The number of farms in America is shrinking as growers get older and producing crops gets a lot more expensive.
The US had 1.9 million farms in 2022, a 6.9% drop from five years ago and the lowest since at least 1992, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture released on Tuesday. The total acreage used in farms dropped about 2.2%.
The survey, conducted every five years, shows an increasingly challenging outlook for food production in the US as the population grows. The high cost of land and equipment has raised the bar of entry into agriculture, making it more expensive for the next generation to produce crops.
Meanwhile, the average age of producers continued to climb, reaching 58.1 years in 2022.
The number of farms in America is shrinking as growers get older and producing crops gets a lot more expensive, according to the USDA’s Census of Agriculture https://t.co/DZgnTtvkdr
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