Losing Ground: Farmland Consolidation and Threats to New and Black Farmers and the Future of Farming

Over the past century, farms in the United States have steadily grown in size while dwindling in number. Farm numbers have fallen from a peak of nearly 6.5 million in 1920 to just more than 2 million today, while average farm size has tripled (Dimitri, Effland, and Conklin 2005; USDA NASS 2019a). Farmland consolidation—the trend toward larger, fewer farms—is closely intertwined with another profound change in agriculture: the replacement of labor by capital, in the form of machinery and chemical inputs. This shift toward larger and more capital intensive farms has occurred as a result of public policies and markets that demand and reward maximum yields of a few commodity crops. But this emphasis on productivity has also brought about a complex array of negative social consequences. The consolidation of farmland, in particular, is associated with the barriers faced by new farmers and the hollowing out of rural communities.