AmiSight 2/23: Family Farms Dwindling as Children Seek Other Lifestyles

Ami Kassar
43 minutes ago
1 min read

For centuries, family farms have been handed down to the next generation without missing a beat. Now that tradition is dwindling as rising costs, weak prices and a trade hit are straining farmers, and making the search for their successors harder than ever.

The Wall Street Journal reports that thousands of American farmers are shutting down farms that have been in their families for generations, either by selling to a larger entity or declaring bankruptcy.

Children of farmers today have more opportunities to work beyond agriculture than they did decades ago, and families are typically smaller, shrinking the pool of possible candidates. And this decrease in small family farms is upending the transfer of wealth – long attached to the land – between generations.

Although many aging farmers have been relying on government bailouts to stay afloat, they still are left to wonder what will happen to the land that has been in their family for generations.