A Beneficial Trend

Source: washingtonpost.com

A growing movement of highly educated first time farmers are capitalizing on the booming consumer demand for sustainable foods. The major impetus for this movement is due to the decreasing supply of suitable jobs in urban areas, contrary to what the labor statistics report. Another reason is likely that people are becoming aware that highly processed foods are not providing the necessary nutrients for a healthy lifestyle and organically raised produce is a better alternative.

This is only the second time in the last century the number of farmers under 35 is increasing. Sixty nine percent of the surveyed young farmers had college degrees. There is still a labor shortage anticipated as the number of new farmers is still too small to counter the number of older farmers leaving the industry but it is a start. The number of farmers between the ages of 25 to 34 grew 2.2% from 2007 to 2012 but the older group decreased by double digits. In some states the number of new farmers grew by better than 20%.

Source: washingtonpost.com

Another growing trend is the CSA (community supported agriculture) programs. These start ups are paving new avenues for crops getting from the farms to the consumers.
Several national grocery chains have gotten on board of this new trend by including local sourced foods to the inventories.
Food hubs are beginning to form where farmer are cooperating to store, process and market their crops. The new farmers tend to produce organic vegetables using less pesticides and chemical fertilizers. They are more likely to employ techniques such as crop rotation and growing cover crops to enrich the soil.