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🎙 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

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Why do some animals, places, and species inspire fierce protection… while others quietly disappear?

In this episode of Barn & Soul, Kendall explores the real psychology behind conservation - not just the statistics and extinction charts, but the emotional bonds that actually move people to care, act, and protect. Drawing from conservation psychology, environmental research, and lived experience on a heritage-breed farm, this episode asks a deceptively simple question: why do we save what we love?

From biophilia and nature connectedness to empathy, storytelling, and sense of place, we unpack why facts alone rarely change behavior... and why love, identity, and relationship are doing far more work than we tend to admit. You’ll hear how childhood experiences shape lifelong environmental values, why naming animals changes how people respond to conservation, and how heritage livestock breeds offer a powerful case study in saving what we understand.

This episode blends research-backed insight with farm stories, offering a grounded, human-sized approach to conservation - one that doesn’t rely on guilt or fear, but on connection, memory, and care.

Whether you’re a parent, educator, farmer, animal lover, or someone feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world, this episode is a reminder that you don’t have to save everything... you just have to love something enough to protect it.

📚 Sources & Further Reading

Whitburn, J., Linklater, W., & Abrahamse, W. (2019). Meta-analysis of human connection to nature and pro-environmental behaviour. People and Nature.

Kirkey, J. R. (2024). What’s love got to do with it? A biophilia-based approach to conservation. Frontiers in Conservation Science.

Raymond, C. M. et al. (2025). The effect of empathy with nature and humans on conservation behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Chawla, L. (2020). Childhood nature connection and constructive hope. People and Nature.

Oh, R. Y. Y. et al. (2021). Connection to nature predicted by family values, social norms, and experiences. Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Castillo-Huitrón, N. M. et al. (2020). The importance of human emotions for wildlife conservation. Frontiers in Psychology.

Batavia, C. et al. (2021). Emotion as a source of moral understanding in conservation. Conservation Biology.

van Eeden, L. M. et al. (2025). Why do (or don’t) people protect nature? Global Environmental Psychology.

Richardson, M. et al. (2020). Applying pathways to nature connectedness. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education.

The Livestock Conservancy. Conservation Genetics & Heritage Breeds.

Farm Flavor (2024). What Are Heritage Breeds and Why Are They Important?

CFSPH. Heritage Livestock Breeds – Why Are They Important?

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Sense of Place Supports Climate and Drought Resilience.

Craig, G. (2023). Fight for the Wild: Emotion and place in conservation. Taylor & Francis.

Fabien Cousteau interview (2017). “People protect what they love…” LUXUO.

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🎙 Barn & Soul Podcast - Where farming meets heart, history, and a mission to preserve the past for a more sustainable future. Episode 31 - Still Here at 165: Scituate, Stewardship, and the Future of Dalby

Dalby Farm turns 165 years old in 2026.

Founded in 1861, this family farm has weathered generations of change in Scituate, Massachusetts. In this re entry episode, Kendall reflects on what it truly means to still be here, and why endurance is not the same as ease.

This episode zooms out to place Dalby within the longer history of Scituate and the South Shore, then zooms back in to the daily realities of keeping a family farm and an endangered heritage breed mission alive in the modern world. Through real data, lived experience, and honest reflection, Kendall explores how farming has changed since the 19th century, why land pressure and aging producers matter, and what is quietly at risk when small farms disappear.

Rather than romanticizing farm life, this conversation looks directly at responsibility, repetition, and care. It considers how stewardship evolves over time, why rare breeds require active commitment, and how shared responsibility may be the only sustainable path forward for farms like Dalby.

This episode is for anyone who has ever looked at something they love and wondered how much longer they can carry it, and then chose to keep going anyway.

Resources

Dalby Farm. Our Farm and Friends.
https://www.dalbyfarm.com/our-farm-and-friends

United States Department of Agriculture. National Agricultural Statistics Service.
2022 Census of Agriculture Executive Briefing.
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2022/index.php

United States Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service.
Farms and Land in Farms Summary.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-structure-and-organization/

Choices Magazine.
Analysis of the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
https://www.choicesmagazine.org

Mass Audubon. Losing Ground.
2003 and 2020 Editions.
https://www.massaudubon.org/our-work/advocacy/land-protection/losing-ground

The Livestock Conservancy. Conservation Priority List and Breed Definitions.
https://livestockconservancy.org/conservation-priority-list/

Scituate Historical Society.
History of Scituate, Massachusetts.
https://www.scituatehistoricalsociety.org

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