The 2022 Census of Agriculture was released on Feb. 12, and some information was a little disheartening.
In the podcast highlighting the results, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack remarked the results were “a wake-up call.” As I watched, it was shocking to hear we have 142,000 fewer farms in the U.S. and 20 million acres of lost farmland since the 2017 survey. Small and mid-zed farms saw the most significant decline. Since 1981, the nation has lost 535,000 farms.
“Now that’s every farm today in the following states: in North Dakota and South Dakota, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, in Illinois and Iowa, in Nebraska and Oklahoma, and Missouri and Colorado,” Vilsack said. That’s a lot to take in.
The report also states that since 2022, we have lost 61 percent of the country’s dairy farms, 23 percent of the hog farms, and 72 percent of the feedlots.
While farms keep disappearing, the need for the agricultural products grown or raised there continues to grow. There are more than 341.8 million people in the U.S. today. In 2017, that figure was 325.1 million.
Agriculture has become more efficient over the decades, producing more on less ground, but will there be a break-over point in the future? Will there be a day when farmers and ranchers can’t produce what’s needed? I don’t think I will see it in my lifetime, but it weighs heavily on me at times. It is predicted that agriculture production must increase by more than 70 percent by 2050 to meet the world’s food demand. We can’t do that if we keep losing farms and farmland.
So many people blame agriculture for everything wrong in the world – like climate change, greenhouse gasses, polluted water and deforestation – but once the farmers and ranchers no longer till the soil or tend the animals, things will drastically change. It’s estimated that at least half of the world’s population would die if agriculture collapsed.
I’m confident Bill and I could make it for some time without a grocery store, but picking up a bag of flour is much easier than trying to grind wheat. Bill can sometimes be a “ prepper,” so that 50 pounds of dry beans he bought might just come in handy one day.
The decline in farms and farmland is significant, but a little light shines bright. Census data also shows a rise in the number of new and beginning (operating 10 or fewer years on any farm) and young (under 35) producers. There were just more than 1 million farmers with 10 or fewer years of experience, an increase in the number of beginning farmers from 2017 of 11 percent. There were 296,480 producers under 35, making up 9 percent of all producers.
Farm income is up from 2017, according to the data. U.S. farming operations produced $543 billion in agricultural products, up from $389 billion in 2017. U.S. farms had a net cash income of $152 billion. Average farm income rose to $79,790. A total of 43 percent of farms had positive net cash farm income in 2022.
Perhaps the most significant data giving me confidence that American farmers and ranchers are here for the long haul was that family-owned and operated farms accounted for 95 percent of all U.S. farms and operated 84 percent of the land. As long as those numbers hold steady, I think we will be just fine.
Here’s to hoping the next census has more good news than bad and that our farmers and ranchers are still leading the way in feeding the world.
Julie Turner-Crawford is a native of Dallas County, Mo., where she grew up on her family’s farm. She is a graduate of Missouri State University. To contact Julie, call 1-866-532-1960 or by email at [email protected].
