Displaced Farmers

Farm population in the U.S., currently about 5.2 million people, continues to decline each year. Data from a 1982 Census Bureau-USDA survey show a loss of 431,000 farm people between 1980 and 1982. This drop corresponds with a continuing pattern of declining farm employment, which has fallen from over 10 million in 1940 to under 4 million currently. The number of farm operators in the U.S. is now estimated at 2,370,000--down from 2,400,000 the previous year. This paper will discuss the changing farm population, focusing on the farm labor force. It will investigate who leaves farming, why they leave, what they do as disemployed farmers, and the implications of their employment shift.,Rebecca Mazur, Bibliographer, Environment and Natural Resources, Library Services Division, on Temporary Assignement to the Food and Agriculture Section, Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division.,CRS 84-719 L,"August 22, 1984.",SuDoc# LC 14. 18/3