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o feed the world for decades and the world wanted to be fed more than we could produce.

The Feds then stepped in and increased the interest on the fixed interest farm loans a step at a time (just as they were doing the residential loans for homes) very quickly Authentic Joe Panik Jersey , over less than two years the rates went from less than 7% to 28% -- some even peaked at 32%. Farmers had obtained loans for up to 33 years at rates as low as 2% and they were going up in rate by sometimes 3% per month. The loans had been made at fixed rates. Many of the loans had annual payments tied to crop harvest sales and incomes. The predicted incomes were down to nothing. Many farmers just left the crops in the field as the harvested value was less than the cost of harvest. So as the fixed loan rules where changed and the loans increased by the week at times, in violation of the banking contracts. The farm prices plummeted as a result of the violations of our contracts with other nations to feed them.

Remember the late 60s and then the deadly 70s and the bankrupting of farmers across this country. Remember Willie Nelson and his Farm Aid music concerts to try and help the farmers, in the final days and weeks. Farmers across the country took other jobs, sold the edges of their farms as lots, sold less productive farms to developers or became developers in some cases. In too many cases they just quietly went out of business and the farms went fallow.

Simultaneously, there were no farm jobs to be had, the farms had become mechanized as every farmer was struggling to stay in business Authentic Evan Longoria Jersey , labor was replaced with low-labor crops and we were stuck with the growing of these crops. People who had owned land for generations no longer had any farmers who wanted to rent the land at worthwhile prices. Some went to share cropping and found that half of the proceeds were nothing and didn't pay the land tax. There went most of the potato, tomato, carrot, beet, sweet corn, pea, lima bean Authentic Brandon Belt Jersey , radish, squash, pumpkin, blueberry, strawberry, fig, peach Authentic Kevin Pillar Jersey , apple, cherry, asparagus, beef, goat, dairy, hog and alfalfa farms we knew. There went about 70% of the farmers.

Larger farmers became hyper-productive Madison Bumgarner Jersey , specialized in one low labor crop or two, became more mechanized, cleared the trees from every available acre, planted the crops closer together, used more fertilizer and insecticides and got into other businesses to try to get more productivity from every acre and raise outside income. Migrant laborers to help on the farms disappeared. Some stayed for a while in the canneries and then the canneries were closed. The ones that stayed open till the last did so by not paying the bills even if the cannery was inherited debt free.

Some farmers became insurance agents, bankers, liquor store owners Brandon Crawford Jersey , Amway salesmen, mechanics, tractor salesmen, stock brokers, politicians, teachers, etc. to help support the farm. Many signed the criminally one-sided chicken contracts with Perdue ? there was nothing else they could do and keep the farm. They had to make changes whether they liked it or not. Farm kids went to the city for jobs. Little stores and in some cases little towns closed as less people lived on the few farms that remained.

Some places stayed alive such as this area. Muskrat trapping on the thousands of acres between Rehoboth and Fenwick Island that Phil and Ruddy had trapped for years was no longer profitable. The farms on Rt. One were no longer possible as the huge new equipment gradually couldn't be moved easily on the ever more crowded roads.

More city folks Buster Posey Jersey , many of whom had grown up in rural areas and had to move to the city for jobs and income, needed some space, to get away from it all, and many chose this area. They still do. Some wanted to stay here, they still do. I have sold real estate in areas where development did not occur. I've seen towns closed, several of them, in western Virginia Stephen Vogt Jersey , West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, etc. I've seen millions of acres of farm and pasture land go unkept and grow up in first weeds and briars and then volunteer juniper and cedar; some of it on Rt. One.

I've seen land values for farm land go from auction sales of $7,000 per acre in large farms right before the grain embargo to China and Russia to less than $1,400 a couple of years later. Some farmers Joe Panik Jersey , many farmers sold off lots or entire farms to stay afloat. I've seen 686 acres of rich river bed, bottom land, fertile ground that was sold for $300 an acre just after the Civil War, be sold again in the late 70s for $700 an acre ? the loss in real dollars as they say, about 90% of value. The reason, farming the bottom lands of riverbed soil in West Virginia was no longer profitable. And no farmer would buy the land. I sold it to a city fellow as a retreat. He sold it again as there was no way he could leave the city and come to his retreat and earn a living anywhere near there. Another fellow bought it and developed it for those who wanted smaller acreage, along the river to vacation Evan Longoria Jersey , hunt and fish.

You see, no one could make a living here in farming. Remember all the dairy farms that used to dot the county? Remember the vegetable farms and orchards and hay farms? You may know the owners. Most of them had to become developers or sell off the land. There are few farms left here for economic reasons. The Hopkins still have the dairy farm because tax dollars paid them top development value price for the farms and let them keep them for dairy operation, so tourists can drive by a dairy farm.

The Townsend's are selling off the hundreds of thousands of acres they have a few thousand at a time, because no one in the family is willing to take the risks and threats of being a farmer anymore. They sold the chicken plant because of similar risks and threats. Chicken farms, that last hope of farmers, are failing by the day. If they are close enough to where people want to live they are being developed too. If