Age of the Farmer
The average farmer in much of the developed world is now around 65 years old, and far too few young people are stepping in to take over the land. Filmmaker Eva Verbeeck spent the summer of 2015 looking into why, talking to farmers nearing retirement and to the small number of younger people trying to break into agriculture despite the cost of land, equipment, and the physical toll of the work. The film treats the graying of farming as a quiet structural crisis rather than a dramatic one: fields that may go unfarmed, family operations with no heir willing or able to continue, and a food system that depends on a workforce it is not replacing. Interviews carry the film, letting the farmers themselves describe what keeps them on the land and what is pushing the next generation away from it.