America's farmers are getting older, and young people aren't rushing to join them

By David R. Buys, Associate Professor of Health, Mississippi State University
John J. Green, Director of the Southern Rural Development Center & Professor of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University
Mary Nelson Robertson, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science, Mississippi State University

On Oct. 12, National Farmers’ Day, Americans honor the hardworking people who keep the world fed and clothed.

But the farming labor force has a problem: It’s aging rapidly.

The average American farmer is 57 and a half years old, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s up sharply from 1978, when the figure was just…

Read complete article

~	Mali’s military leader is consolidating power. Why this is dangerous

~	Labour in crisis: whoever is prime minister, voters expect politicians to use the language of populism

~	Death penalty in 2025 – Facts and figures

~	Raghu Rai: the trailblazing photographer who documented the vast diversity of a changing India

~	Why European households throw away so much food – and how to curb the waste mountain

~	The Pennine hills are full of holes – here’s how they’re helping fight climate change

~	Ebola outbreak declared a global health emergency – what you need to know

~	Xi warned Trump against the ‘Thucydides Trap’ – here’s what ancient Greece can tell us about US-China relations

~	Human rights concerns abound over China’s ‘state secrets’ regulation in the Uyghur region

~	What you need to know about the Ebola outbreak that has the WHO concerned