An Ongoing Longform Project
Rooted in rural Pennsylvania, farming has always been a central element of a lifestyle that is now rapidly fading away. According to PA.GOV, since 2017, the total acres of farmland have decreased by 3% and the number of farm operations has decreased by 8% all while the average farm size has increased by 5% during the same period of time -- meaning that larger corporations are buying out generational farms, all while the farming industry drastically shrinks. During this same time, the average age of a farmer has increased from 54.8 to 55.4 years. As time progresses, American society will soon push out this lifestyle entirely. Fueled by the need to show this change, I chose to continuously document the tightly-knit communities of rural Western Pennsylvania -- and how their hands hold the land.