Righteous Blog

Hope for Farming’s Future

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

For a nice change, there’s some good news about agriculture. The most recent Census of Agriculture, released a few weeks back, shows that the number of farmers in the United States is actually on the rise. From 2002 to 2007, the number increased by 4 percent. This is welcome news for everyone who cares about sustainable food production. The Census also shows that the new farmers tend to be younger, less white, and more female than the farming population of recent decades. For example, the number of female farmers grew by almost 30 percent. The downside of this growth is that many of these farms are tiny—hobby farms of people with other jobs. In my view, in order to create a truly sustainable food system, we need to make farming a sustainable profession. So, much work remains to be done. But this is certainly a glimmer of hope for the future.

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Comments

  1. Joe  |  March 11th, 2009

    Hi Nicolette, just finished your book. Thanks for writing it. Along with Mr. Pollens book, you guys have changed my life.

    My wife and I own a restaurant in Reno Nevada and starting tomorrow we are only sourcing humanely raised pork products!

    We are located in Reno, Nevada and are really looking to change the landscape here.

    I recently have stopped purchasing all pork products from the supermarket and I’m actually meeting some hog farmers in the next few weeks to start to purchase meat for our home as well!

    No easy task as you have mentioned in the book, especially as a restaurant owner in a recession, but we are doing it!

    Keep up the great work!

    Joe

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