60, The Average Age of Farmers
Some interesting observations from Jim Rogers, co-Founder of the Quantum Fund, “We Have Huge Shortages Developing In Agriculture”.
Farming has been a disaster for 30 years. The average age of farmers in America is 58 because it’s been such a horrible business. The average age of farmers in Japan is 66. In Australia, it’s 58. I could go on and on. In 10 years, those farmers are going to be 68 if they are still alive.
We have huge shortages developing in agriculture and great fortunes are going to be made by the people who address those problems.
Don’t Get An MBA, Go And Get A Farming Degree.
“Well, governments are printing money again. It’s a wrong thing to do but that’s all they know how to do. So between shortages of supply and money printing, if you want to be in the dynamic parts of the world economy, don’t get an MBA and go to Wall Street, go and get a farming degree and move to Asia.”
The information above is a bit frightening in that as more farmers retire, that leaves more and more of our food supply to the big corporations, like Monsanto, where just about every non-organic food product available to consumers has some sort of connection with the food giant. By the way, Monsanto controls 90% of all genetically engineered seeds. In other words, Monsanto controls – and owns patents on – most of the American food supply. When our food consumption choices and our subsequent well-being are left to pure corporate profits and the stock market price, I fear for our health. We are secondary.
While traditional farmers also farm for profit, to feed their families and make a living… community or regional farming will always benefit the community more-so than the corporate giant. Profits are local, foods are grown to optimize the local needs, distribution channels are simple and short, foods will taste better because of it… you and I will eat healthier foods.
In any event, it’s alarming to learn that there are, and will be, less and less farmers over the coming years, in a world of fast growing population and increasing demands from developing countries. Something’s got to give… Can you say ‘higher food prices’?
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No one can afford the equipment or the land anymore in the Midwest. It is absolutely crazy. Something has to give.
I’ve read about this for years now. One article said only about 1/4 of the farming family wants to get into farming, the others want to go to college and get a good paying job in the city. Sometimes, after they are older, they may move back to the farm (if it hasn’t been sold off to sub-dividers)
but they don’t want to farm, just retire there.
Another article wrote, that the USA is now importing food from as far away as Austrailia. What? How can they grow food products, ship them here to the USA and sell them cheaper than locally grown food products?
I see greedy real estate people, builders and shopping center companies (and don’t forget the Chinese government and the Saudi Arabia government) buying up Usa farmlands and USA ranchlands, so they can cover everything with houses and shopping centers. Where I live, there are shopping centers that have no stores for years. The owners don’t care as it is a tax write off. And usuall they want way too much for rent for a small business owner to rent it.
also, many millionaire sports figures, movie stars, race car drivers, golf pros, millionaires, foreign politicians, they all want a place in the country and will pay over what the farmland is worth just so they can own it!
That average age is going to plummet after the true chaos begins as this will be the ONLY work available because everyone that will be left still has to eat. Learning agriculture in college may be a very valuable endeavor for the future, IF THERE IS STILL ENOUGH TIME LEFT.
“Farmer John” technically is a farmer only if he owns his own,cows farmhouse,chicken coop,windmill, corncrib, outhouse,garden and tractor. Those that fit that catagory are few and far between.”Corporate Charle”, The ,Farm Manager, with a degree in business management and a hired staff of city folk and misc. migrants,with faxes,bankers on his golf foresome, etc, wouldn’t know good food if he fell over it. His corporate masters have made him boss man of a revised plantation system of megaculture.
I hope true farmers will be around to teach the needed skills of working the land, not just sucking blood from it if/when the metro culture hits a titanic iceberg.
In Finland, we have major left wing political party, SDP – Social Democratic Party, which had even during 90′s slogan “Kill one farmer per day” because they so much wanted to stop local Finnish farming. Reason for their behaviour was agricultural subsidies. They still believe that when no farmers in Finland, no subsidies, and so proletariate can buy very cheap food from Greece, Russia or China. Ridiculous? Yes, because now young people don’t want to become farmers, because “it’s not good job”. If you can not believe my story, just use google “tapa talonpoika päivässä” which means word by word “kill farmer per day”. You can find thousands of results, and most of them people ask why?