Guests - Brian Reisinger, Steve Christy
Land Rich, Cash Poor: The Plight of America's Disappearing Family Farms
The Crisis Facing American Family Farms
American family farms are disappearing at an alarming rate, with potentially devastating consequences for our food supply, national security, and cultural heritage. Brian Reisinger, author of "Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family's Hope, and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer," brings stark statistics to light about this crisis.
"We've had farms in Wisconsin, where I'm from, Arizona, where you are, and everywhere in between, disappearing for a century at this point. It's actually been at the rate of 45,000 family farms per year on average being wiped out for 100 years," Reisinger explains. "If we keep doing that, if we lose 45,000 farms a year on average for even just the next 40 years, we will wipe out the rest of our family farms. So it'll happen within a generation if we don't do something."
Reisinger's own family farm in Wisconsin dates back to 1912 and has survived through four generations. His father still farms, and his sister is working to take over operations - a struggle faced by family farms across America as they combat economic, technological, and governmental challenges.
Why American Farmers Matter
The importance of maintaining a robust network of American family farms goes beyond nostalgia or tradition. It represents a critical component of national security and public health.
"The American family farm is best positioned to keep us healthy," Reisinger states. "America has an incredible and beautiful thing, which is a tradition of small land ownership in this country. Our land has generally been owned by small landowners, family farmers, small business owners. And that means that every single one of those people is working hard. They care about what they're doing and they can grow food efficiently, in a healthy way."
This decentralized food production system provides resilience against supply chain disruptions and ensures quality control by people who take personal pride in their work. As our farms disappear, we face increasing food costs, reduced food quality, and greater dependence on foreign food sources.
"We have a $42.5 billion ag trade deficit," Reisinger notes. "That means that we're importing $42.5 billion more dollars in food than we're exporting. And we're doing that at the same time that we're wiping out our farms. It almost reads like the end of a dystopian novel or a doomsday movie, where a country is ripping out their domestic food supply of family farms and depending more and more on foreign countries to bring their food in."
The Perfect Storm: Why Farms Are Disappearing
The disappearance of American family farms stems from a complex interplay of forces that have accumulated over generations:
Economic pressure: Small and medium farms struggle to compete with large agricultural corporations
Government policies: Decades of agricultural policies that inadvertently favor large operations
Technological change: Advancements that both help farms but also create pressure to scale up or get out
Market concentration: Fewer buyers for farm products means less leverage for small producers
Global competition: Unfair trade practices from countries like China
"What's happening to dairy is the same thing that happened to chicken and pigs and other cows and other types of farming over the prior decades," Reisinger explains. "We've got a deep set of problems that have been wiping out our farms for decades. We've got economic crises that the rest of the country doesn't understand how they affect our farms, whether it's the Depression or COVID. We've got governmental decisions that have made it worse. And we've got technology that has both moved us forward, which is good, but has also needlessly left many farms behind."
COVID's Impact on American Farms
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed critical vulnerabilities in America's food system. While Americans struggled to find food on grocery store shelves, farmers were often forced to destroy their products.
"COVID really laid bare the deep problems with our food system," Reisinger says. "We've got a food system that's a modern miracle in some ways - any type of food, any time of year, any part of the country. But it's also deeply vulnerable. While we had consumers unable to find the food they wanted on the shelves, and if they could, the prices were through the roof, we had farmers who were often unable to sell their goods, or if they could, the price was way lower. We had milk getting dumped, we had produce getting destroyed, we had animals getting euthanized."
This paradoxical situation - food shortages alongside food destruction - highlighted the breakdown in distribution channels when concentrated food systems face disruption. The same vulnerabilities were exposed during the bird flu outbreak that drove up egg prices.
"We've lost so many farms, and we have egg and food industries that are really concentrated now. We've got really big players, and if you've got a great big distribution center instead of a bunch of smaller ones, one great big distribution center going down wipes out a whole lot of supply."
The China Threat to American Farmland
Foreign ownership of American farmland, particularly by entities connected to China, presents an emerging national security concern that compounds the crisis of disappearing family farms.
"China's been squeezing American farmers for a very long time. They've been buying a lot of products and they'll suddenly stop buying, they'll depress the price in addition to cheating on their currency," Reisinger explains. "Now, they've been working to get their hands on American farmland. The Chinese own somewhere north of 300,000 acres of American farmland, and while American farmland is still only owned in a small degree by foreign countries, the amount of it is increasing rapidly. It's gone up by double digits in just two years."
This acquisition represents more than just economic investment - it's a potential threat to America's food security and national defense.
"They're getting their hands on our farmland. That is our food supply. We're literally not only messing with the price, not only cheating, but getting their hands on our food supply. And they're also doing it near American military installations. So this is our food security and it's our national security."
Reisinger points out that family farms act as a natural defense against this foreign acquisition: "If you've got more and more farmland owned by a number of large companies, their only real responsibility is to their shareholders. So they're going to sell their land to the highest bidder, and that just might be a company affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. Try walking up on the porch of a guy like my dad or small farmers across this country and saying, 'I'm from China. I'm here to buy your land.' It's not happening."
The Reisinger Family Farm: Adapting to Survive
The Reisinger family farm illustrates both the challenges and resilience of American family farming. For over a century, they operated as a dairy farm, but economic pressures forced difficult decisions.
"Our farm is a crop and livestock farm, small diversified farm. Historically, we had been a dairy farm. For more than 100 years, our family grew crops and milked cows. My dad sold the dairy herd in spring of 2021 because it was just getting to be where we would have to get so much bigger to make it," Reisinger explains.
Rather than dramatically scaling up or selling out completely, the Reisingers chose to diversify: "We sold our 50 cows, but we're still raising dairy cows for other herds. And then we're also raising beef for consumers. And then we cash crop, and we're constantly experimenting."
This evolution reflects broader industry changes: "The midpoint for a farm, a dairy farm in the 80s was 80 cows. Now the midpoint is 1,200. And so we really kind of shifted toward being a small farm."
The Reisingers continue to adapt, now exploring pasture-raised chicken and egg production as another potential revenue stream. "We're looking at pasture-raised chicken and eggs just because of some of the issues going on with our food supply."
Solutions and the Path Forward
Despite the severity of the crisis, Reisinger maintains hope for America's family farms. He advocates for a combination of policy reforms, cultural shifts, and entrepreneurial approaches:
1. Government program reform: "We've had dang near a century of government programs that have been piled up, and we usually just add to them. We don't usually reform them or change them or get rid of them when we put something else in the new place. We need to take a look at all these programs, figure out which ones are working, and reform or get rid of the ones that aren't."
2. Balanced approach to support: "We need a stable food supply. And that food supply and our farmers are subject to uncontrollable factors like weather. So there's some baseline amount of government support that shouldn't be picking winners and losers, and it shouldn't be propping up farms or any kind of business that can't make it in the market. But what they do need to do is provide a baseline stability in the face of uncontrollable factors like weather."
3. Entrepreneurship and market responsiveness: "We need to have more entrepreneurship injected back into farming. We need to have new entrepreneurial opportunity. The government program isn't going to create that out of thin air. We've got to have farmers able to have the freedom to respond to market demand."
4. Fair trade practices: "We need to have fair trade. We need to wipe out unfair trade standards. We need to have open markets. We need that trade be fair and free, not just free. We need more markets for our farmers to sell in."
5. Cross-partisan collaboration: "We need a bipartisan family farm moonshot. We've got to put family farms first in this country, and people are willing to make changes to do that is good. It took 100 years to wipe out as many farms as we did, and it was an establishment of Republicans as well as Democrats, bad choices. So it's going to take everybody to help us figure out the way forward."
Bread and Butter Politics
Reisinger, a former GOP strategist and rural policy expert, sees the economic struggles of farming communities as central to political discourse, particularly in battleground states like Wisconsin and Arizona.
"People in rural communities across this country feel like they've been left behind by the economic status quo," he observes. "Republicans won in 2024 when voters felt like they were speaking those frustrations and talking about what they're going to do about them."
He emphasizes that candidates must address tangible economic concerns: "It is easy to get pushed off of that message of addressing the economic status quo that's been leaving our rural communities behind. That's what rural and working-class voters need to hear from anybody who wants to win."
This economic frustration has deep roots: "It started with the disappearance of our farms and then it moved to the shrinking of so many of our small towns and communities as folks left those areas. And then it got even worse when we had the manufacturing jobs disappear. This is a long-running issue."
Pima County's Political Landscape: A Supervisor's Perspective
The Changing of the Guard
Pima County is witnessing a political transition as Supervisor Adelita Grijalva steps down to run for her father's congressional seat. This creates an opening on the Board of Supervisors that will be filled through an appointment process.
"There's a process in place to appoint her replacement," explains Supervisor Steve Christie, the lone Republican on the five-member Board. "My colleagues decided that the best procedure was to accelerate the application process. Let the applicants know that they have a deadline to express an interest in the position."
The appointment timeline is compressed:
Deadline for applications: Today
County background checks begin immediately
Application acceptance ends April 7th
League of Women Voters will host a forum for candidates
Board votes on the replacement at the April 15th meeting
Christy expresses concern about the accelerated timeline: "My concern is it's such short notice. I hope that there are enough qualified folks out there that might have an interest that have time to discern and reflect if this is something they want to do."
As the only Republican on the Board—and indeed, the only elected Republican in county government—Christy brings a different perspective to the process. He takes particular issue with how the media frames Grijalva's departure: "I always kind of have a little bit of an animosity to the statement about her father's seat. He may have been in that seat for several decades, but it's the people's seat. And it's open to any resident and taxpayer."
Building Consensus Across Party Lines
Despite being outnumbered 4-1 on the Board, Christy has managed to find areas of cooperation with his Democratic colleagues. He points to two recent initiatives that received unanimous support:
1. Countywide Wildfire Mitigation Plan: "With Supervisor Hines and I, we've been able to put forth some initiatives that I'm very proud of in our district. One, basically, to ask for a countywide wildfire mitigation emergency plan. I was able to get the Board to approve a resolution and the initiative for the county administrator to come back in June with a draft plan of a wildfire mitigation plan."
2. Homeowners Insurance Crisis Response: "Another initiative that our office has put forth is one that we're seeing not only in Pima County and my district, but across the country—insurance companies are raising homeowners insurance rates, or basically cancelling current homeowners insurance, creating a great deal of consternation and havoc, particularly in my district up in Mount Lemmon, Summerhaven Community."
Christy's office has directed county administration to work with lobbyists at the state legislature, resulting in 18 bills addressing homeowners insurance issues. Additionally, Christie secured Pima County a seat on a special subcommittee formed by the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions: "We're the only county out of 15 counties that actually has a county administrator serving on that committee."
The Political Machine vs. The Circular Firing Squad
Christy observes stark differences in how Democrats and Republicans approach political organization and succession planning, particularly evident in the Grijalva political machine.
"Republicans should take note of the so-called Grijalva machine," Christie suggests. "Not only do they have their A team out, taking office and leadership positions, and significance both local, state, and national, but they've got a backup team, a B team. Then they have a bench, and then they've got the field team that they're grooming to come up from the neighborhoods, the precincts, to get involved at all levels."
This strategic depth provides Democrats with prepared candidates when openings occur. In contrast, Christy laments: "Republicans, on the other hand, we do the circular firing squad. There's always squabbling, and this, I think, is our downfall."
He points to the upcoming congressional race to replace Raúl Grijalva as an illustration: "The largest competition for Adelita Grijalva is Representative Hernandez. And they're probably going to have some knockdown drag out behind closed doors fights and disagreements and a lot of deals to be made, but when they walk out of those closed doors into the public realm, they're going to be standing shoulder to shoulder."
Federal Funding Concerns
Pima County faces significant financial challenges with the potential loss of federal funding under the Trump administration, particularly related to border and immigration programs.
"Pima County received millions and millions of dollars during the Open Up the Borders fiesta that we had here in Arizona. To the tune of almost 120 million, at least on the asylum process," Christy notes. "I took a stand back in 2021 that Pima County should not be in the asylum seeking business."
His concerns have proven prescient: "They sent us a notification that they have indications and they believe strong evidence that Pima County broke immigration laws by encouraging asylum seeking and illegal immigration."
Beyond immigration funding, approximately $150 million in federal grants across 20 county departments face potential cuts due to federal funding freezes. This represents about 10% of the county's budget, creating difficult decisions about service reductions.
Christy questions the county's reliance on these external funds: "Pima County should not be relying on federal grants to get its money. When that happens, you are putting all your eggs in a basket that is going over a very bumpy road. At any point, the federal government could change policy and then we're standing out there with our neck out way overboard over the skis."
Pima County's Perception Problem
According to Christy, Pima County faces a fundamental challenge in how it's perceived by businesses and potential residents.
"The biggest issue I think Pima County faces is perception nationwide. Our perception that we're transmitting is that we're anti-business, progressive to the core, anti-growth, all we care about is grabbing up lands and conserving them to prevent growth and to inhibit any kind of economic development, anti-freeway."
This perception creates real economic consequences: "When a company looks to relocate, and Tucson is basically a very attractive place to consider relocating to. But once they look a little bit deeper, peel back the onion skin and see what kind of state and local and city government we have, I wouldn't move here if I knew that we had a city council made up like we have."
Christy believes changing this perception will be a long-term challenge: "It's going to take a long, long time to overcome that perception. We have also a strong university presence. And they bring in people who have never been in the private sector. They've never had their skin in the game financially in a private business. They've never signed the front of a check."