Well, no. The biggest factor in the demise of Eastern agriculture was simple economies of scale. By 1980 even the western homestead was obsolete, as the typical 40 to 160 acre family farm had been displaced by major farms covering several thousand acres each. There probably aren't enough contiguous parcels of land east of the Appalachian Mountains that could be used for this kind of operation.
You're probably correct about the geography, however, the greatest threat against the family farm is your government through the EPA. They have effectively "taken" resources through the power of government that many cannot afford.
Just try cutting down a tree in order to plant a crop today...
You’re spot-on. Too many eastern farms are composed of smaller chunks of land.
With inflation since the 70’s, today’s farmer has to farm at least 2,000 acres of most row-crop commodities to support one family.
In the 60’s, the farm needed to be only about 400 to 600 acres to support a family.
To farm 2,000 acres or more, you need some huge machinery and big implements to reduce labor costs. Big machinery makes BIG noise. (I love the sound of howling diesels, but that’s just me, I’m a farmer).
Neighbors of farmers running equipment don’t like farmers. Or their equipment. Or the dust, spray rigs (or spray planes), etc, etc, etc.
Out here in the west, we have fewer idiot neighbors next to farms, as well as larger contiguous farms.
Last figures I saw on family farms, admittedly a few years back, showed that about two thirds were debt-free and profitable. These authors emphasize the water issue(being "climate scientists") but as transportation and other energy costs increase, more local ag production will become progressively more profitable.
The biggest problem right now is that it is more profitable for farmers to sell their land to real estate developers than to farm it. But that seems to me to be a situation the market may correct. If Amish can prosper using 19th century equipment and methods,( they can and do), I would say there is a bright future for smaller farms in the eastern US.