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Even 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
by a2tech 3y ago
Even 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.