To the editor:
The loss of people from rural Midwestern counties is far from a recent phenomenon. Examined carefully, census data display the same trend rather steadily for about 100 years. Most counties in this part of the world saw their population peak sometime between 1890 and 1910. It is probably accurate (if a bit simplistic) to attribute the trend to varying causes at different times, roughly as follows: 1900-1930, railways; 1930-1950, drought and war; 1950-1975, automobiles and good roads; 1975-2000, U.S. government farm policy, especially subsidies.
One of the great advantages of the American experience is the freedom to live and work where and how we wish. In 1955, there were about 6 million farmers, each with a family full of little baby boomers. Forty years later, the number was down to 2 million, more than half of whom were grossing less than $10,000 from their farm. In most areas the average age of farmers is about 60, and increasing by about half a year, every year. Few young people are entering farming, in no small measure because they are so often marginalized by their father's ongoing refusal to involve them in any decision-making capacity.
Expect the trend to continue.
Bart Hall,
Lawrence
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