Why is Missouri trying to get Farmers to Sell their Land?
A new law in Missouri will incentivize farmers to sell their land. Why is the state trying to get farmers to sell their land, and who are they hoping they sell the land to?
According to KSHB, there is a new law in Missouri that will incentivize farmers to sell their land with the hopes of bringing in a new generation of farmers. On KSHB's site, they say...
"In order to recruit new generations to the agriculture industry, Missouri state lawmakers passed a bill to incentivize selling land to beginning farmers. According to the Missouri Department of Agriculture, the average age of a Missouri farmer is 59.4 years old and less than 5% of all farmers in the state are under 35...House Bill 202, passed into law, authorizes an income tax deduction of up to $500,000 per year for selling a farm to a beginning farmer and up to $25,000 per year from leases or crop share arrangements."
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That truly is a WILD statistic that less that 5% of all the farmers in the state of Missouri are under the age of 35. We obviously always want to encourage the next generation of leaders, doctors, first responders, but you never hear about the next generation of farmers, and clearly, that's been a huge oversight. I love that the goal if this law is to get farmers to sell to future farmers, which is something I am sure farmers want to do anyways, but corporations come in and buy up the land for development or whatever, hopefully with this law you'll see more young farmers poping up in the Show-Me State.