Key agricultural issues:Mom and pop farms, and knowledge loss from retirements

摘要

Iwas asked about the future of mom and pop farms at a recent conference with my good friend Danny Klinefelter of Texas A&M. I define mom and pop farms as having children and/or grandchildren working on the farm, which may be a large entity. Some own other businesses, inside and outside of agriculture.The structure of U.S. agriculture is much like a dog bone. On one end are the many large producers representing much of the income and farm debt: 270,000 farms generate 80% of revenue and carry 60% of U.S. farm debt.