Kyle Rooke – Thomas, West Virginia

Backbone Food Farm

Farmer Op-ed: Concerning the Future of Agriculture

Kyle Rooke is a Land Advocacy Fellow with Young Farmers and farms near the headwaters of the Youghiogheny River on the boarder of West Virginia.

I have been farming in West Virginia for nearly a decade, growing a wide range of vegetables, mushrooms, and raising livestock. I’ve stacked hay in the barn, and run barley through an old 38’ thresher. I’ve grafted hundreds of apple trees, and helped in fermenting vats of mead and cider. Connecting to land, feeding its people, and bridging the past and future through daily practice, is a way of life. During this decade I’ve been a landless farmer. My name has never been on a mortgage or title of ownership, and though my practice and intentions around farming will contribute to the health and fertility of the land for generations to come, there is no guarantee I will harvest from that land within my lifetime. 

Despite this lack of security, being a freelance farmer has been rich with meaning. I have built relationships with fellow farmers and gotten to know the nuance of each landscape; its soil, people, and micro-climates, these dynamics and the poetry inherent. Farmers around the country are experiencing a crisis, and land access is at its core. Land stewardship is the means by which the farmer may sustain local economies and ecologies, and subsequently make meaning in life. Landscape is a sculpture of time, and the farmers’ collaboration with nature takes decades, at best, to find homeostasis. In this, we see that multi-generationality is at the heart of sustainability–it’s what allows roots to take hold. Whereas, to be landless, to be subject to the whims of a changing climate, and the whims of a global market, is to start over again and again; a cycle that, at times, can feel quite meaningless.

I tried once, in earnest, to buy a farm. Being that I had mostly been operating as either a contract worker or under-the-table, farm lending from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was out of the picture. Looking further into loans, business plans and creative land-use, the numbers didn’t line up. About six years later, the price of land in my county has gone up more than 25%. In the U.S, farmers under 35 have an average debt-to-asset ratio of 28%. Without inheriting land or building on external assets, jump-starting a farm is seldom viable. This reality of a systemic hardship surrounding farmland access has created a generation that rarely considers farming as a life path. 

The average farm owner in the U.S. is 60 years old and 98% of this farmland is owned by white individuals, a disparity with serious consequences to all aspects of our society. This dynamic has come about through a history of poor public policy, one that has facilitated the dispossession of millions of acres from Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC). Through policies such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Homestead Acts of the mid-1800s, the revocation of Field Order No. 15, and the Alien Land Laws of the early 1900s, among others, Congress has been responsible for the dispossession of hundreds of millions of acres from Indigenous people and other people of color, while facilitating land ownership and access for white Americans. Continuing on this path, policy has pushed ownership away from farmers and towards corporate interests: leaving the poor without access, and quaint “heritage farms” in the hands of distant owners; a food system that lacks resilience in a world of crisis. Previous policies have been at the core of these struggles for land access and subsequent empowerment, yet through policy we can re-incentivise the next generation of farmers and build an equitable and just future: one where people have the means to grow their own food.

We are at a critical point in history. Over the next 20 years, nearly half of U.S. farmland is expected to change hands, while 2,000 acres of farmland are lost daily to development. It is vital that we keep this land in the hands of the growers who will feed our future. According to the National Young Farmer Coalition’s (Young Farmers) 2022 survey, land access is the number one reason farmers are leaving their trade. Here in West Virginia, those under the age of 34 comprise only 8% of farmers. 

The 2023 Farm Bill must engage this pending crisis and remedy the inequities of our past. Young Farmers is proposing that lawmakers invest $2.5 billion in equitable access to land, in the ‘One Million Acres for the Future’ campaign. This campaign calls for programs that focus on incentivising farmland transition, keeping land in the hands of growers. It will facilitate USDA lending through pre-approval programs, and invest in data collection. It will expand access to credit, helping farmers compete in the real estate market, and address issues of student loans and the mounting debt of modernity. At the core of this campaign is the call to address the systemic racism and inequity of our farmland policies. Young Farmers is calling on lawmakers to invest in land access for BIPOC farmers, which would manifest as a fundamental change of ethics within governing agencies so that our farmers represent the diversity of the landscape. 

Farmers and the land they steward are central to the poetics of place; they are essential to the health and resilience of society. Relationship between land, culture, and politics is nuanced–it’s a relationship through time, of form and forethought, like a well placed fruit tree. Within this metaphor, thoughtful public policy can act as the trellis upon which all can flourish. As they say, “the best time to plant a tree was yesterday.” Let’s make this change now.   As a part of Young Farmers’ One Million Acres for the Future campaign, I am asking my Members of Congress, Senator Joe Manchin and Rep. David Mckinley, to pass a 2023 Farm Bill that makes this historic investment in equitable land access. We need to actively remove the roadblocks that are keeping young farmers off the land. Secure, equitable access to farmland is an issue that impacts us all, and the future of our food and agriculture systems. All of our voices are important in calling on Congress to create a 2023 Farm Bill that supports young farmers. To get involved with the campaign and receive action alerts, sign up here: p2a.co/land.This is a pivotal moment to make investments in the individuals who will steward agricultural land and grow food for our communities into the future. Our nation must act now to secure affordable access to land for young farmers and farmers of color—there is no time to wait.