A study done by the Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) looked at farming in the Midwest and found some harsh realities. UCS looked at farming from 1978 to 2017 and found that almost half of the midsize farms (50 to 999 acres) in the Midwest have been lost.
Nationally, almost 700,000 of those midsize farms have gone out of business within the past four decades. On the other hand, large farms (anything over 1,000 acres) have skyrocketed. The large farms have grown by around 100 million acres. To put that in perspective, that’s the size of California.
The research found that in the Midwest, we’ve lost 230,000 farms over the past forty years and that’s not all. They also took a look at the ages of Midwest farmers and it seems like they’re getting older and older. In 1978, 18% of farmers were under the age of 35, and in 2017 that number dropped to only 6% of farmers. This also means that the percentage has most likely dropped slightly since the study was done.
This is the reality of the ag industry and it needs to be looked at on both sides. Yes, small farms are going out of business at a significant rate, but at the same time, the large farms keep growing. It’s almost a “would you rather” type of scenario.
Would you rather have less production and more farms or more production and fewer farms? What’s best?
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