15 February 2024 - Agricultural census shows decline in US farms
Number of US farms falls and size increases, census shows
Leah Douglas (Reuters, 13/02/2024)
Farms in the U.S. continued to get larger and the number of farms fell between 2017 and 2022, new data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed on Tuesday.
‘America is a factory farming nation’: key takeaways from US agriculture census
Nina Lakhani and Andrew Witherspoon (The Guardian, 15/02/2024)
Record numbers of American farms are going out of business with small farms and Black farmers the hardest hit – again, according to the 2022 agriculture census, a comprehensive snapshot of the state of America’s farms and farmers published every five years by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Yet industrial factory farms rearing thousands of livestock in confinement have further expanded into rural America, acquiring smaller farms, raking in taxpayer subsidies and generating environmental harms.
Iowa losing mid-size farms as smallest, largest ones increase, new U.S. ag census shows
Donnelle Eller (Des Moines Register, 15/02/2024)
Iowa’s smallest and largest farms have proliferated over the past 20 years, while the number of those the middle is shrinking, the latest U.S. Census of Agriculture shows.
Wisconsin lost 10% of farms, 30% of dairies in 5 years, U.S. agriculture census shows
Madeline Heim (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15/02/2024)
Wisconsin remains a major national player in the agricultural marketplace, but its loss in farms has been dramatic, particularly the state's signature dairies, according to 2022 data released Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Census of Agriculture.