A Job For Young People: 1.000.000 Farmers Needed

[adigal]

I think I heard it on NPR, or it might have been on a podcast, but the story I am referencing said that the United States will need 1.000,000 small farmers in the next 10 years to keep on feeding our population. If young people could get the financing, it is a way to make a living. Not an easy way, but a satisfying way, I would imagine.

My friend's daughter wants to do this: be an organic farmer. She is lucky in that her parents own a 200 acre farm, although it is up near Canada. She could do things like make goat's milk soap and cheese in the off-season to make a living, and these new farmers will have to be ingenuous, like this young lady would have to be. If I had money, I would be financing mortgages and farms for young people right now.

Has anyone else heard this??

[hobbit709]

1. It's not as easy as it sounds.

I know several people who do that on farms ranging from 5 to 150 acres in size. All of them have part-time jobs to make ends meet, especially if the weather doesn't cooperate. And you better be in good physical shape.

[Tunkamerica]

2. takes a lot of soap, or rather a lot of people buying goat soap to make ends meet

in·gen·u·ous/inˈjenyo͞oəs/
Adjective: (of a person or action) Innocent and unsuspecting.

That might make as much sense as what you meant.

[adigal]

4. Sorry, wrong vowel

But you know what I meant.

[Tunkamerica]

16. yeah but freudian slips are funny

[ejpoeta]

3. around here you slowly see the farmland sectioned off and the for sale signs go up and then

the inevitable houses built. it's a shame really. my daughter's kindergarten teacher just had to sell her farm. her husband had to have his hip replaced due to a recall and he couldn't handle the farm anymore. None of the kids wanted to run it. She said she didn't blame them. So she sold it. She looked so sad. She's taken her class to that farm every year on a field trip. Not anymore.

[adigal]

5. We have to make conditions favorable for small farmers

or we may not have enough to eat. It is that simple. Especially with the big farms in the midwest flooding all spring and burning up all summer.

[Uben]

6. 1 million suckers needed

...to start farms so they can be foreclosed on and banks can make another billion or two. It's a humongous gamble with little hope of success. Of course, if we subsidized small farmers instead of millionaire farmers, it might be more appealing

All the money in the world couldn't produce a profitable farm in TExas right now, there is no water and the ground is as hard as cement.

[adigal]

7. You are right, we have to force a change in focus

to helping small farmers, those trying to grow organically, in a healthy way for both people and the environment.

And ironically, I just posted on another thread that I read that the southwest will be uninhabitable within a decade or so. There is expected to be a huge migration to the north, because of hot weather and lack of rain. Scary stuff.

[formercia]

8. Organic Farming requires good Soil

I've been trying to go completely Organic with my garden, but trying to build-up Glacial Till takes Years and a lot of work.

Unfortunately, the Deficit Negotiation cuts support for Family Farms.

It's difficult enough with inherited Land, almost impossible with having to purchase land at today's prices unless one has a lot of Money in the Bank and willing to pour it down the Rat Hole and wait Years, if ever, for a Return on Investment.

The best thing that folks can do is to go to the Farmers' Market and buy local. It's more expensive than Wally World, but the quality and flavor is much better.

[adigal]

9. I buy at Farmer's Markets now, all of the time

If you can't farm, support a farmer. Good point that I failed to mention. Thank you. :)

[Uben]

10. Maybe, but I doubt it

The southwest has been wetter than normal for the past ten thousand years or so, and will eventually return to a hotter, dryer pattern, which in the big picture is normal, but it will likely take longer than a decade or two to make any of it inhabitable.

Last winter was the fourth coldest on record for us, so I expected a hot summer. They say the average temperature only varies a degree or two each year, so if it's very hot in the summer, it'll probably be very cold this winter. I just hope it's not dry.

[adigal]

12. Me,too, because I don't want to have to ship water

all the way across the country to deserts. It just isn't smart or sustainable.

[dkf]

11. And then there is this: Farmland Investing: Arable Land Is No Longer Dirt-Cheap

Preparing for Armageddon/the Rapture/World War III/the Zombie Apocalypse? Here is an investment idea to add to your survival kit: Farmland.

Similar to other scarce and tangible resources, like gold and water, farmland is seen as a safe investment in times of financial uncertainty. Mamta Badkar and Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider call it "the ultimate crisis hedge" because of the unrivaled importance of food. And Barton Biggs of Morgan Stanley believes that stocking up on the basic necessities, especially food, is necessary for one's "doomsday safe-haven" (via Business Insider).

Whether or not modern society collapses over the next several decades, it is certain that the rapidly expanding global population will put upward pressure on food prices.

"Over the next 40 years, the population of the world is projected to grow from 6 billion to 9 billion, hugely increasing the strain on arable farmland worldwide," according to MoneyNews.com. "I'm convinced that farmland is going to be one of the best investments of our time," said Jim Rogers, legendary investor and George Soros partner (via ContrarianProfits.com).


http://m.aol.com/dailyfinance/default/articleStory.do?category=main&url=http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/08/02/farmland-investing-arable-land-is-no-longer-dirt-c/&icid=dsk_df_news

[CBGLuthier]

13. The Egg and I or Green Acres it all ends up in The River eventually

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Farming is a hard life. And the costs of farm acres is rapidly rising and now farmers have to deal

with those who want to 'live in the country' and then sue because of the manure smells!

[WingDinger]

15. REmove all farm subsidies, and it will be a death sentence.

[robcon]

17. Absolute fucking nonsense.

The U.S. needs bigger, more mechanized farms, so we continue to produce, by far, the most food per farmer in the world.

Technology is the best hope for feeding the U.S. and the world. Fewer farmers=ok, but bigger farms is the best solution.