Comments on: Becoming (and Remaining) a Farmer is Hard

By: BLOG 5 – Karlis Blog Page

BLOG 5 – Karlis Blog Page — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 02:04:21 +0000

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By: Paul Underhill

Paul Underhill — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 16:41:42 +0000

It’s astonishing that this article omits the biggest challenge in ag and the main reason most young farmers leave: It’s almost impossible to make a living farming anymore, even for farmers with legacy capital. The economics simply aren’t there. For the same time and education investment, you can likely make five or more times the annual income with much less stress. Having farmed for 25 years now and achieved “success”, I see that my friends have had equally rewarding careers without a fraction of the sacrifices I made. And I see the already-narrow path to success closing behind me.

There is no “crisis” here either. Bigger operations are doing fine, and will have no problem finding people to work for them. If you want to farm for a living, do it as an employee, not an owner. Any non-profit advocacy organization that tells young people otherwise is doing them a giant disservice.

By: Becoming -and remaining- a farmer is hard | Two Bears Farm

Becoming -and remaining- a farmer is hard | Two Bears Farm — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:13:37 +0000

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By: Only Organic News Overview 12-8 | Only Organic

Only Organic News Overview 12-8 | Only Organic — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 18:32:06 +0000

[…] Becoming (and Remaining) a Farmer is Hard. […]

By: Julia Shanks

Julia Shanks — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 14:51:32 +0000

You are correct! It’s not easy to become and remain a farmer. You list many important factors in cultivating the next generation of farmers, but you omit one very important factor: building farmers’ skills to be financially sustainable. With all the barriers to farming successfully, it’s crucial that farmers understand their profit model – what it takes to earn a decent living. The Carrot Project (www.thecarrotproject.com) provides financial training and access to capital to farmers throughout New England and the Hudson Valley. Their research has shown that long-term financial coaching increases a farmer’s profitability by 52%, thereby increasing their chances for success for years to come. This type of positive outcome, experienced by The Carrot Project and 70 other organizations, are influencing the development of The Blueprint to expand business technical assistance programs across the region and encouraging similar activities in California and the Midwest.

Julia Shanks
Senior Business Advisor for The Carrot Project and Author of “The Farmer’s Office”

By: B Stanaland

B Stanaland — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 16:50:15 +0000

I discourage any young person from going into farming. They have absolutely no chance of surviving the challenge. Their lives will be ruined and they will have nothing. Young farmers would be competing against big farmers that received many thousands of government money in the past. Farming is agriculture socialism that is not intended to succeed for the individual. A beginning farmer is much better off to own 1 chicken without a government lien than to own a million chickens with government lien. FSA is very corrupt.