They also often don't have plans for
the farms after they're gone.
That's what a Kansas State
University sociologist has found in a study of farmers in Rush County.
Although such a work ethic and commitment may be admirable, it leaves the future of family farming and the culture surrounding it up in the air, said Laszlo Kulcsar, a K-State associate professor of sociology and director of the university's Kansas Population Center.
Although such a work ethic and commitment may be admirable, it leaves the future of family farming and the culture surrounding it up in the air, said Laszlo Kulcsar, a K-State associate professor of sociology and director of the university's Kansas Population Center.
"Farming is really an essential
component of the local culture, and many farmers think that local culture
simply cannot exist without farming," he said. "At the same time,
farming is a core element only as long as it's a family farm or a medium-sized
operation. Once the big companies take over, the economic activity remains the
same but the culture is going to change."
Kulcsar's study of aging Kansas
farmers began by examining 2007 U.S. Census Bureau statistics showing that more
than one-third of U.S farmers -- about 550,000 of them -- are 65 years old or
older. Kulcsar and two graduate students wanted to see how Kansas farmers fit
in.
They made Rush County their model because of the greater significance of
farming on the local economy compared with other Kansas counties, and Rush
County's large number of older farmers. Kulcsar said that 30 percent of the
county's farmers are 70 or older.
Beyond extended life expectancies,
Kulcsar said that several cultural and technological shifts explain why there
are so many older farmers in Rush County, as well as elsewhere in Kansas and
the country. Thanks to more sophisticated equipment, farm labor is less
demanding than it once was. In addition, some farmers are not farmers in the
traditional sense but rather retirees who took up farming activities as a
pastime.
Another significant cultural change,
Kulcsar said, has been in family structure. Many farmers inherited their farms
from their parents but now find that their own children are not interested in
farming.
The second part of Kulcsar's
research involved asking these farmers about their strategies for transitioning
their farms if they ever do retire or after death.
"They don't even think about
retirement whatsoever," he said. "Their take on farming is one that
you'd expect. It's a way of life. It's not just making money, it's a culturally
important thing
."
Kulcsar said that from a demographic
standpoint, the problem that arises from increased corporate farming is
long-term sustainability, for which family farming is better suited.
"It is expensive and difficult
to enter the profession as a farmer who didn't inherit a family farm,"
Kulcsar said. "The land is expensive, the equipment is expensive, and for
that reason there really is no other way to enter the family farming
business."
He said this poses another problem
in that farmers just entering the profession are more likely to adopt
technology and innovations that could improve profit margins and help them
compete with the economies of scale that corporations have.
"Family farming creates certain
values and a work ethic that corporate farming just can't have," Kulcsar
said. "The farmers we talked to said that their advantage over corporate
farming is that they're going to do the right thing and care about people."
Kulcsar presented the research in
August at the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological Society in Madison, Wis.
The students participating in the research are Benjamin Bolender and Albert
Iaroi, both K-State doctoral students in sociology.
The project is funded by
K-State's Center on Aging.
Kulcsar said that the future of the
research could involve extending the study to other farming-dependent counties
in Kansas, as well as working with the Center on Aging and with K-State
Research and Extension on ways of getting farmers involved in transition plans
for their farms.
