From Newsgroup: talk.origins

https://www.science.org/content/article/science-editors-pick-2025-s-stories-stood-out

Nothing really earth shattering. One article is noting the fact that
parts of the world have an issue with farm land being abandoned in terms
of no longer being used for farming. This has been happening to
marginal farm land in the US for probably over a century. One time I
attended a molecular genetics conference in Northern Italy, and there
were a lot of very small farms under suboptimal mountainous conditions
still in production planted in odd crops like sunflowers that were
likely not being economically produced in such small patches, but I was
told that these agricultural endeavors were subsidized by the government
in their food security efforts, and that some of the crops may not be harvested because it would cost more to harvest and process the crop
than it could be sold for. My parents took posession and started paying
the taxes on 40 acres of land that belonged to one of their employees in Michigan in the 1950's. The land had already started to go back to
woodlands back then. 30 years later they gave the land back to the
employee when he retired, and the land was clear cut for the timber
before it was sold. The land had reverted to mature forest by that
time. The US and Europe do not need all the existing farmland to feed themselves, while huge sections of rain forest are still being cut down
for things like soybean farms to feed livestock to produce the meat that
these countries are consuming in larger quantities.

The farm land is going back to nature, but some people seem to be
worried about little bits of human history disappearing. It used to
take a lot of farmers on small farms to feed everyone.

Google claims:
QUOTE:
During the 19th century in the U.S., the proportion of farmers in the
total workforce decreased significantly as the nation shifted from an overwhelmingly agrarian society to one with growing industrial and urban populations. The percentage of the labor force in agricultural pursuits
fell from over 80% at the start of the century to about 40% by 1900.
END QUOTE:

QUOTE:
There are approximately 3.4 million agricultural producers in the U.S., according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, a number that has remained stable, though the number of farms has declined to around 1.9 million.
These producers, including owners, family members, and managers, are increasingly older, with over 60% over 55, but also show a slight rise
in younger farmers, and are largely operating family farms.
END QUOTE:

In the most productive agricultural areas, technology and the green
revolution (land grant colleges started during the Civil War) resulted
in a consolidation of small farms into larger farms, but in marginal
areas or land near cities the farms were converted to housing or
abandoned in terms of agricultural production. Land grant universities, essentially, put themselves out of business in terms of the number of
voters that they benefited. Only a small number of farmers are
currently needed to produce more than the country can consume.

Ron Okimoto

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