Once again I had a great weekend in California with dairy producers. I always marvel when in California at the number of young families involved agriculture. Yes, as I travel the country and honestly believe more young, child-rearing families are engaged in farming in California than any other state. We have four different articles included today that all stumble around the declining number of farms in the country, but they like so many others, miss the reason. Young people today do not want to work like the last generation did.

California farms grew a generation ago allowing for today's generation to have more of a executive position instead of a labor position. It is so frequently that people that are not involved in farming cry about the lack of small farms, I said small not family. Small farms require a farmer to be the laborer and decision maker, which today's young people are not going to do. Parents in this country do not want their kids to work as hard as they did and this leads to either growth or exiting the scene.

This also hit me really hard. Cannery Row in Monterey kept our nation and our troops fed during two World Wars. Today, hundreds of thousands of tourist eat and shop without truly understanding what is gone. Oh sure, the shops are cool, but what if all food production facilities become tourist traps for what used to be? A direction we are headed by the way.

David Martosko joins me on Loos Trails and Tales discussing testimony on Capitol Hill last week about the future of food production here at home. Click here to listen.

Always together for American agriculture,
Trent Loos