Who Will Farm Tomorrow

A Clock That Is Already Running

In 2022, the USDA’s Census of Agriculture found that the average age of all U.S. farm producers was 58.1 years,[1] up from 57.5 in 2017. The number of producers aged 65 and over grew 12% in just five years. Half of all farmers are expected to retire within the next decade. And over 70% of all U.S. farmland, an estimated $1.7 trillion in agricultural land is projected to change hands in the next 20 years.[2]

The succession pipeline is not keeping pace. 53% of farmers planning to retire have no succession plan.[3] Only 30% of family farms survive to the second generation. Just 12% make it to the third. Beginning farmers, those with 10 or fewer years of experience represent only 10% of all producers in the country.[4] The math is stark: the farmers who grow America’s food are aging out, and not enough new farmers are coming in to replace them.

But this is not just a labor shortage. It is a knowledge crisis. The farmer retiring after forty years on the same land carries in her hands, her eyes, and her intuition a lifetime of accumulated understanding: how this specific soil drains after a heavy rain, which pests arrive in June and which don’t, how the microclimate in the north field differs from the south, what cover crop combination built that particular bed up after two hard years. This knowledge does not transfer through a textbook. It transfers through experience, mentorship, and time. And it takes years to build.

The question of who will farm tomorrow is, at its core, a question of how we build that pipeline from curious children in school gardens to credentialed beginning farmers ready to steward land of their own.

Where the Pipeline Begins: Youth Programs

FFA — Future Farmers of America

With more than 1,042,245 student members across 9,407 chapters,[5] the National FFA Organization is one of the largest youth agricultural education programs in the country. FFA connects middle and high school students with agricultural education teachers, hands-on projects, and career development experiences that reach far beyond traditional farming into food science, environmental systems, agribusiness, and biotechnology. In states like Texas (181,939 members), California (108,143), and Georgia (80,184), FFA represents a serious pipeline for the next generation of agricultural professionals.

4-H Agricultural Programs

With more than six million annual participants,[6] 4-H reaches young people across all 50 states through farm and garden projects, livestock programs, food and nutrition challenges, and environmental stewardship initiatives. The outcomes are measurable: 4-H participants are three times more likely to pursue a four-year college degree than non-participants, and girls in 4-H are ten times more likely to pursue a STEM-related career. For rural and agricultural communities, 4-H remains one of the primary early touchpoints between young people and the land.

School Farms and Farm-to-School Programs

Across the country, 5,254 school districts representing 42,587 schools[7] now participate in farm-to-school activities, sourcing local food for cafeterias, hosting school gardens, and integrating agricultural education into the curriculum. Since 2013, USDA Farm to School grants have invested nearly $75 million across 1,019 projects, reaching over 25 million students in more than 59,000 schools. Research shows consistent improvements in food literacy, attitudes toward vegetables, and produce consumption among students in farm education programs. A school garden, for many children, is the first place they learn that food comes from soil and that they can grow it.

Building Skills: Vocational and Apprenticeship Pathways

Between a high school FFA chapter and a fully operating farm lies a critical gap: the hands-on, professional-level training that turns interested young people into competent beginning farmers. A diverse ecosystem of apprenticeship programs, incubator farms, and training initiatives has emerged to bridge it.

USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program

The USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) is the federal government’s primary investment in building the next generation of farmers. Between 2016 and 2021, 261 grants were awarded, reaching 78,889 participants.[8] Of those, 4,398 started farming or ranching, 22,072 were prepared to start, and nearly 20,000 improved the success of their existing operations. Grants fund everything from land access counseling and business planning to intensive hands-on training programs offered by farming organizations across the country.

Farm Incubators: Growing Farmers on Real Land

Farm incubator programs, which provide beginning farmers with access to land, shared equipment, technical assistance, and mentorship have grown from 62 programs in 2013 to approximately 220 programs operating nationwide,[9] collectively managing nearly 20,000 acres of agricultural land. The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project at Tufts University, which has graduated over 170 farmers and made $100,000 in locally grown produce available to low-income families annually, represents the model at its best: a structured progression from training to independent operation, with a deliberate focus on underserved communities and first-generation farmers.

CRAFT and Farmer-Led Networks

The Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) founded in upstate New York in 1994 and now operating across the U.S. and Canada built its model on a simple premise: “farmers learn most effectively from other farmers.”[10] CRAFT chapters coordinate networks of organic and sustainable farms offering apprenticeships, field days, technical workshops, and mentorship programs. It is not a classroom program. It is a community of practice, the kind of experiential, place-based learning that transmits the tacit knowledge no textbook can capture.

Higher Education: University Farms and Degree Programs

The most rigorous pathway into professional farming runs through university programs that integrate working farms with academic degrees. These are not simply agricultural classroom programs with a field trip component. They are living farms, producing real food, managing real budgets, training real students in the full complexity of what it means to operate a sustainable agricultural enterprise.

UC Davis, Cornell, and Land-Grant Universities

The UC Davis Student Farm manages 100 acres under the Agricultural Sustainability Institute,[11] employing 15–20 Lead Student Farmers each quarter and hosting approximately 80 interns and volunteers. Students work in organic crop production, operate a CSA, and integrate field experience directly with coursework in sustainable agriculture. Cornell University’s Small Farms Program, housed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, connects campus researchers with farm advocates and extension educators to advance the viability of small-scale farming across New York State and beyond.

Warren Wilson College, Sterling College, and the Mission-Driven Model

Some of the most distinctive farm education programs in the country are built around a philosophy: that farming is not just a vocation but a way of engaging with the world. Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, which has operated as a working farm school since 1894, offers a Sustainable Agriculture and Food Studies degree that integrates ecology, traditional farming practices, food systems politics, and hands-on farm operations. Sterling College in Vermont builds its curriculum around ecological thinking and direct farm fieldwork. Students at both institutions don’t just study farming, they manage crops, care for livestock, operate compost facilities, and run farm businesses as part of their education.

The Job Gap: Supply and Demand

Despite enrollment challenges in some agricultural programs, the demand for trained farm and food system professionals significantly exceeds supply. USDA forecasts 57,900 annual job openings requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher in agriculture, food, and related industries,  but U.S. agricultural colleges produce only approximately 35,400 graduates per year.[12] The gap is structural, and it is widening. The solution is not simply to add more seats in existing programs, it is to build more pathways into farming, at every level, that are accessible to more people.

“Neighborhood farms don’t just grow food, they grow farmers. Every working farm that opens its gates to a student, an apprentice, or a beginning grower is doing the most essential work there is: transmitting the knowledge that makes the next harvest possible.”

The Land Transfer Crisis

Beneath the education question lies an even more urgent one: where will new farmers farm? With over 40% of U.S. farmland owned by people over 65[13] and two-thirds of Iowa farmland alone owned by individuals in that age bracket, the coming transfer of farmland represents both an enormous risk and an extraordinary opportunity. If that land flows to consolidation and absentee ownership, the community-scale farms that anchor local food systems will be lost. If it flows to the next generation of trained, mission-driven farmers, it becomes the foundation of a more resilient and equitable food system.

Land-link programs,  which connect retiring farmers with beginning farmers seeking land are emerging as a critical piece of this puzzle. Programs like Ag Link at Iowa State University, Nebraska Land Link, and the Buy-Protect-Sell model used by conservation land trusts create structured transitions that keep farmland in active production while supporting new farmer entry. The infrastructure for this transfer exists. What is needed is investment, coordination, and urgency.

The Neighborhood Farms USA Connection

At Neighborhood Farms USA, we see farm education not as a separate program area but as the lifeblood of everything we are trying to build. A national network of community-based farms cannot exist without a pipeline of skilled, trained, passionate people who know how to grow food and are committed to doing it close to home.

Our Farmer Training Program, hosted at Tiny Farm in South Florida is our direct investment in that pipeline. The program provides full scholarships, hands-on regenerative farming training, and a pathway into farm operation for participants who would not otherwise have access to this level of mentorship and instruction. Graduates become eligible to manage NFUSA mini farms, work at local farms, and carry what they have learned into their own communities.

And our Get Involved directory which connects visitors with community farms, volunteer opportunities, CSAs, and educational programs across the country is designed to be the first step for anyone who wants to start this journey. Whether you are a high school student curious about a summer program, a career-changer looking for a farm apprenticeship, or a community leader interested in launching a school farm in your neighborhood, the infrastructure of farm education is already out there. The directory makes it findable.

“The best investment we can make in the future of food is the same one we’ve always made in every other field that matters: we teach people how to do it, we give them the resources to practice, and we trust them with the land.”

The next generation of farmers is already out there. They are in FFA chapters and 4-H programs, in university farm internships and community garden volunteer shifts, in apprenticeships at farms they found through a directory search. They are waiting for the resources, the mentorship, and the land. Our job is to make sure they get it.