And with this law passing, the death of the family farm is complete. Now instead of the midwest being full of family farms passed from father to son, we'll only

And with this law passing, the death of the family farm is complete. Now instead of the midwest being full of family farms passed from father to son, we'll only have corporate farms, since the typical family can't come up with the cash to cover half the value of their land that now belongs to the government. According to the article, the lowest exemption amount being discussed is $1 Million. According to wikipedia, the average value of a family farm is $250,000 in the US, so in other words this will not impact the average family farm at all. (As a side note, my mother's side of the family does maintain a family farm passed through generations and it is currently worth substantially less than that...) When you are talking about the truly large family farm worth over $1 Million, remember, that first million is still exempt, only the value over a million is taxed. This means that only a farm worth substantially over a million is at risk of unmanageable tax bills. A farm that large will look a lot like a corporate farm even if sole ownership has been passed through generations, and a farm owner with that kind of resources likely has a large life insurance policy that will help defray those taxes somewhat. [Edit: spelling and grammar]