A speaker explains why farming is in crisis: farmers struggle financially, can't afford to pass land to the next generation, and aging operators resist new methods. Government policy and high land costs trap the industry in the past.
What the average income of a farmer is. Well, if you have a 100 acre farm in Iowa in a good year, which we haven't had a good year for a few years, you'd make $22,000. So if you imagine you're a young, young farmer. And the average income of most farmers is negative 15. This past two years in a two years in a row has been negative $1800 for 100 acre farm. Yeah. So it's just been a disaster. In fact, we have the worst year for bankruptcies in a generation this year in amongst farmers. almost 600 farmers have gone bankrupt. And it's just awful. And so the reason is because they're so emotionally attached to the land. They want their kids to farm it. And as a result, the kids don't take it over. And most farms are bought through estate sales. So someone passes away and then the family doesn't want it. That's how you can acquire land and go into farming. and man, that's just too depressing for me to. Yeah. Well, you said you wanted to go outside of Chicago and buy 10, 000. Yeah. The idea was I'd get 10, 000 Acres. The problem is you have to buy 160 acre piece of land from a farmer when they pass away, and then you have to wait for all of your neighbors to pass away to get. You'll be 82 years old. Exactly. You just look at, you run and you're like, this is not gonna work. Yeah. And of course, that's why there's no Innovation in the space, because the Farmers are aging quite and bless their heart, they're not doing anything wrong. They're doing what the government's telling them to do. It's just that what the government's telling them to do is kind of stuck in the past.
