Aug. 2, 2011
The success of Iowa farmers has been hard-fought with generations of work, sweat and sacrifice. Today’s family farmers who make a living from the land have survived many challenges, including the Farm Crisis of the 1980’s, which collapsed commodity and land prices, bankrupting thousands of Iowa farmers. Populations shifted from rural communities to larger cities as farm families lost everything. Before it hit, Iowa was home to 121,000 family farms. Nearly 20,000 went under, ending generations of farm legacy for many family farms. Nationally, the Farm Crisis claimed nearly 235,000 family farms.