More young people see opportunity in farming

Good for them. It is a good life. It beats living in traffic jams,dirty cities, high crime and nosy neighbors.

Wow, this a wonderful and refreshing change! Embracing true and honest hard work that is need to sustain society.

Excellent!

When I was a teen,I helped with the family farm. After Collage I managed retail business
for 25 years. Farming is the best teacher. Responsibilty milking cows 365 days a year rain or shine. I learned there is NOTHING like being your own boss. I have been on the family farm now for 35 years. I left a good paying job. Now not much money but never been happier in my life. BTW no cows That's too much commitment.

People got to eat! We will always need farmers!

Having grown up and worked on the family's centennial farm, I can truthfully say that there is no better place to raise a family. I learned to work hard for the simple reward of having done my best and finishing the task that needed to be done. Yes, I had chores to do in the barn twice a day, 365 days a year. Yes, we spent weeks every summer hauling hay in hot temps. Yes, it was brutally cold in the winter. No, there was no such thing as "family vacations". Yes, we all worked hard, but we worked as a family unit. Today, we are still a very close family and we all still work on the farm in various capacities. If my oldest three children had had the advantage of growing up on the farm, I think they'd be much more productive adults today. Everyone in our neighborhood farmed when I was small. Everyone had very little money. But we all had our family and friends. We were a community that worked hard to provide for ourselves and help out the neighbors when they needed it. Sadly, that is missing in most of our country today.

Don't run down farmers, folks. They are providing your food. They are the hardest working and smartest people I know. (Smart? YES! How many of you can take apart a piece of equipment, make the necessary repairs, and put it back together so that it works? Farmers also have to be businessmen, accountants, farm advocates, and weathermen. Can you do all of that?) Who is going to stock the store shelves if there are no farmers to grow the food? How many of you even know how to grow a tomato? Give the farmers their due, people. They truly are the backbone of this country!

Take it from an old farmer, the best way to get a million bucks from farming is to start out with two million. It can be a great life though and certainly lends itself to self-suffiency. Don't by gold, buy lead and land. That way you can always kill something and grow something to feed your family.

We need small family farms back in this country. If there is a way to get people who are committed to farming for a living back into it, I say do it.

In rural Ohio most farmers also work off the farm. So, it is takes working 2 jobs to maintain the farm and support a family. You work 24/7 from before daybreak to well after dusk. The children who are raised in this setting have an excellant work ethic and know about operating and repairing equipment, welding, and time management to name a few. It would be nice to see true vocational education return for high school students in this country. Hands on education paired with upper level academics is key to our success.

Give farming back to the farmers. Corporate farming is a poison.

I got sick of buying over priced imported veggies so I started my own garden. I now have a 20x20 foot patch that produces amazingly tastey produce at a fraction of the cost. Plus I get to have quality time with my family. It's a win-win.

A Minnesota dairy farmer in his 70's got a feature interview in a well known dairy farming newspaper.

He was asked-----------" what advice would you give young people who want to farm"?

He replied---------" be nice to your dad because that is your best chance "

smart man !

Until they abolish govt subsidies that only helps large corp farming will the family farm make a comeback. Also, farming is #$%$ hard work and has always been risky. My Dad's family are farmers in IA and they work hard for what they get.

The trend is to grow your own and buy locally, nothing wrong with that. Americans are going to take big business out of their lives one way or another. I have already invested in heritage seeds and lined up land to use for next years growing season. I myself am tired of "boxed foods" and can't afford fresh produce. A wise investment in ones health and future.

'if farming is beginning to sound like an appealing career, there are downsides. The work involves tough physical labor, and vacations create problems when there are crops to be harvested and cows to be milked.' Farmers vacation in winter and what's so bad about physical labor? Makes more sense than wasting time at the gym.

I don't have much to spare, but I choose to spend more for local produce. I don't care if it's organic or not. But I do care about my neighbors. It's getting harder and harder to buy anything made in the USA. If we had a store that sold all made in the USA stuff I'd have done all my Christmas shopping there. Even if I would have had to buy smaller items to keep in my budget.

Agribusiness as practiced by multinationals is unsustainable and leads to soil and cropland degradation. In the name of exports and trade balances we are using up the land in much the same way as mining companies strip ore from the ground. Family owned farms ought to be encouraged.

There are miles and miles of unused farm lands around the country and probably around you. Much of it was at one time farmed...find who owns that land and make them an offer to split your profits with them if you can use the land. Heck, you may find some old retired farmer who'd let you use his old equipment, water irrigation, etc...who knows!?

We had record profits this year? Have you seen our fuel bill for our tractors? How about the astronomical fertilizer and seed bills? Somebody needs to recheck their facts!

This is excellent news. This country needs to get back to its agrarian roots. Maybe America can once again be a place that produces products of value, as opposed to being the land of Facebook, Twitter, Apple and other unsubstantial enterprises of minimal realistic value.

I like very much farming work. For 25 years I had a farm and I was happy and full of money and food!