We won’t “Get big or get out”: The farmers who stayed put

Abstract

First paragraphs:

In the U.S., farmland is steadily declining. The number of farms has declined dramatically from a peak of 6.8 million in 1935 to 2.04 million in 2022, and further to 1.88 million according to the 2024 Census of Agriculture (Lacey, 2025). Tennessee reflects this trend. The farmers’ persistence in place is a remarkable feat, especially amid long-standing trends in farm loss and consolidation that have reshaped the agricultural landscape.

As a boy who grew up on Tennessee farmland and returned to document the stories of those who stayed, Brooks Lamb offers a moving tribute to agricultural resilience. In this review of Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist, I reflect on the importance of these stories and the enduring wisdom they carry. Lamb sets out to preserve the voices of small-scale farmers to reframe persistence as a form of resistance. His goal is not simply to document survival, but to illuminate the emotional, ethical, and imaginative commitments that sustain farmers in the face of erasure. . . .