The USDA conducts a census of agriculture every five years, detailing the current state of food production at a national level. The latest is from 2007. Some of the statistics are surprising, even eye-opening. I find some of the charts especially intriguing.

The chart of Average Age of Pricipal Farm Operators shows that there are few farmers under the age of 55. This means that within the next 10 to 15 years, a large majority of farmers will reach retirement age or will get to the point in their lives where they’ll not be able to farm full time. What happens to their farms when that happens?

Young farmers (or farmer wannabees) can’t afford to buy or even lease enough land to make a living. They end up working at a job they don’t want to do in order to eventually have enough money to do what they want, namely, farming. Then they must continue working in order to maintain their health insurance and other benefits, while farming. Their best, most productive years, the 20s, 30s and 40s, are spent not farming. It’s unfortunate.

Two of the charts: Percent of Farms Operated by Family or Individual and Percent of Farms with High-Speed Internet Access, have almost an exact inverse correlation. It’s uncanny. If the land is primarily dedicated to small farms, there is no access to VoIP, online video training, or a whole host of tools that can really promote farms and make them more successful. This correlation does not hold true for large, corporate-held farms, however.

If you want to see more charts, go here.