Last One Out

Everyone knows the expression, “Last one out, turn out the lights.” Call it gallows humor when applied to dairy farmers. Certainly, there will be some time before the U.S. gets to that point – if ever.

However, in the graph, which shows the period from Ronald Reagan’s election until 2008, there are only 20% of the farmers as there were in 1980.

While land-grant colleges portray the loss of dairy farms as a natural progression, the fact is, with each dairy farmer leaving, there is a proportionate loss of political power.