Lady Clayton has found yet another apocryphal tidbit to get her panties twisted over:
What his mildewed brain can’t comprehend is that EVERYONE is getting older as the population ages. Much like he freaks out about groceries going up and thinks it’s a grand conspiracy when really EVERYTHING went up in price during that timeframe thanks to profligate spending and money printing.
Here is someone who DOES understand that:
Age of US Farmers: Not a Problem
Excerpts:
Age is both a level and relative concept. Relative to the US population, US farmers have become slightly younger over the last 60 years. Since 1960, the average age of US farmers has increased 7.6 years while the median age of the US population has increased 8.8 years. US median age is from Korhonen and US Census Bureau. (Note, the Agricultural Census does not report a median age.)
The share of US farmers between 45 and 64 was lower in the 2022 vs. the 2017 Census. In contrast, the shares less than 45 and older than 65 increased from 19% to 22% and from 34% to 39%, respectively. Farmers older than 65 align with the 1970 period of prosperity while farmers younger than 45 align with the post-2006 period of prosperity (farmdoc daily, November 8, 2023). As economics would predict, more people enter farming when economic returns are good.
US farmers have been and remain older than the US population. A likely reason is that farming requires inputs other than labor. Capital is required to buy farm equipment and rent or own farmland. Capital accumulation happens over a person’s lifetime.
Over the last half century, US farmers have become younger, not older, relative to the US population.
The current age distribution of US farmers is consistent with the expectation that more people enter farming when economic returns are good. US farm prosperity since 2006 (farmdoc daily, November 8, 2023) has been associated with an increase in share of US farmers younger than 45.
These observations do not suggest the US has a farmer aging or a farmer replacement problem.
Fake farmer Clayton Tucker won’t bother to read all of the above TRUTH because it isn’t alarmist and doesn’t feed into his “all hysteria, all lies, all the time” campaign vibe.
Shit, I’ve been hearing about the farmers disappearing, going broke and dying off since at LEAST 1985 when John Cougar Mellencamp was writing songs about it daily and started doing Farm Aid concerts.
[Yes, they are still doing those things 41 years later!]
Of course, 35-year-old Clayton (who lives with his parents) refuses to join the “actively farming 35-44” cohort DESPITE being handed everything he needs for FREE! He’d rather drive around with Baby Beluga spouting nonsense to little old ladies and stuffing his fat face with Panda Express ultra-processed food.
