From a resource standpoint, the important point of this comparison is that including the marginal external costs of production and allocating resources based on the full social cost results in a higher price for the good (Ps > Pp) and less output (Os < Op) than only including the private costs.
Today, the nation's farmers are 17 years older than the average American worker, with the ranks of farmers who are 75 years and up outnumbering those in their prime working years of 35 to 44. One big reason U.S. farmers are going gray: spiraling costs.
One of the most well known trends in American agriculture is the aging farmer. Year after year, the average age of the U.S. farmers has increased. This trend was confirmed, yet again, with the release of the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture. Figure 1 shows the USDAâs estimate of the average age of a producer from 1945 to 2012. Over the 64 years of data, the average age increased by 9.6 years. In the five years between the 2012 and 2007 census, the average age ticked up by 1.2 years.