This website is best viewed in a browser that supports web standards.

Skip to content or, if you would rather, Skip to navigation.

Listen Live
Donate
MARYVILLE

KXCV-KRNW


News Brief

April 8, 2025

Potential boost from Washington for beginning farmers

Beginning farmers in Missouri and across the nation may soon get a boost from Washington. Beginning farmers are defined by the U.S Department of Agriculture as those who have farmed for 10 years or fewer.
The bipartisan, New Producer Economic Security Act, recently introduced in Congress proposes a USDA pilot program to help new farmers overcome key challenges such as securing land, funding operations and accessing markets. Policy Specialist for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Nicholas Rossi, says between 2017 and 2022, Missouri saw an almost 8 percent drop in farmland, making it harder for young farmers to get started.

"The average age of a farmer in the United States is 58 years old, I think a little above 58 years old, and so we see in the next couple of years is going to be one of the largest transfers of agricultural land this country has seen in a long time.", says Rossi. 

The program could fund low or no-interest loans, land-access grants and community-ownership models such as land trusts and co-ops. Rossi says the stakes are high when it comes to who gains access to farmland in the years ahead.

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

Rossi hopes to see the pilot program become a permanent part of the comprehensive Farm Bill.