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Between 2000 and today property in the rural area I grew up in has gone from 1k/acre for non-prime farm land to 7k/acre for the same kind of junk property. Its
by a2tech 3y ago
Between 2000 and today property in the rural area I grew up in has gone from 1k/acre for non-prime farm land to 7k/acre for the same kind of junk property. Its an insane jump and has mostly happened since the pandemic (it was creeping up before that, but it really jumped during the last few years)
- dkasper 3y agoExactly what I’ve seen. I don’t think anyone can afford to become a farmer at these prices unless they already own the land
- a2tech 3y agoEven before these price increases in property there was no money in being a farmer. My grandfather had 100 acres of asparagus (bought when property was cheap in the 60s) and even with migrant labor doing all the real work, him and my grandmother had to have full time jobs. It brought in a profit don't get me wrong, but not enough to make it worthwhile as a full time pursuit. The root problem as I see it is that farming scales very, very well. The bigger you are, the cheaper your inputs become and the better you're able to negotiate sale prices. For example to farm 80/100 acres, my grandfather had to have a big Case tractor just to run the various implements that are necessary. That thing cost 100k+ and would have been just as happy doing the work on a thousand acre farm as a hundred acre farm.