Within twenty-five years, there may be no farmers left in America. The Department of Agriculture estimates that by mid-century the last extant family farms will die out and American farmland equivalent in size to three-and-a-half Californias will have been sold to multinational agricultural corporations. Farmers are, on average, the oldest workers in the country, and they’re retiring in droves. As the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging recently announced, “The median age of a farmer is 57.5 years,” over “two years older than any other job,” with a third aged sixty-five or older. Over half work a second job to maintain their livelihoods.
These downward trends aren’t limited to domestic-born American farmers. Migrant and immigrant workers, who before Covid made up around half of the country’s agricultural laborers, are increasingly leaving behind farming for more lucrative opportunities. Labor shortages, already endemic to the industry before the pandemic, have risen to the point of crisis, while food production worldwide will need to increase 70 percent by 2050 to feed the growing global population.
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