At 38.4 percent, that response was a slight increase over last year. Strengthening protection for property owners was third at 11.2 percent. Only 34.5 percent said farm income should come totally from the marketplace. That represents a near turnaround from just two years ago, when 66.8 percent said farm income should come only from the market. Last year, that response was evenly split.
Technology use The use of technology by young farmers and ranchers continues to skyrocket.
Internet access among young farmers rose sharply to 77.2 percent, up a full 25 percentage points from last year. Figures show that nationally, only about 43 percent of American households are connected to the Internet. Just four years ago, only 10.5 percent of young farmers reported having Internet access. Overall, computers are used on the farm by 90.7 percent of those surveyed, up 11 percentage points from 1999. Another technology area that increased was the number of young farmers who plant biotech crops or plan to do so within the next two years.