Half of all Americans were farmers

[mike]

People will put up with a lot and work hard if it pays them well. I think the changes are largely about economics, the changes in which are primarily due to technological developments. Also there is population growth, and the dynamic that happens when a farmer's five sons need farms of their own in order to stay in the business.

[RZehr]

How does the total overall number of farmers today compare with the past?

[Ken]

Agriculture has experienced the same changes in productivity as many other industries. One farmer today can produce 100x more corn or wheat than his counterpart could a century ago.

Fishing is the same. Large modern trawlers can harvest hundreds of tons per day. A century ago sailing schooners sent out dory-men to catch cod by handlines.

Mining is the same. With mountaintop removal a few miners using massive earth moving equipment can do in a day what it took 100 miners with pickaxes a week to do 100 years ago.

Logging is the same. A couple of men driving mechanized tree harvesters and forwarders can do in a day what it took 100 men using hand saws and horses a week to do 100 years ago.

Trying to run a small-scale nostalgia-based family farm is about as practical as mining coal by hand or logging with hand tools and horses. There might be niche applications for that sort of thing, but it's not likely to be economically sustainable in most instances. Even the Amish are increasingly getting out of farming and into other lines of business.

In any event, Little House on the Prairie or Currier and Ives notions of what farm life was like 150 years ago are largely sentimental nonsense. It was a brutally hard and economically fragile way to make a living. Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder: is an eye-opening read about what life on the plains as a settler and homesteader was really like. I recommend it to anyone interested in a real portrait of 19th century prairie homesteader life.

During the 19th Century millions upon millions of Americans voted with their feet and decided that life inside dark dangerous dystopian industrial mills and factories was preferable to life on the farm. They made that choice willingly.

What I expect to happen in the next generation or two is many of the remaining family farms across the farm belt will be replaced by corporate farms that largely employ immigrant labor. And the remaining towns that survive across the plains and rural midwest will become increasingly Hispanic and immigrant-based. In a generation or two I expect Kansas and Iowa to look much more like California's Central Valley.

[Ken]

How does the total overall number of farmers today compare with the past?

This is from the USDA



Here is for the world

[temporal1]

People will put up with a lot and work hard if it pays them well.
I think the changes are largely about economics, the changes in which are primarily due to technological developments. Also there is population growth, and the dynamic that happens when a farmer's five sons need farms of their own in order to stay in the business.

Culturally, it’s sad.
People are generally “built” to work hard, removing the work doesn’t change the inborn need.

Example.
Some dog breeds, horse breeds, were created to be work animals. They thrive when they work.
i believe people are much the same. i feel sorry for (esp young men) who are filled with strength and energy, physical potential, yet today what do they do? social media? high school, remote high school? gangs?? they should be too tired for gangs! (my elders would say.)
hard work was the cure-all. “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”

Our culture does not keep up with the reality of the physical, mental and spiritual beings we are.
We keep lions in cages. They’re safe. Fed. But .. ..

Even for myself, a grandmother. i’m walking 3 miles. in former times, my elders were busy with the physical work required in keeping a home.

Well. it may not stay this way. the easy life may not last a lot longer.

[mike]

Trying to run a small-scale nostalgia-based family farm is about as practical as mining coal by hand or logging with hand tools and horses. There might be niche applications for that sort of thing, but it's not likely to be economically sustainable in most instances. Even the Amish are increasingly getting out of farming and into other lines of business.

I wonder if there are any statistics for the history of my industry, retail grocery. If so, I am pretty sure there would be a lot of similarity to farming with the advent of supermarkets and national retail chains and the growth of technology. Although I have a small grocery compared to a supermarket, it is essentially technology and efficiencies of scale which enable me to stay in business. It would be almost totally impossible to do business the way they did 50 years ago in the small mom and pop stores. There are a few of those still around, but many of them have no one in the next generation interested in continuing the business.

[Ken]

Trying to run a small-scale nostalgia-based family farm is about as practical as mining coal by hand or logging with hand tools and horses. There might be niche applications for that sort of thing, but it's not likely to be economically sustainable in most instances. Even the Amish are increasingly getting out of farming and into other lines of business.

I wonder if there are any statistics for the history of my industry, retail grocery. If so, I am pretty sure there would be a lot of similarity to farming with the advent of supermarkets and national retail chains and the growth of technology. Although I have a small grocery compared to a supermarket, it is essentially technology and efficiencies of scale which enable me to stay in business. It would be almost totally impossible to do business the way they did 50 years ago in the small mom and pop stores. There are a few of those still around, but many of them have no one in the next generation interested in continuing the business.

I'm sure there are probably statistics somewhere.

There are probably dozens of different categories of small businesses that are dying out. Shoe repair shops, tailors, bookstores, electronics stores like Radio Shack, hobby shops, etc. etc. Blame Costco, Amazon, and Wal-Mart I guess.

I used to spend summers in Belleville PA as a kid in the 70s and still go back every few years for family reunions and such. I remember when downtown Belleville had a nice A&P grocery store in the center of town. Now there is nothing left but a Dollar General on the edge of town and a couple of small Amish-run grocery and dry goods stores. People have to drive to Lewistown for the nearest big grocery or Wal-Mart.

[temporal1]

Trying to run a small-scale nostalgia-based family farm is about as practical as mining coal by hand or logging with hand tools and horses. There might be niche applications for that sort of thing, but it's not likely to be economically sustainable in most instances. Even the Amish are increasingly getting out of farming and into other lines of business.

I wonder if there are any statistics for the history of my industry, retail grocery.
If so, I am pretty sure there would be a lot of similarity to farming with the advent of supermarkets and national retail chains and the growth of technology. Although I have a small grocery compared to a supermarket, it is essentially technology and efficiencies of scale which enable me to stay in business.

It would be almost totally impossible to do business the way they did 50 years ago in the small mom and pop stores. There are a few of those still around, but many of them have no one in the next generation interested in continuing the business.

There were so many complaints about Walmart.
Today, as i shop in Walmart, it’s so not-busy, i shudder to think it may soon be replaced by Amazon.
Our local, quite small grocer/meat market keeps busy!

Many seem to be finding they can live without anything. “Nothing” may follow.
The world is looking very strange these days.

Except highways. Semis on highways.
Not long ago, “the talk” was about the coming end to truck driving as a career.

i’ve outlived a lot of talk.

[Ken]

Trying to run a small-scale nostalgia-based family farm is about as practical as mining coal by hand or logging with hand tools and horses. There might be niche applications for that sort of thing, but it's not likely to be economically sustainable in most instances. Even the Amish are increasingly getting out of farming and into other lines of business.

I wonder if there are any statistics for the history of my industry, retail grocery.
If so, I am pretty sure there would be a lot of similarity to farming with the advent of supermarkets and national retail chains and the growth of technology. Although I have a small grocery compared to a supermarket, it is essentially technology and efficiencies of scale which enable me to stay in business.

It would be almost totally impossible to do business the way they did 50 years ago in the small mom and pop stores. There are a few of those still around, but many of them have no one in the next generation interested in continuing the business.

There were so many complaints about Walmart.
Today, as i shop in Walmart, it’s so not-busy, i shudder to think it may soon be replaced by Amazon.
Our local, quite small grocer/meat market keeps busy!

Many seem to be finding they can live without anything. “Nothing” may follow.
The world is looking very strange these days.

Except highways. Semis on highways.
Not long ago, “the talk” was about the coming end to truck driving as a career.

i’ve outlived a lot of talk.

Around here the best local butchers and small independent groceries are the Mexican carnicerias and the Asian groceries and seafood markets. I expect in another generation their kids won't want to take over their parent's shops and the cycle will repeat with the next wave of immigrants.

[barnhart]

Around here the best local butchers and small independent groceries are the Mexican carnicerias and the Asian groceries and seafood markets. I expect in another generation their kids won't want to take over their parent's shops and the cycle will repeat with the next wave of immigrants.

Here in the city it's the same story on fast forward. Immigration really drives an economy from the bottom up.