Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers • Hacker News Board

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#21

Post by legitster » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:33 PM UTC

> Eight states in the Corn Belt — Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota and Wisconsin — restrict the size, structure and purpose of corporations that can own farmland to limit ownership by large investment funds.

> More than 22% of the farmland in 12 Illinois counties with the highest rents is owned by a business entity, defined as an operation with an LLC, Inc, LTD, Co., Corp, LP or LLP tag. Sangamon and Edgar counties were included in this analysis because historical data was not needed.

The TL;DR is that Illinois is one of the few states where there aren't restrictions on farmland owners, and even there it's a small (if growing) problem.

I think this is one of those problems that should theoretically be self-limiting. The economics of a farming family owning their land is too strong - just from the amount of tax breaks and subsidies available. Put another way, the land in a farmer's hands is worth more than in a corporation's.

I think the real risk comes from large farm landholders who want to cash out of their farm but don't have an heir or successor lined up. Farmers are getting old and their kids more often than not don't want to run the family farm anymore and there simply aren't going to be any other buyers.

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#22

Post by danlitt » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:33 PM UTC

nemomarx wrote: post #19

farceSpherule wrote: post #17

How about the US government stop subsidizing farmers? Let them fend for themselves like any other business.

If the price of food goes up, the public revolts. Not without a good reason honestly. I think you could definitely move the subsidies around, but subsidizing food is a basic good idea for any state really.

Subsidising food is quite different from subsidising farmers.

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#23

Post by guyzero » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:34 PM UTC

danlitt wrote: post #22

nemomarx wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the price of food goes up, the public revolts. Not without a good reason honestly. I think you could definitely move the subsidies around, but subsidizing food is a basic good idea for any state really.

Subsidising food is quite different from subsidising farmers.

Exactly. Farmers vote.

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#24

Post by frankus » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:35 PM UTC

nemomarx wrote: post #19

farceSpherule wrote: post #17

How about the US government stop subsidizing farmers? Let them fend for themselves like any other business.

If the price of food goes up, the public revolts. Not without a good reason honestly. I think you could definitely move the subsidies around, but subsidizing food is a basic good idea for any state really.

The US government also has a program of subsidizing/mandating biofuels that raise prices of both food and fuel for supposed environmental and energy security reasons that mostly don't pass a sniff test.

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#25

Post by keybored » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:36 PM UTC

edwardbernays wrote: post #3

Forget China. The greatest threat to American freedom and global power is robber baron billionaires. We live in a full-on kleptocracy. It's about time we add some new amendments to the constitution to relevel the balance of powers.

America just lives under capitalism.

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#26

Post by perardi » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:37 PM UTC

sophacles wrote: post #5

Right. Most of it is owned by the llc the farmer set up for thier land, and/or the family trust set up to prevent the land from being split into ever smaller parcels by inheritance.

Yeah, that’s how my farm land is set up.

I inherited farm land from my grandfather. I am very much not a farmer, I do not want to live in Southern Illinois, but I don’t want to give up the land, so I rent the land to a farmer with adjacent property.

I realize that’s not really the point of this article—this is more about huge firms buying up non-trivial amounts of land.

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#27

Post by hibikir » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:38 PM UTC

farceSpherule wrote: post #17

How about the US government stop subsidizing farmers? Let them fend for themselves like any other business.

Europe also does some very heavy subsidies. Without subsidies, a lot of farming just goes away due to the uncompetitiveness in labor vs the southern hemisphere. The Amazon would be replaced completely with farms for rich countries. It's not surprising that countries just don't want so much of the country basically depopulating.

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#28

Post by actionfromafar » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:38 PM UTC

edwardbernays wrote: post #20

actionfromafar wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You jest, but the harsh truth is that almost no change in society is possible unless at least some of the societal elites are on the bandwagon.

It's both sardonic and genuine. If he's genuine, then I genuinely wish him the best luck. However, it is very hard for me to believe that any billionaire would ever do something generally disfavorable to the current billionaire class. It's even harder for me to believe that, if one of them was to do so, that it would not be for their own further gain, just to the detriment of their peer cohort. I'm a bit jaded from h…

Agreed.

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#29

Post by throwaway894345 » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:40 PM UTC

farceSpherule wrote: post #17

How about the US government stop subsidizing farmers? Let them fend for themselves like any other business.

Besides keeping food costs low, as other commenters mentioned, I certainly think it's desirable to keep our agriculture sector from devolving into a small number of large corporations. I trust small independent farmers a lot more than I trust large corporations to take care of the land and to produce healthy food (which isn't to say independent farmers are perfect by any means).

Re: Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers

#30

Post by legitster » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:40 PM UTC

WillPostForFood wrote: post #12

bell-cot wrote: post #8

If you look at history, this is an ancient pattern. In Judaeo-Christian scriptures, the prohibitions against anyone acquiring ownership of land go all the way back to the Torah. Though like pretty much every religious prohibition on behaviors which the well-to-do want to do - those commandments fall under the "we never talk about that part" rule. EDIT: - Please note my "against anyone ACQUIRING ownership of" phrasing…

There is no biblical prohibition against owning land, but there is plenty of debate, discussion and grappling with the problems of ownership and accumulation. It shows it always an issue, and rules and laws and social norms always need to be debated and changed.

In the Levitical law, there was specifically a concept that all of the land in Israel be split up equally among families. And that ownership of the land reverts every 49 years. So "buying" land was tantamount to a lease.

There is actually some interesting scholarly work that shows such a system would work perfectly fine within a modern capitalist system - it would reduce inequality and neatly lines up with natural debt cycles.