Census of Ag Concerns Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. A week after the results from the USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture were released, the numbers have many still scratching their heads.
With the number of farms and ranches down 7% from 2017 and total acreage down 5%, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack tried to put it into perspective …
VILSACK-2A = 24 … “That's every New England state with the exception of Connecticut in five years. I want to give you a sense of how many farms that is. I've been focusing on this issue for the last four or five months because I ran across a report done by Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland In 1981. He was expressing concern about the direction of agriculture because we had changed the method of support, a direction of support, for American agriculture.”
And when comparing the numbers from then until now …
VILSACK-2B = 20 … “Well, if you look at the number of farms that were in existence when he issued that warning and compare it to today, we've 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 says while the data shows a continued decline in the total number of U.S. farms, the number of new and beginning farmers has risen.
Family-owned and operated farms account for 95% of all U.S. farms.
