Several Reasons for the Number of Farms Lost in the U.S. in the 2022 Cenusus

Danni Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation explains that the Census of Agriculture is conducted every five years and provides a comprehensive snapshot of the agricultural landscape. The latest census conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service with USDA was released not too long ago for 2022 and shows that the number of farms in the US declined by 141,733 or by 7%.

“You have a lot of different pressures impacting producers right now. So regulatory challenges access to labor each originality is viewing farmers differently. And you know, environmental regulations have increased in certain areas, making it more expensive for especially smaller farmers to comply access to labor, especially for specialty crops producers. Weather conditions have pushed out farms in certain areas. We've seen higher percentages of farms lost particularly in the southwest, you have low cost foreign competition that then combines with some of your regulatory challenges that makes it harder for American farmers to compete. And then as always, your your heightened production costs. Production costs have increased and are forecasted to increase to record levels yet again. The USDA net farm income forecast from February forecasts has increased 16 billion over last year, which is a 4% increase. Things like interest rates continue to pressure farmers.”

Danni Munch with the American Farm Bureau Federation.