America's Farms are Getting Wiped Out
If you dream of escaping the cubicle and starting a farm, new data says America's farmers are getting wiped out.
Leaving hollowed-out communities that rival the rust-belt.
A few days ago the USDA reported that the number of farms in America plunged by 140,000 in the last 5 years -- that's roughly 2,500 farms going bust every month.
They're mostly small farms, so farms earning below $50,000 dropped by almost 10%, while large farms -- those earning over a million -- actually grew by 36%.
So what's driving the great extinction? Simple: rising costs, falling revenue, and green mandates.
Threat on American Agriculture
Together, according to the USDA, these are expected to crash farm income this year by another 25%. Bringing income for the roughly 2 million farms in America to just over $110 billions -- that's $55,000 per farm. Not per farmer, per farm.
For perspective, that's about one fifth of revenue at Amazon.com. For all the farms in America.
Of course, the falling revenue is partly from productivity: better seeds, better machines. And those do reduce costs to consumers. But combined with relentless costs -- up $17 billion last year alone -- and rampant green mandates, they're driving farmers into the dirt.
To give a flavor of the destructive power of mandates, the FDA admits that a single proposed rule on sustainability -- the so-called "Produce Rule" -- will cost a typical small farm $13,000 per year -- that's a fifth what they're making now. For a single rule.
And these rules are non-stop, covering everything from renewable mandates to cow farts. In fact, Europe's farmers are currently blockading cities for that very reason.
Decades of Decline
The decline of American farming has been going on for decades, and it's accelerating. Since 1950, the number of farms in America have dropped by nearly 4 million -- about two-thirds. While the number of acres under cultivation dropped by 27% -- an area roughly twice the size of the state of Texas.
This has driven an exodus of population from farming areas mirroring the rust-belt collapse driven by unions and government harassment of domestic manufacturers.
Together, they've depopulated great swathes of America, leaving abandoned Main Streets and empty town squares that used to be full of people on Sunday.
Mom-and-Pop Shops at Risk
Of course, these regulations and taxes don't only hit farms and manufacturers, they hit everybody from family restaurants to corner stores.
Leaving many of these depopulated towns essentially a crossroads with nothing but a gas station, a McDonald's, and a WalMart -- chain stores big enough to digest regulations that would bankrupt a family business.
To give a sense, a recent study by the National Association of Manufacturers estimated that federal regulations alone cost large manufacturers -- those with more than 100 workers -- an average of $24,800 per employee.
Which is roughly half their salary. But they cost small companies -- those with fewer than 50 workers -- more than double that, at $50,100 per employee.
The family business simply cannot compete.
The solution to the decline of farming is as easy as it is in manufacturing: Get rid of the mandates, the regulations, and taxes on especially small business.
Government has become a predator on the small businesses of America, and so long as that continues, they'll keep hollowing out entire regions of America, from the rust-belt to the corn-belt.
It’s free to subscribe, or choose the $5 option to help keep the lights on — everything’s subscriber-supported.
And check out the weekly podcast with all the week’s videos in a single 20 minute show.
I really dislike the US federal government.
If a town has a Walmart and a McDonald's. It is lucky. A real dying town has a Dollar General and a Dairy Queen.