WEST JORDAN, Utah — Jeanette Drake is no stranger to development inching closer to her farm.
Drake Family Farms, a small, sixth-generation family-owned goat dairy has been here in the middle of West Jordan since 1880. Development has moved closer and closer to them. New homes are being built right down the street and there isn't a day that goes by that Drake said she doesn't get offers to sell her farmland.
"There’s a real housing shortage. I think everybody in Utah knows. So they want to build houses. But if there’s no farms, there’s no food," she told FOX 13 News on Tuesday.
Drake said she is not interested in selling her family's farm, where they sell goat milk, yogurts and other products.
"Everything’s built up around us. But we still want to be here. We have customers that depend on our product for their health," she said.
The Utah Farm Bureau said nearly 90% of farms in the U.S. are classified as "small" farms, and it's higher in Utah. Many include farmers who operate small stands, but also work another full-time job to make ends meet. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported 141,000 farms had gone out of business within a five-year period. The Bureau estimates it has only increased since then.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has unveiled a new initiative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to try to preserve smaller, family-owned farms like Drake's. She was advised on it by House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, who is also a rancher.
"Smaller farms and family farms, those are the ones feeling the squeeze because it’s hard to compete with those big farms and ranches. There’s a consolidation happening with big corporations, they’re buying out the smaller farms and ranches and that’s not good for America," Speaker Schultz told FOX 13 News in an interview on his ranch land in Croydon.
Speaker Schultz said he recently traveled to Washington, D.C., where he and others met with Secretary Rollins.
"We sat around for two hours and discussed what those issues are that are facing farmers and ranchers all across the country and here in Utah," he said.
The result is a series of policy proposals Secretary Rollins has dubbed "Make Agriculture Great Again." The policy proposals include efforts to preserve farmland, give agriculture producers access to credit and business resources to help them keep operating, labor reform and other ideas to help ensure farms are multi-generational.
"Putting Farmers First means addressing the issues farmers face head-on and fostering an economic environment that doesn’t put up roadblocks on business creation but removes them," Secretary Rollins said in a statement with the policy rollout.
The Utah Farm Bureau said it has advocated for USDA safety net programs and disaster relief; options for risk management and a workforce solution that gives all farmers access to labor.
Speaker Schultz said he is pleased to see feedback from Utah agriculture producers incorporated into the policy ideas. Another thing he would like to see more of, he said, is a push for local agricultural processing. The Utah State Legislature recently passed a bill to expand those smaller processing operations, which he argued is cheaper for consumers instead of shipping it out of state.
"Not only is it putting food on our table and good for our farmers and ranchers, it’s good for rural Utah, too," he said. "It does provide additional jobs."
Drake said she liked some of the ideas in the USDA's proposal. She urged people to shop local and visit a farmer's market.
"If you buy from a local producer, the money stays in the community," she said.
