This is such a contrast to upstate NY where farmland is still overwhelmingly owned by individuals and families. It was nearly 75% the last time I checked. And 70% is owner-operator (the owner is also the farmer). Only a very tiny percentage of active farmland is owned by an investment company.

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pfdietz 4 days ago | parent [-]

A report on NY farms and farmland, covering the 2012-2022 period.

https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/pdf/profile-of-agricult...

It's interesting how little of NY state is farmland (21.6%).

"When the extended family of the farmer is taken into consideration, 94.6 percent of New York farms are family-owned."

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petcat 4 days ago | parent [-]

New York state has gone to great lengths over the last 40 years to highly incentivize (read: subsidize) local, family farmers and deter megacorp speculators and investors.

At this point I think it's basically impossible to actually lose money on a farm as long as it's family/individual owner-operator.

It's also why NY state cropland is among the most expensive in the country. Once you get it, the value will only ever go up regardless of crop yield in any given year.

	▲	pfdietz 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I don't think that statement about the price of cropland in NY state is accurate. If you go to https://acretrader.com/resources/farmland-values/farmland-pr... you'll find it's not very expensive compared to, say, Illinois, California, or (!) New Jersey. It's well below the average for the country as a whole, in fact. A good deal of the farmland in the NY county where I live, Tompkins County, has gone back to forest since the beginning of the 20th century (although not to the extent in, say, Massachusetts). This suggests to me that just holding farmland here cannot be much of a moneymaker, since if it were we'd be seeing this land brought back. https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/200430940...