Populism and farmland prices is a recurring theme. A recent article in Fast Company laments about high land prices preventing a new generation of farmers from starting a farming company. The emphasis (bold) was not in the original article but is something that we wanted to point out:
While many young people are attracted to working the land and giving up dizzy-making urban lives, they’re also likely put off by prohibitively high startup costs. That’s according to Shawn Williamson, an accountant in St. Louis, Missouri, who recently carried out an in-depth analysis of what it would cost to set up a farm from nothing. The answer: an amount of money that makes the idea of creating a more robust independent farming economy seem impossible.
Williamson himself owns several farm properties (which he rents out)…
The real question here is what type of rent a start up farmer would need to pay as compared to farmer with an established operation and good track record. As this is also a concern, Minnesota is trying to find a way to ‘protect’ young farmers as the state recently passed legislation that will give tax credits for selling or leasing land to beginning or young farmers after they take a farm management class.