When I was growing up, sometimes I would run late in the barn in the morning due to unforeseen circumstances—aka animals getting out of fences, pipes freezing, etc. I would have to go to school either in my barn clothes or clean clothes, but I would still smell of the barn, because I didn’t have time to take a shower. 

At the time, I would get embarrassed, because my perfume wasn’t quite as fashionable as the latest scent from Bed Bath & Beyond. That would usually lead to snickers and/or snide comments from my peers. I was pretty good at ignoring most of these reactions; however, it made me think how little my peers regarded the people who put food on their tables. 

Fast forward to when I was looking to start my post-secondary education and discussing future career options with my mentors or guidance counselors. Discussions about an agricultural degree usually ended up with comments similar to “Well, if you want to work yourself to death for no money, then that’s your choice.” 

According to the USDA’s economic research service, in 2020, the median farm income in the United States (not including off-farm income) was -$1,998. Median off-farm income (usually one spouse has another job) for those same families was $67,873. 

There are very few occupations that report a loss of income each year but are so imperative for a country to survive. 

I’m not sure when the stigma started, but even in discussions of the topic with my parents and grandparents, everyone agrees—farmers always seem to be looked at as unintelligent or lacking social status. It may be the fact that we work so hard for so little financial return, or that practicality always comes before frivolousness. 

In either case some of the most intelligent individuals I have had the pleasure of working with or knowing were farmers.

Did you know on any given day, a farmer might have to have the skills of an electrician, a nutritionist, a carpenter, a mason, an accountant, a businessman, a marketer, a truck driver, an advocate, an engineer, a biologist, a chemist—and the list could go on. 

It’s this farmer’s take that this stigma needs to be cracked open and eliminated. Quite literally each day, everyone in the U.S.—nearly 330 million individuals—eats a minimum of three times a day. That food is provided by about two million farms. 

Yes, we do import ag products from around the world, but we export just as much—if not slightly more—than we import into our country, depending on the year. When you look back and analyze the numbers, the leaps and bounds the ag industry has taken to so efficiently feed that number of individuals is quite astounding. It works out to approximately one farm for every 165 individuals.