation

Doesn't what they are doing fit in the definition of farmer?

A farmer[1] (also called an agriculturer) is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer might own the farmed land or might work as a laborer on land owned by others, but in advanced economies, a farmer is usually a farm owner, while employees of the farm are known as farm workers, or farmhands. However, in the not so distant past, a farmer was a person who promotes or improves the growth of (a plant, crop, etc.) by labor and attention, land or crops or raises animals (as livestock or fish).

Farmer - Wikipedia

Nothing there about the type of crop or scale of operations.

More power to 'em if that makes them happy and productive.