Aging farmers, rural internet access among concerns of midstate farmers

Larry Smith’s son doesn’t want to become a farmer.

“I’m trying to get him back on the farm,” Smith said, his eyes welling up with tears. “He’s passive about it, and it breaks his heart. Breaks mine right with it.”

The gray-haired man, seated beside younger farmers and U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., said he hoped and prayed something could be done on the federal level to help make the job more attractive.

“We need the chance to have insurance,”said Smith, owner of Double L Ranch in Gray. “I need a chance to get my son back.”

Scott met with Georgia farmers Tuesday night to listen to their concerns, achievements and struggles in a panel at the Tri-County EMC building on West Clinton Street. The congressman, who represents the 8th Congressional District that includes Macon-Bibb County, said he wanted to hear farmer’s concerns ahead of the new farm bill that’s in the works.

The average age for a Middle Georgia farmer is 60 years old, said Andrew Bahrenburg, policy director for the National Young Farmers Coalition.

“As the U.S. farm population rapidly ages ... there’s a great deal of farmland that’s ready to transition and will need a new farmer,” Bahrenburg said. “It’s estimated that a 100 million acres of farmland will transition over the lifetime of this upcoming farm bill, so over the next five years.”

About half of the farmers invited to sit on the panel with Scott were first-generation farmers.

Julia Asherman, who operates Rag and Frass Farm in Jeffersonville, said a shift in paradigm is to be expected, but the agriculture industry should “expect and invite people you don’t expect” to farming.

Broadband internet was also a concern for farmers, which often work in rural areas.

Bobby Losh-Jones and his wife, Chelsea, said they need internet to operate their boxed farm food subscription.

The couple operates Babe and Sage Farm in Gordon, and Scott had visited it before the panel.

“I’m hoping any infrastructure in the bill will include broadband for rural” farmers, Scott said. “You can’t function as a business without it.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 8:14 PM with the headline "Aging farmers, rural internet access among concerns of midstate farmers."