Why is he surprised? He runs the department.
So having more then tripled operation costs for small farmers with idiotically bad energy polices, the Biden regime wants to cry about how tough things are for small farmers?
BEST thing the Biden regime could do for farmers is mass resign today
It’s worldwide, and it’s not good.
I learned a lot of valuable lessons spending summers on my Aunt and Uncle’s farm.
Life and death.
You won’t have a good harvest if you don’t put in the work.
You don’t get to choose where the rain or hail falls.
We are governed by people who know nothing but city life.
Lost? How about some details. Were they combined into larger farms? Sold for urban development or energy production? Abandoned to wilderness? The “solution”, if there needs to be one, is different for each case. This looks like a case of agriculture bureaucrats setting themselves on fire to get more cash.
I’m in north central Indiana. Some of the best cropland there is because of the soil and the fact it doesn’t need irrigation
They are currently building, and proposing ten and ten of thousands of acres of solar panels
A lot of the leaseholders here are people who live elsewhere, but inherited the family farm
When this fad is over, the panel will go, but the structures and infrastructure will stay
Even once removed, it will take several years for that soil to get back to its potential
...When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine.”...
we will rue the day we chased off the small farms...
The small family farms can’t compete against the super sized family farms.
All by design.
Land is so expensive to get and to hang on to. There are real disconnects with the bubble heads in DC.
I am guessing that gov’t is favoring importing food and throwing up obstacles blocking growing food here.
And Yet........... our Farmers Markets have lots of vendors selling all sorts of stuff they have produced.
And there are also lots of customers that come out to buy what they have to sell
Further......... many “working folk” don’t have time to actually cook and buy all sorts of prepared food
Last week I traveled through Alabama and Georgia.......... there is mile after mile after mile of un used cropland
It’s their own dastardly policies.
Who couldn’t see that one coming, but likely it’s been part of the plan all along.
Well, this is interesting, because around me, quite a bit of land is being cleared and turned (turned back?) into cropland. All except for what was the field across the road which has been turned into storage & pre-shipment processing (5 silos, the 5th built a month ago - dang, those go up fast. The 1st 4 went up 2 summers ago, IIRC.) Corn, barley, and soybeans.
This activity seems to be mostly two large local family-operated farms, one of which is run by a fellow I’d guess is in his mid-late 40’s. BIG new house down the road from us. Quite a bit of equipment is based in “out buildings” and barns there too, although two big shelters protect equipment and / or trucks across the road from us too.
Almost all the uncultivated* land in this region is in parks, refuges, preserves, private woodlots, or National Forests.
*Mostly forested, with some harvesting in the woodlots & National Forests.
bkmk
Would be interested to see how many new starts are attempted and the failure rates.