UNDATED (HPM) – The USDA’s latest report on farms estimates that the U.S. lost nearly 10,000 farms in 2022. The number of acres of farmland also decreased, while the average size of a farm has gone up slightly, especially for farms making a million dollars or more a year.
Tim Gibbons, of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, says that these numbers are part of a larger decline. “Losing nearly 10,000 farms in a year is is a big deal,” he said. “And I think it’s just the continued downward trend year after year of family farms.”
He says that the 2023 farm bill is an opportunity to address corporate control of agriculture that is pushing out small farmers.