Despite rising food prices due to increased use of ethanol and continued debate over federal farm subsidies that indicate more money going into food production in America farmers in West Virginia are still facing financial challenges.  The Communications Office for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture Buddy Davidson says farmers deal with an economy that does not keep pace with them.  Many farmers must maintain off-farm jobs to pay the bills as they see smaller percentages of dollars spent at the grocery coming back to them.The West Virginia Department of Agriculture farmers were only seeing 20% of every dollar spent at the grocery.This coincides with a decrease in the average consumer’s disposable income.Davidson explains that even farms making a substantial amount of money will typically have one of the couple working outside for the farm for the bulk of the family’s money.  The farm itself is generally just for a little extra income because of expenses such as health insurance and growing production costs. Davidson says that despite the economic struggles of farms in the state, West Virginia still leads the nation in percentage of family owned and operated farms.  He says the number of farms has held steady over the past decade with approximately 21,000 throughout the state.

Categories: Local News
Tags: Agriculture, Davidson, economy, Ethanol, Farm, food, grocery, West Virginia Department of Agriculture