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Originally Posted by Odin
Hmmm, yes and no. Utilization of current farmland is near 100%, however there are large tracks of former farmland, that have gone feral under government wildlife conservation programs. The farmers are paid $50 per acre not to plant, and allow the land to return to it's natural wild state. However with newer high food prices many farmers are wanting to pull out of these programs. At the current food prices, they can earn over $150 per acre planting wheat or other staple crops.
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Kind of ironic that many farmers entered these programs because grain and cattle prices were so low almost every farmer was in the red ten years ago. They federal government had to step in to save almost every farmer in Saskatchewan (part of Canada) from bankruptcy.
Nowadays, you don't become a farmer unless you're going to inherit a very large tract of land. The only people actually making money from farming these days are large companies, and individual farmers that lucked out on having a very rich topsoil.