By Clint Thompson
The future of the American family farm is very much up in the air. More and more farms are closing up shop, while more and more agricultural lands are being used for anything besides agriculture. That’s concerning for industry leader Stanley Culpepper.
Culpepper, a University of Georgia Extension weed specialist, spoke at the recent Southeastern Specialty Crop Technology Conference & Show in Tifton, Georgia. He provided data that supports his fears about the future of the family farm.
“Yeah, I mean, right now it’s really scary. If you look at the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) numbers, they show we’re losing 240 acres of farmland every hour and we’re losing 1.7 farms per hour,” Culpepper said.
According to data from the USDA, there have been 18,470,000 acres of farmland and 127,600 farms lost in the last five years. There is one farmer for every 169 Americans today, compared to one farmer for every 75 Americans in 1980.
“And these are not your part-time farmers. These are real farmers. For me personally, with Extension in Georgia, I’ve lost more farmers, I believe, in the last three years than over the 25 years previously,” Culpepper said. “So it’s real alarming. And we need the community to rally around our farmers who feed us. They clothe us. They provide us national security. And we need to rally around them and help support them through these trying times.
“And that means supporting the tools that they need, making them more efficient, making them more effective; just a holistic approach. But it breaks my heart going to extension meetings, which is what I love to do, because we’re in such a dire situation.”