In doing some background research, I came across these startling facts:
1. Only 2.5% of farms in Placer and Nevada Counties are operated by someone less than 35 years of age.
2. For California, the percentage is 3%. Since I am from Texas, I looked that up - 3.7%
3. For Placer and Nevada Counties, California, and Texas - roughly 30% of farms re operated by someone over 65 years of age.
Let's see - 30% will be leaving over the next 10-15 year. The replacements are around 3%.
Yikes! I have been working on far economic viability since at least 1994. I have put a lot of time and effort into a lot of different areas - but my efforts have made no difference at all.
We won't see the full ramifications of all of this for another 10 years or so - but it is coming. If we lose the family farm - and by that I mean someone out there trying to make things work as a stand-alone business or pretty substantial part-time income - then does that leave us with either big corporate farms or eating more of our food from other countries?
Worse, I am not sure if there's answer. When you start to look at the effort and resources needed - it gets overwhelming pretty quick. Think about it - less people grow up on a farm or ranch. To get started, they need to get experience. We can do that with an intern program to some extent. An incubator training farm can help as well.
Once they have some experience, then maybe there is a direction - I will farm or I will raise livestock. Then they have to determine where the market demand exists. Then they need to run some economic analysis to see where the most profit potential exists. From there, can they make things cash flow - ie up front expenses and then a time lag until money comes in from sales. People have to produce, market, and treat things like a business - it's a huge task.
To compound things - there are no systems in place to get some of these things in place. Agriculture in 4H and FFA generally means I raise something for 60, 120 days, sell at the auction, and receive a price that is far above market price.
If that helps fund a college education or something else - that is fine. But there is no real world connection to ag. There is no connection to how you could take like raising animals and turn that into some sort of career option.
I went to Texas A & M University and got two degrees. I was no more prepared to run a business after all of that than a man in the moon. That situation has not changed. If you graduate in a ag major - you go work in sales for animal id place, pharmaceutical company, etc - anything but start your own business.
I guess this more of a vent than anything else. i may never have much to show in the way of accomplishment - but it does not mean I am giving up. I just do not not know what is an effective approach to at least help alleviate the situation a little bit.
It would be great to see people post on this thing. I finally got signed up as an author. I know the blog is more on grass stuff, but I feel this is a relevant topic.
What do each of you think are some ideas or approaches to get young people involved in ag?
I met a guy about my age at the Small Farmer's Journal Auction this weekend in Oregon. He works for Oregon Department of Transportation and grows hay (mostly with horses) on the side. He said he was considering quitting his day job and farming full time. I told him I was working on the same thing. We both have young daughters, and I remarked about how important it was to me for my girls to learn the skills that I have and for them to see me doing something I really love. He said, "You just helped me make up my mind."
ReplyDeleteHow do we do more of this? Part of the issue is that our scale of agriculture is very physically demanding. We all work very long days. Can we make this attractive to our kids? I hope so. I let Emma (our youngest) stay home with me today after our long trip - she had a blast helping us move sheep corrals to Auburn for shearing on Saturday.
I don't know all of the answers. I think each of us has to make A difference, even if it's just for a single person. Making THE difference on this issue can be frustrating, but if we concentrate on what we can do on a small scale, maybe bigger things will begin to happen.
Thanks for raising the issue, Roger!
As a younger (ok, not sure mid 20's counts as younger) person, and a parent of some very young people, I can say that farming is attractive to young people for many reasons in many places. I think the two keys are 1) highly visible, sustainable, beautiful ag in action where young people can see it (we drove through PA on our way to NYC one year and saw the Amish working with horses and that's how we got interested in farming--it was shockingly beautiful compared to the big ag we were used to seeing in CA). And 2)access to land they can afford to lease.
ReplyDeleteThe real problem for us is access to land when you have the budget of an ordinary young person--particularly in CA.
My husband and I left the stability of jobs to intern on a pasture-based farm across the country (it was really hard to find a farm that would welcome a family to intern, and not just one or two college kids). And now we are packing up to return to CA, and busy looking for land with housing on-site. We expect to spend months renting a crappy apartment and working part time jobs while searching for a property we can afford to lease. It is a miserable prospect, especially when we have a business plan ready and know that we could be making a better living monetarily and mentally, doing what we want and have begun training to do(tiny, grass-based, raw dairy with layers and sheep on the side).