While the Department of Agriculture says it's difficult to track the exact figures, an increasing number of baby boomers appear to be moving to small-scale organic farming to supplement retirement incomes. "Yes, these farmers can make some money," Laura Tillman writes for the Daily Yonder. "But more importantly, farmers like [Kalman] Morris enjoy the life they’re living more than the office jobs they’ve left behind." Morris, who spent his pre-retirement career in graphic design, acknowledges he couldn't sustain his current lifestyle without the money he made from his previous work, but said farmers like him are sending an important message to the agriculture industry.
"One of the things that I believe in is the power of many small things," Morris told Tillman. "Stronger bonds are made between things with many parts — even though the power of each is not significant, it's the strongest bond you can create. It seems to me that in a large sense America has it all wrong: the American concept of bigger is better is not correct. You end up with things that are too big to fail." USDA says it has little data on the number of baby boomers supplementing retirement income with organic farming, and the movement can be tough to track since many farmers don't decide to be officially certified as organic operations.
John Cromartie, a geographer with the Resources and Rural Economics Division of USDA, recently wrote a report on baby boomer movement to rural areas but said he didn't look at the farming component of that migration. Brad Stufflebeam, former president of Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, told Tillman he has witnessed mixed results among baby-boomer farmers. "The ones that are successful are the ones that choose to do it as a lifestyle," Stufflebeam said. "The ones I see failing are the ones who have money, buy land, and hire help to do the work. I see those failing. The reason is you have to be deeply involved and its very management intensive." (Read more)
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