Farm Foundation Conference 2

Rick Worthington

The future of farming in America will be the main focus during the final day of a conference being offered today for free -virtually- by the Farm Foundation and the USDA’s Economic Research Service.

“The Emerging Research on Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Conference” will cover many other issues that are important to beginning farmers and ranchers, including land access, credit, transferring assets, and many more topics that make it a challenge to get into agriculture.

Martha King is the Vice President of Programs and Projects for Farm Foundation. She says it’s also important to get young people into the business because American farmers aren’t getting any younger…

“The average age of the American farmer is somewhere around the late 50s, maybe 58 to 60 years old, and most landlords are over 65. So, if you focus on that alone, there’s a longevity issue here in terms of what’s going to happen to the transfer of farmland in the next 20-30 years. Agriculture is ripe for a lot of change, and we have to anticipate that change and how people will access that farmland, and how families will transition that ownership is really important. You can’t ignore the issue because it’s going to face us all.”

You can find out more information on the conference at www.farmfoundation.org. Click on the panel that says, “Free 2 Day Conference.”