Every spring on the TVs in the corner of every classroom, Northwestern Lehigh HS students see advertisements for numerous senior scholarships that are related to the field of agriculture (pun intended).

That’s because there is a national aging trend that indicates over 40% of farmers are 65 plus, and this is only expected to continue with the comparatively small number of young people intending to become farmers.

So, why would a young person become a farmer? I ask myself this question every time I stop at a produce stand and see how hard these men and women work. I was so curious, in fact, that I reached out to several local farmers to find out what challenges they’re currently facing.

What is the biggest challenge you currently face in your business?

The Good Farm

Aimee Good, co-owner of The Good Farm, a Community Sustained Agriculture farm in Germansville, says that one of the biggest challenges she faces is marketing, and educating customers on the subscription model of her CSA business.

She also shared how technology advancements have affected her farming practice. With the rise of the Internet and social media, the demands of marketing currently are much more time-consuming, she says, than they were when she started farming in the early 2000s.

Red Cat Farm

Teena Bailey, owner of Red Cat Farm in Germansville, says her biggest challenge is “...making a profit at a small scale, given the relentless march upward of prices of inputs due to inflation and socioeconomic factors.” This issue is especially hard on local or smaller-scale farmers, regardless of geographical location, she explains.

How has the current economic and sociopolitical climate affected you, as a farmer?

The Good Farm

The current economic and political changes have affected everyone in the world, but they are impacting farmers even more severely than the people who consume their produce, Good explains.

“The unpredictable nature of costs and availability of supplies has been very challenging,” she says. In recent years, it’s been especially difficult getting supplies from other countries, and if they are available, they are considerably more expensive than before.

Red Cat Farm

Bailey describes how there’s been a shift in the kinds of produce consumers are seeking. She says she’s seen a decline over the last 10-15 years in people keeping large gardens, which has impacted the sale of vegetables and plants.

She adds that, relating to the sale of her flour and grain, she’s had to adjust their sale price to match inflating costs.

“Most of my customers for grains and flour are wealthy enough to be able to afford the higher price I need to ask for Red Cat products,” she says.

If you could change one thing about the world right now, in order to benefit rural and farm communities, what would it be?

The Good Farm

One of the things Good says she would change to benefit young and beginning farmers is to increase land access for farming specifically by reducing the competition with development for housing, warehouses and data centers.

Since the average age of the American farmer is increasing, she says it’s important to pass legislation that preserves farmland to be passed down to the next generation of farmers, thus keeping rural areas thriving.

Red Cat Farm

Bailey supports that idea. She says that according to the American Farmland Trust, 2,000 acres of farmland and open space are lost to development every day.

From these thoughtful insights, we can gather that local farmers are facing increasing challenges. These issues are far-reaching – beyond Lehigh County to the rest of the world.

David Fink, owner of Heidel Hollow Farm, estimates that the current rate of return to food producers is 15 cents to our food dollar. This disproportionate yield rate is exactly why it’s so important for Gen Z, particularly those who live in rural areas like ours, to keep these farming traditions alive. We need to bridge this gap, so that the people who work so hard to feed us can make a living, or at least break even.

We’re the relatives and friends of these farmers who produce the food we often take for granted. Food doesn’t come from a grocery store. It comes from farms. But there won’t be any if young people don’t fill the roles that will eventually be passed down to us.

“The public needs to understand how fragile our food system is,” Fink says. “Less than 2% of our population is responsible to sustain life, and that 15 cents will not sustain farmers.”