Farm Living - latest statistics

The U. S. Department of Agriculture last week reported on its Census of Agriculture with the headline being that the number of farms increased by 4 percent from 2002 to 2007, with most of the new farms being small, part-time operations. As reported in the New York Times, a closer look at the numbers shows that American farming is becoming a story of extremes: of really big farms and really small ones. About 900,000 of the nation's 2.2 million farms generated $2,500 or less in sales in 2007. By contrast, 5 percent of total farms, about 125,000 operations, accounted for 75 percent of agricultural productions.

The new agriculture secretary, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, was quoted as saying: "You have to take a holistic approach and create the understanding that the whole thing is diversification." He further said that the agency would encourage diversified income opportunities: like energy production, carbon sequestration, conservation and ecotourism - that go beyond just crops and livestock. Vilsack added: "There's real opportunities to create a new rural economy."

Thanks to Jane Eckert's new AgriMarketing/AgriTourism blog for bringing this latest informatin to our attention. If these issues interest you, you may want to sign up for her RSS feed, as I have, so you get the latest from her.

Happy Valentine's Day!

See you in the Kansas Flint Hills! ;-)