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Sunday, February 23rd, 2014

Number of US Farms Declines, Farmers Getting Older

Author:     MARY CLARE JALONICK
Source:     The Associated Press
Publication Date:     22-Feb-14
 Link: Number of US Farms Declines, Farmers Getting Older
Stephan:   There are a wide range of factors all conspiring to destroy the American food system. While the worst may be that the chemical-pharamceutical-petroleum industrial agriculture model is just fundamentally flawed, and water is an increasing crisis, seemingly small factors are also coming into play with big impacts. Here's one few talk about. All the trend lines on food as it is presently produced look bad. The hope is that locally grown food, using organic principles will catch hold but the transition is not going to be easy whatever form it takes. (For my extended views on this see: The Transformation of the American Food System, and Its Effects on Wellness. http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307%2813%2900114-6/fulltext).

WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of U.S. farms is declining even as the value of their crops and livestock has increased over the past five years, a government census of American agriculture released Thursday says.

The survey, taken every five years, shows there were a total of 2.1 million farms in the United States in 2012, down a little more than 4 percent from 2007. That follows a long-term trend of declining numbers of farms.

Also, farmers are getting older – the average age was 58.3 years. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack points to a bright spot: a small rise in the number of farmers between 25 and 34 years old.

Vilsack says the boost in the number of younger farmers is partly due to increased interest and government support for locally grown foods and a thriving export market. Many younger farmers work at smaller operations, where the boom in the farm economy and a rising consumer interest in where food is grown have helped them.

That boom has been good to all of farm country: According to the survey, the market values of crops, livestock and total agricultural products were all at record highs. Farms in the United States sold almost $395 billion […]

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