(The Center Square) – According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a loss of farms all through the rustic affects households in extra tactics than one.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Illinois, and others mentioned the state of farming in Illinois and in other places Monday in Kankakee. Vilsack advised an agricultural panel that the rustic is dropping farms in huge amounts.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack gifts Building New and Better Markets for US Agriculture
“I was surprised to learn that we’ve lost 438,000 farms since 1981,” Vilsack stated. “Just to give you a sense of how many farms that is, it is every farm in Iowa today, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, South Dekota, Nebraska and Colorado.”
Over that very same length, 141.1 million acres of former farmland are now not being farmed these days around the nation.
Illinois is the highest soybean manufacturer in the rustic, with 15% of all U.S. soybeans being produced in Illinois. Vilsack stated the loss of farms is impacting other areas.
“That’s a lot of land,” Vilsack stated. “Are we OK with that?”
(*4*) Vilsack stated. “Which is why many small towns in this country today in rural places have empty storefronts.”
According to Vilsack, how to cope with the issues in farming is by way of developing extra earnings streams for farmers, particularly small and mid-sized farmers.
“The key here is for these farming operations in particular to have additional revenue streams that come in at the same time they’re selling a crop, or selling livestock, or getting a government payment,” Vilsack stated.
Numbers from the Illinois Farm Bureau display that Illinois is the second one best corn-producing state in the rustic, with 13% of our nation’s provide of corn being grown on Illinois farms. That farmland makes up 76% of Illinois land.
This article First gave the impression in the center square