Send us a text

🎙 Barn & Soul — Episode 33

The Ones Who Stay: Why Some People Don’t Leave Farming, and Why Some Start

Why would anyone choose farming, especially now?

In this episode of Barn & Soul, Kendall takes a grounded, first-hand AND data-informed look at one of the most enduring questions in agriculture: why some people stay in farming despite the odds, why others leave, and why new people continue to begin anyway.

Using the latest U.S. agricultural census data, income reports, and research on farm structure and wellbeing, this episode explores the realities behind romantic ideas of farming and the quieter truths that don’t always make it into the conversation.

This episode isn’t about glorifying hardship or offering easy answers. It’s about seeing farming clearly- as work that is relational, meaningful, demanding, and deeply human.

Whether you farm, hope to someday, or simply care about where food comes from and who produces it, The Ones Who Stay offers context, compassion, and clarity for a system that holds more people together than we often realize.

📚 References & Sources

• USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
  2022 Census of Agriculture Highlights: Farms and Farmland (March 2024)
• USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
  2022 Census of Agriculture Highlights: New and Beginning Producers (2024)
• USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
  2022 Census of Agriculture Highlights: Farm Producers (Average Age Data)
• USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)
  Farm Household Income Estimates (January 27, 2025)
• USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)
  Farm Household Income Forecast (September 3, 2025)
• USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)
  Charts of Note: Direct-to-Consumer and Other Direct Marketing Sales, 2022 Census (March 21, 2024)
• USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)
  Access to Farmland by Beginning and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers: Issues and Opportunities (AP-096, 2022)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  Suicide Rates by Industry and Occupation — MMWR (2023)
• CDC / NIOSH
  Farm community mental health and occupational risk research collections
• National Young Farmers Coalition
  2022 survey and reporting on beginning farmer challenges, land access, and priorities

Support the show