Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America

Beth Hoffman was living the good life: she had a successful career as a journalist and professor, a comfortable home in San Francisco, and plenty of close friends and family. Yet in her late forties, she and her husband decided to leave the big city and move to his family ranch in Iowa-all for the dream of becoming a farmer. There was just one problem: money.



Half of America's two million farms made less than $300 in 2019. Between rising land costs, ever-more expensive equipment, the growing...