Young Farmers Find Huge Obstacles to Getting Started

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In this 19-paragraph article by Isolde Raferty, only by the 13th paragraph does it dare to mention agribusiness:

Six miles outside of Knoxville, Iowa, Ethan Book, 31, chose to raise livestock, as his family did 60 years ago. A former youth pastor, Mr. Book became a farmer because he had high cholesterol and had read that pasture-raised meat was healthier to eat. “In my mind,” he said, “our animals are doing what they were created to do, eating the way they were created to eat.”

Data from the Agriculture Department support his warning — only 22 percent of beginning farmers turn a profit their first year. The National Young Farmers’ Coalition found that 73 percent of young farmers must work away from the farm; Mr. Book, a father of four, works 40 hours a week at a farm store.

When he looks out the back window of his small farmhouse, he sees a 3,000-acre corporate farm and machinery worth four or five times as much as his operation. “People are demanding cheap food, they’re demanding a lot of it — corn for fuel, soy for diesel,” Mr. Book said. “It does have an impact on us in the sense that we’ve seen land prices skyrocket in Iowa. It does make it difficult for a beginner to get into the game.”