October 15, 2019, is a date that is commemorated on our living room wall. It’s the date that we signed the papers on what is likely the largest debt either of us will ever take on in our lifetimes. We did it with a smile on our faces, knowing that we were signing away our beach vacations, new vehicles and leisurely, lazy days. We did it without knowing that the world as we knew it would come to a screeching halt just six months later, but, if I’m being honest, we still would have signed even if we had. Farms don’t come available every day, and farms two frugal, middle-aged people would risk their financial well-being to invest in are even rarer. We aren’t alone.
U.S. farms have always been and remain today majority family owned. Even as the “big get bigger”, an expression most are no stranger to, of the 1.9 million farms in the U.S., 95% of them are still family-owned and operated. Family farms just like ours account for 84 percent of the nation’s farmland and more than 80 percent of total agricultural production value.
So today, in the industry that we love and the communities that make us who we are, we’re celebrating farmers. National Farmers Day recognizes the men, women and children who help to put food on tables, clothes on our back and clean-burning fuels in our gas and diesel tanks.
In this house, we’re celebrating one another… and a steak on the grill, a can of corn from a farm field in Iowa and a baked potato from a farmer in Idaho sound like a great way to do it!
