A few weeks ago here on the NutriDense blog, we took a look at an interesting survey that asked farmers “Why do you farm?” The poll reported 55 percent of respondents said they most enjoyed the independence farming offers them.
Another survey conducted last year by extension sociologists at Iowa State University asked young farmers the same question. The findings, published as part of Iowa’s annual Farm and Rural Life Poll, closely reflect agriculture’s foundation of family and community:
“Following in importance were quality of life considerations and having grown up wanting to farm. Seventy-two percent of farmers rated these factors as having been important or very important criteria in their children’s decisions to farm,” [extension sociologist J. Gordon] Arbuckle says. “Ability to be their own boss (68%), desire to stay close to home (56%), desire to carry on family tradition (55%), and family ability to help get them started (55%) were also rated as important or very important by a majority of Farm Poll participants.”
