11/01/2025
I’ve debated saying something — but silence feels wrong.
In the last few months, several long-time poultry farms here in Utah have shut down. Multi-generation family farms — the kind where kids grew up in the barns, and the old feed truck that Dad and Grandpa used to haul feed still sits along the back fence, rusting in the weeds. The kind of farms where some have spent their entire careers — their whole lives — raising birds, raising their families, and building a legacy they hoped would carry on for generations. And now, they’re gone. Not because they wanted out, but because they couldn’t make the numbers work anymore. They deserved better than being priced out of their own barns.
I’m posting because this matters. When farms disappear, communities change. We lose experience, values, and the people who have literally fed us for decades.
If you eat food, thank your farmer. If you see a farmer, check in on them. And if you care about the future of agriculture, SPEAK UP — because these stories deserve to be told.
It’s time for honest conversations about fair pay, realistic contracts, and long-term sustainability — not just survival. Farmers shouldn’t have to choose between staying in business or feeding their own families.
Agriculture doesn’t thrive when corporations control the narrative — it thrives when farmers have a voice, a seat at the table, and a fair shot at success.
We need systems that value the people doing the work — not just the ones writing the checks.
It should concern you that farm families make up only about 2% of the U.S. population, yet they feed the other 98%. It should also concern you that the average age of the American farmer is now 58 years old — and that number keeps climbing.
The reality is, young farmers can’t get in. The costs are too high, the margins too thin, and the risks too great. And the few who have been brave enough to try are fighting uphill battles — many of them closing their doors just like the multi-generation farms next door.
If new farmers can’t enter, and multi-generational ones can’t survive, our ability to feed ourselves weakens. This isn’t just business, this isn’t just about farming— it’s about national security. Because without American family farms, America can’t feed herself.
Please share! Even just getting the word out is a step toward making American agriculture great again.
