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Show American Trend: Bad. To Farm One of the most interesting, and promising, trends in America is the apparent "back-to-the-farm movement move-ment among those under 35. j ESPECIALLY noticed in the com and wheat belts, the i trend is remarkable because 1 of growing difficulties for those getting started in farm- "The Christian Science Monitor" reports the trend began about 1970, even though most young starting farmers ; can't totally earn their living ! on the farm at the outset. SOME HAVE loans, others I earn outside income, and most use federal aid programs. (Statistics show that on U.S. farms with an income of $20,000 a year or less, most of the these farm 1 .families earn more nonfarm than farm income.) ! The cost of land, of course, ! has soared. The cost of farm i operations, including labor, f has likewise risen steeply. In addition, there have been bumper crops of several commodities in recent years and prices have been low. DESPITE these problems, the trend among young people to farming is unmistakable and reverses a long movement away from the farm which began in World War I. Statistics show that between 1970 and 1975, the percentage of farmers under 35 jumped from 14 to 20 percent. per-cent. ITS gratifying to see young people again taking to the land. Farming is an honorable, honora-ble, fulfilling, and traditionally tradi-tionally American occupation. occupa-tion. Moreover and this along with good prices in 1972 and 1973 may have helped along the trend farmers enjoy a solid security city residents do not have. In the event of war or an energy crisis, farmers and their families are the most likely to survive. They will have their own food and fuel and farm homes are the least likely to be destroyed. |