By Chrystal Blair
Michigan News Connection

Michigan ranks 15th in the nation for its number of farms, with 44,000, a slight decrease from 2023 and reflects a national decline. Now, beginning farmers in Michigan and across the nation may soon receive support from Congress.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines Beginning farmers as those with 10 years or fewer of farming experience. The bipartisan New Producer Economic Security Act in Congress proposes a USDA pilot program to help new farmers overcome critical challenges, such as securing land, funding operations and accessing markets.

Nicholas Rossi, policy specialist for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, explained the need for new farmers.

“The average age of a farmer in the United States is 58 years old, I think a little above 58 years old,” Rossi pointed out. “We see in the next couple of years there’s going to be one of the largest transfers of agricultural land this country’s seen in a long time.”

If the bill is approved, the program could fund low- or no-interest loans, land-access grants and community-ownership models, such as land trusts and co-ops, to allow more young farmers to enter the business.

The most recent Census of Agriculture showed beginning farmers now account for 30% of the almost 3 million farmers in the U.S., up from just over 26% five years earlier.

Rossi stressed the future of farmland access is critical, with high stakes for who will farm in the years to come.

“A lot of that land that’s transferred is either going to go and just continue to make the biggest farms bigger, or it can go towards this next generation of farmers,” Rossi noted. “We can hopefully try and reverse that trend of decreasing amount of family farms in the U.S., and also looking at decreasing the average age of farmers in the United States.”

Data indicate the East and West Coast states have a higher share of beginning farmers compared to the Midwest. Rossi hopes the pilot program will become a permanent feature of the next Farm Bill.