USDA Wants Hipster Farmers

“It just doesn’t take long before the subsidies with strings, chemicals, and Monsanto seeds flood in.”

Youth in their 20s and 30s are taking their hands to the plow, but what does the new trend in Hipster farming mean for the food future? It is true, many of the younger generation don’t trust typical farming operations and are risking a new career in either growing their own and selling at local markets or taking on the family farm.

At least half of today’s farmland is run by a much older crowd and when they retire it appears the 40s and 50s crowd are unable to pick up the line. The USDA wants this opportunity to harvest the farmer Johnnies to continue agriculture under their model of farming. That’s why, under the 2008 Farm Bill, the department distributed $18 million to educate young growers and ranchers across the country. Farm programs are appearing at many universities.

Some of these particular young adults are citing punk rock, Karl Marx, and pro-Food Safety Law food journalist Michael Pollan as their inspiration. Their reasons for plowing the land appear to differ greatly from the more self-sufficient, young organic growers.

Many articles are simply calling all young people “hipsters” although in the pop cultural sense of the word, hipster conjures up an image of a self important, ostensibly anti-corporate trust fund kid. If that connotation is accurate (although possibly unfair), those could be the type enticed by government help to keep agriculture afloat, but having the romantic ideal of helping the land, treating animals better, and being unconventional.