Maybe someday

We can get our food from this machine or from the capsule . We wont need farmers anymore but no one wants us anyway
The jetsons

Here in southern NH everyone who moves up from MA worships the local farmers and soon has their own "farm" on their one acre.

Wow, So much of that video is true today.

Had an uncle that lived on about 1 acre up near DC,he grew and raised most of the food he act on that one acre.Also had a few chickens and rabbits for eggs/meat used their manure to
fertilize his garden.I raise almost all the vegetables we eat on about 1/2 acre of land.

Almost scary

Nothing wrong with raising your own if you want to and can .

I see the flying car is still puffing something out the exhaust though...

,,,

We raise some for the community ,, in return they support me financially of coarse we eat as much as we can also

Fifty years ago the Canteen food service had cafeteria vending machines where I worked, and those were far from new.

How food is produced and who produces it has changed a lot in the last century and will likely change even more in the next century. Small farmers have lost interest in passing the farm on to the next generation, so the trend toward either large scale industrial farms or small hobby farms will continue.

Love when Jane grabs the wallet! Women the same no matter the planet

I wouldn't say they've lost interest in passing the farm to the next generation... it's more the next generation not wanting the hassles of regulations, ingratitude, and low pay.

Cookies must have cleared out on my iPad a week ago. Your post motivated me to log in again....

Farm families have not lost interest in passing on the farm, nor have rural kids list interest in farming!

The overwhelming wall of govt regulations, technology cost, and negative city attitudes is what is ending those dreams.

Paul

You just can't make any money doing it. It's fine as a hobby, but hobbies lose money....

Nothing wrong with a small garden, big garden, tiny farm raising some food for yourself or the neighborhood.

All farming.

In my back yard its corn and soybeans, so that is what I talk about. Im a rebel because I grow some small grains and a few acres are cover cropped.

I enjoy hearing about other ways and regions and how they farm, or what they do or raise.

We get kinda guarded when the conversation becomes center focused on this is the only way to do farming when dirt and climate and precip and temps can be so different just 100 miles away, not one way fits all and its kinda off putting when we hear that...... I need to be reminded of this myself....

But sharing what one does is always cool.

Paul

Yeppers. Life really mimics The Jetsons! Who knew??? LOL

LOL... Yep, mama was like Jane - she did not work outside the home, so had no income. [Though raising 6 kids, canning and freezing much of our food, giving haircuts, and sewing much of our clothing... was certainly work enough.]

Here, we both earn... and share everything.

(quoted from post at 09:08:21 03/22/22) You just can't make any money doing it. It's fine as a hobby, but hobbies lose money....

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Oh don't worry Traditional Farmer will be along shortly to tell you that (but not how) you can get rich farming with organic, but you have to go broke to get there.

Around here it's a farming community. Local restaurants have squeeze bottles of Roundup on the tables beside the ketchup. They sweeten their coffee with raw ground beef. Try organic, you'll find an upside down cross burning in your front lawn.

I agree with ya. Except for the part about farmers losing interest in passing thier farms on. Which also can be true in some cases. But in many cases, it's a result and not a cause.
I think we have entered an era of get big, or get small or out. Which in turn brings about the whole lack of interest thing. Mediocre farmers know this. And because if that, either encourage thier kids to take up a different trade, or get an education to a different trade to fall back in case the farming thing don't go as planned. Which in turn, leads kids down a road that may not circle back around.
Middle sized farmers are getting weeded out at a very fast pace. Even if one has things work out just right, and has that kid that wants to farm, and hangs around to do so, it can be a very tuff road ahead for them. They likely buy a single farm with one of those newbie low interest loans. After that, any additional loans are the same as for anybody else. Then comes the whole farming in partnership with daddy and using his equipment because he is not yet ready to retire. That constantly keeps the potential income on the down low, as long as that is going on. As daddy approaches retirement, he is un-willing to up-grade or buy any new equipment. (I think I can grind along here a few more years with what I got, why don't you buy that new tractor or combine, or planter.) Then when daddy does retire, it's cash rent time instead of farming in partnership. Now your making rent payments same as if you are farming anyone elses ground. And that in a nut shell is like renting house. Might as well be paying loan payments to own, rather than rent payments. Then when daddy and mom finally kill over, it's inheritance time. And the 3 other siblings want to sell out, take the money and run. So, if the one wants to keep going, he can now purchase 3/4ths of the estate. He no longer using any of daddy's out dated equipment. So inheriting any of that would be useless. The list goes on.
Needless to say, in many cases, it don't work out even if there is an interest to line a kid out in farming, and the kid actually stays around and tries it, IF they in turn they have an interest to do so. And then there is all the other stuff. Can't manage money, no business sense. Stuff like that is a recipe for it to not work out.

I can name 6 medium size farmers close by me, that thier kids will never farm. 30 years from now, they'll likely not even own the land thier parents own today.

Went to a small livestock and farm supply store open house 15 years or so ago.

Coffee, rolls, maybe hotdogs were served on a table. Stepped back a bit and nibbling on my roll, and saw the table
was a piece of plywood on a insecticide barrel.

Kinda had to grin.

Things can sometimes be odd.

Paul

I do agree that most farmers would be happy if by magic the farm is passed on to the next generation. But very few are actually willing to do the long term planning, teaching and coaching, business expansions, sharing responsibilities, and stepping aside early that it takes to get that done. By waiting to start until after the next generation is well established with a home, family, and careers in far off places, is that the kid's fault or dad's missed responsibility?

I think the next organic experience SV has we will all hear
about it.. lol.

(quoted from post at 12:31:44 03/22/22) I think the next organic experience SV has we will all hear
about it.. lol.

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God, no.

Well, interest and responsibility is two totally different things. A person might have an interest in someday being the CEO of the biggest corporation in the world. But that same person might not ever be responsible enough to make it happen.

Bottom line here, it's a situation that's being hit from all angles. Let's just say a man of 50, is a farmer, with NO college education, grown kids, one that wants to farm, and at best he Might of (doubtfully), just got all of his dept paid off. What is he suppose to do at age 50? Step aside, and go into town and flip burgers for a living until he's 62?? The other choice would be to double the size of his operation (land, equipment, and livestock) to make room for two, and be back deeply mortgaged again at age 50. Sure, the one kid could probably get a low interest loan to buy a quarter (160 acres). But, that's probably going to be about the end of his line of credit, until some of it gets paid off. And you can't really make a living on 160 acres. The rest (additional acres, equipment, what ever) is going to have to be mortgaged/co-signed by dad.
I'm not just real sure that not having an INTEREST in going back heavily in debt or flipping burgers for a living at age 50, is being IRRESPONSIBLE. It doesn't really spell out that he DON'T have an interest in his kid becoming a farmer, or someday taking over the operation. Sometime you gotta do, what you gotta do, whether you like it or not. Might not be what you want to do. Sending a kid away to college and pursue some other career for awhile, might not be what you want to do. And if your still in sizeable debt at age 50, it might be what you HAVE to do. I didn't even factor that into my example.

On another note, we are talking about mid-size farmers after all. Not the big huge ones. They got room for a kid to come on board. They likely have hired hands. Bringing a kid on board, is as simple as firing one of the hired hands. Maybe not even that, if they happen to be looking for another employee. Mid sized farmers (my area) don't have hired hands. If they do, it's extremely seasonal. Definitely not full time.

Well the organic farmers I know don't have to get a gov't check to stay solvent.

SV your comments echo much of what was discussed last night in our ag meeting. Our county and region of the state in which we live in is rapidly urbanizing and farms are disappearing quickly. Land in some parts of the county is $100,000 an acre. Local governments, charities, and churches have food drives constantly. Businesses recruited often need building sites of hundreds of acres. There's a lot of uncommon sense at work these days.

TF. I usually agree with you on your organic comments but on this one you made a poor argument. I did custom organic farming for neighbor for 15 yrs. He grabbed every govt. check he could.
Did he need it to stay solvent? No. But then neither did I with my conventional farming.

SAME in these parts and you would get hungry doing it, Organic made its try here about 20 years ago
and the commune an the hippies are all grown up and gone..LOL

Paul I always had to think like that when Loren would show all those photos of fall PLOWING , farming over 2,000 acres and have not had a breaking plow in 20 years, 90% of it was NO-TILL. This spring is the first time in 57 years I will not have a crop, sold off a big portion of the land and rented the rest out. Our kids had other things to do.

Pretty sure most will be dead by then including me

Spellcheck corrected your orgasmic. lol