The Post-Partisan Emporium

Farmland Shock: Georgia Grower Drops 3,000 Acres, Warns of Unplanted Ground in 2026   Responding to crippling input costs, Alex Harrell slashes his cropland in half and predicts significant U.S. acres may be bare come spring. By  Chris Bennett  •  January 05, 2026 06:30 AM “Guys are quitting and walking away, and that eventually leads to land that doesn’t get picked up … Cropland with no crop,” says Alex Harrell. (Photo courtesy of Harrell Farms) How deep is the farm crisis? Adios to acreage. In November 2025, Alex Harrell, among the most highly reputed producers in the U.S., dropped an old-school grading scale, A to F, across his 6,000-acre operation and slashed almost half his ground, notifying 12 landlords in a three-week window. “I can’t speak to the rest of the country, but around here, generational growers are either cutting back, quitting, falling into Chapter 12, or grasping at straws.” Spurred by crippling inputs, Harrell’s acreage drop is an alarming indica...

  The Garden Before the Machine On the lost vegetables of the Medieval Age, and why they are coming back Morgoth Autumn has arrived to call time on my third growing season at the veg patch. I still have some hardier brassicas, such as cabbage, sprouts, and broccoli, in the plot. Still, the good times are indeed over, and my decidedly unexciting overwintering crops, such as leeks, onions, and garlic, are almost ready to go in. Looking back on the growing season, I can recount my successes and failures. I planted tomatoes for the first time and found them to be an astonishingly weak and needy plant. First, as seedlings, there wasn’t enough daylight; then, as plants, it was too cold; then they had too much water; then they demanded expensive fertiliser. During the summer heatwave, it was too hot. Conversely, a great success story this year was the scarlet runner beans. As the tomatoes cried out for attention in the greenhouse, the scarlet runners happily climbed a makeshift trellis an...