This is a compassionate, clear eyed piece from Sarah Mock about why it kind of sucks to work in agriculture right now, specifically in the US, and why so many good people are quietly leaving. She connects layoffs and the loss of confidence to the deeper reality that ag is cyclical, boom years pull talent in, bust years push it back out, and almost nobody is insulated from the mood and maths of commodity markets.

Reading it as a UK farmer, I still felt the parallels. Different policies, different institutions, but the same churn. Funding gets pulled, projects stall, people burn out, and the sector loses experience just when we need it most. The “do more with less and don’t talk about it” culture is not uniquely American.

What I appreciate is that she does not romanticise staying. She names the real damage when expertise walks out the door. But she also offers a hard won kind of hope. If you care about this work and can survive the down cycle, you become part of the cohort that is desperately needed when the cycle turns again.