Like most articles on American farming, this article doesn't actually specify what constitutes a farmer[0]. Oftentimes, "farmer" is used to refer strictly to the people who own arable land, not the people who actually work the land. In this context, the word "farmer" would be more akin to a farm landlord, in which case working a second job would not be surprising. Or to put it another way, for them, farming would be better described the second job - a source of passive income that supplements the income from the primary job.

The language used in this article and the accompanying USDA report implies (though does not explicitly state) that it using this common definition of "farmer" - that is, referring strictly to the person, family, or corporation that owns the land, but not to any other laborers who work the land.

This problem extends to most public discourse about farming and the politics thereof. Unfortunately, many folks have a very inaccurate picture of how agriculture works in this country, and the way it is discussed is a big component of that.

[0] The USDA is similarly inconsistent with this language in its own reports, which only exacerbates the problem.