Why Did Farming Decline in America? The Forces Behind a Century of Change

In 1900, farming was the way most Americans made a living. The proportion of the U.S. labor force working in agriculture has declined from 41% in 1900 to less than 2% today. That is one of the most dramatic occupational shifts in the nation's history, and it did not happen by accident. Understanding why farming declined in America means looking at the machines, markets, and choices that pulled tens of millions of people off the land over roughly four generations.

The Starting Point: A Nation of Farmers

At the turn of the twentieth century, agriculture defined American life. In 1900, there were 5.7 million farms in the U.S., with an average size of 138 acres. Most families grew what they ate, sold the surplus, and lived in rural communities built around the growing season.

The peak came a few decades later. In 1935, the number of farms peaked at 6.81 million working over a billion acres with an average farm size of 155 acres. From that high point, the direction of American agriculture reversed steadily, then sharply.

How Mechanization Reduced Farm Labor

The single largest cause of the decline in American agriculture was technology. When one worker with a tractor and combine could do the work of a dozen hands, the farm no longer needed a dozen hands.

The greatest period of growth in agricultural productivity in the US was from the 1940s to the 1970s, during which time agriculture was benefiting from internal combustion powered tractors and combine harvesters, chemical fertilisers and the green revolution. This was the era that permanently changed who worked the land and how much food they could produce.

The numbers behind this shift are striking. While output tripled between 1948 and 2021, land and labor inputs fell by 28% and 76% respectively. In other words, the country grew far more food using far fewer people, the clearest possible answer to why there are fewer farmers today. As the USDA has documented, mechanization led to greater productivity and a reduction in the need for labor, both self-employed farm operators and hired workers, from 1950 to 1990.

Why People Left Farming for Cities

Machines pushed workers off the farm, and cities pulled them in. As industry expanded, urban jobs offered wages, stability, and opportunities that seasonal farm work rarely matched.

The migration was visible in the population data long before the farm crisis of later decades. From 1860 to 1900 the average size of American farms had declined from 199 acres to 147 acres and the percentage of farmers in the labor force declined from 58 to 38 percent. The young were the first to go. Migration, mostly by young people who left for the cities, escalated over the next ten years. Each generation that moved to town was a generation that did not inherit the farm.

The Market Forces That Squeezed Small Farms

Economics finished what machines and migration started. For most of the century, farming was simply less profitable than the alternatives, and consolidation rewarded scale over numbers.

Prices tell the story. Prices received by farmers for products they sell decreased by an average of 1 percent annually in real terms between 1900 and 2000. Falling real prices meant farmers had to grow more just to stand still, which favored large operations that could spread costs across more acres. The steepest losses of farms followed. The number of farms decreased from a peak of close to 7 million in the mid-1930s to just over 2 million in 2000, with the rate of decline most rapid in the 1950s and 1960s.

As smaller farms closed, the survivors grew. The amount of land on farms has declined very little since 1935, so average farm size has risen, reaching 466 acres in 2024. Fewer, larger farms now produce the bulk of the nation's food.

What the Decline Actually Bought Us

It is tempting to read the decline of farming in the United States as pure loss, but the shift also delivered abundance. As productivity climbed, food became dramatically more affordable. The percentage of U.S. disposable income spent on food prepared at home decreased from 22 percent as late as 1950 to 7 percent by the end of the century.

That is the paradox at the heart of the story. The same forces that emptied the countryside also freed most Americans from having to grow their own food which is exactly why so few of us farm today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of Americans were farmers in 1900 compared to today?

Around 40% of the U.S. labor force worked in agriculture in 1900, compared with less than 2% today, according to USDA and academic sources.

What was the biggest cause of the decline in American agriculture?

Mechanization was the primary driver. Tractors, combines, chemical fertilizers, and the green revolution allowed one worker to produce far more, which sharply reduced the need for farm labor between the 1940s and 1990.

When did the number of U.S. farms decline the fastest?

The steepest decline occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, after the farm count peaked at nearly 7 million in the mid-1930s and fell to just over 2 million by 2000.

Are there fewer farms but bigger ones today?

Yes. The total farmland has barely changed since 1935, but because there are far fewer farms, the average farm size has grown to roughly 466 acres in 2024.

Did the decline in farming make food more expensive?

No, the opposite. Rising productivity made food cheaper, dropping the share of disposable income Americans spend on food at home from 22% in 1950 to about 7% by 2000.

The story of why farming declined in America is really a story about how a nation learned to feed itself with fewer hands and what that meant for the families and communities left behind. If you care about where your food comes from and who grows it, that history is worth carrying into how you eat today. Explore our guide to pasture-raised, farm-direct food and learn more about our family farming story to see what a return to transparent, small-scale agriculture can look like.