The idea of the aging American farmer isn't new
When his father passed away suddenly in 1990, Brian Schaumburg inherited his family's Illinois farm. But when he himself went to retire after almost three decades at the helm, there was nobody around to step in.
"They had no interest, and I can't blame them," Schaumburg said of his children, who'd long since moved away. "They've seen the accidents, the drought and all of that, how hard life can be." So after three generations of family farming, "it will stop with me."
Some 4,000 miles away, the Pasqualotto family in Brazil's Mato Grosso state finds itself in the opposite situation: Four heirs — aged 24 to 31 — are all taking over, freeing 61-year-old co-founder Osvaldo Rubin Pasqualotto to step back from day-to-day farm work. "The 'boys' entry into the business brought a new dynamic," he said.
Versions of this trend are playing out across rural areas of the two crucial food suppliers. An influx of new, young farmers in Brazil is helping to turbocharge the nation's agricultural sector. But on US farms, average producers are growing ever older, often without a younger generation around to fill their shoes.
The idea of the aging American farmer isn't new: Just picture the time-worn Midwesterner and his daughter immortalized in the portrait American Gothic that hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. But as US farmland shrinks and capital costs rise, it's getting harder for a new generation to break through.
In 1950, US farm operators were about 48 years old — and by the latest census, that number had risen to 58. In Brazil, the average age was 46, according to a 2021 survey of more 3,000 farm owners by industry group ABMRA, younger than eight years earlier. The gap between the countries can't be attributed solely to their overall median ages, which the US government says are within four years of each other.
The implications for agricultural supply chains are potentially huge.
Younger farmers often bring new technology, plus a longer-term vision that lets them take bigger risks and stay independent for longer, helping to boost yields. If the shift continues, the changing agricultural demographics will give Brazil even more runway in its bid to permanently unseat the US as the world's top exporter of key world-feeding crops.
Anne Riley Moffat in New York
Charted Territory
Self-sufficiency quest | Since the start of 2023, at least half a dozen large farms have shut down or scaled back operations in Singapore. The result is a significant setback for the government's ambitious campaign to create a high-tech agricultural sector that can meaningfully reduce the country's heavy reliance on food imports. In 2019, the Asian financial hub announced a plan to produce about one-third of its nutritional needs by the end of this decade — dubbed "30 by 30". Now about halfway to the deadline, it's harvesting less than 10% of its seafood and vegetables, two out of three food sources closely tracked by officials. (Read the full story here).
"They had no interest, and I can't blame them," Schaumburg said of his children, who'd long since moved away. "They've seen the accidents, the drought and all of that, how hard life can be." So after three generations of family farming, "it will stop with me."
Some 4,000 miles away, the Pasqualotto family in Brazil's Mato Grosso state finds itself in the opposite situation: Four heirs — aged 24 to 31 — are all taking over, freeing 61-year-old co-founder Osvaldo Rubin Pasqualotto to step back from day-to-day farm work. "The 'boys' entry into the business brought a new dynamic," he said.
Versions of this trend are playing out across rural areas of the two crucial food suppliers. An influx of new, young farmers in Brazil is helping to turbocharge the nation's agricultural sector. But on US farms, average producers are growing ever older, often without a younger generation around to fill their shoes.
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| https://www.mashadifx.com/ |
Matheus Cury Pasqualotto (center), Gustavo Santiago Pasqualotto (left) and Osvaldo Rubin Pasqualotto, at one of the family's corn farms in Sinop, Brazil. Photographer: Victor Moriyama
The idea of the aging American farmer isn't new: Just picture the time-worn Midwesterner and his daughter immortalized in the portrait American Gothic that hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. But as US farmland shrinks and capital costs rise, it's getting harder for a new generation to break through.
In 1950, US farm operators were about 48 years old — and by the latest census, that number had risen to 58. In Brazil, the average age was 46, according to a 2021 survey of more 3,000 farm owners by industry group ABMRA, younger than eight years earlier. The gap between the countries can't be attributed solely to their overall median ages, which the US government says are within four years of each other.
 |
| https://www.mashadifx.com/ |
The implications for agricultural supply chains are potentially huge.
Younger farmers often bring new technology, plus a longer-term vision that lets them take bigger risks and stay independent for longer, helping to boost yields. If the shift continues, the changing agricultural demographics will give Brazil even more runway in its bid to permanently unseat the US as the world's top exporter of key world-feeding crops.
Anne Riley Moffat in New York
Charted Territory
 |
| https://www.mashadifx.com/ |
Self-sufficiency quest | Since the start of 2023, at least half a dozen large farms have shut down or scaled back operations in Singapore. The result is a significant setback for the government's ambitious campaign to create a high-tech agricultural sector that can meaningfully reduce the country's heavy reliance on food imports. In 2019, the Asian financial hub announced a plan to produce about one-third of its nutritional needs by the end of this decade — dubbed "30 by 30". Now about halfway to the deadline, it's harvesting less than 10% of its seafood and vegetables, two out of three food sources closely tracked by officials. (Read the full story here).
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