The political leadership in the West needs to take note of the growing number of farm families who are picking up stakes and moving east.

In the 1840s, white settlers from east of the Mississippi River started making the arduous journey west, pushing up the Oregon Trail to the Pacific Northwest.

Others followed the trail to Fort Hall in present-day Idaho, then turned southwest on the California Trail to reach the gold fields of the Sierra Nevada and the farmland of the Central Valley.

Land was cheap and opportunity was within relatively easy grasp. The West offered fewer restrictions than were in place in the established eastern communities.

Many longtime farm and ranch families proudly point to their pioneer heritage.

But over the past decade or so, there’s been a small but growing number of farm families picking up stakes and moving east of the coastal states to escape tough business climates.

It’s a reverse Oregon Trail of sorts, with modern-day emigrants moving to Idaho, Montana, the Plains and the Midwest.

While it can hardly be described as a mass exodus, people are noticing an uptick in the number of farm operations moving east.

“People have talked about moving for years and years, but now people are actually doing it,” said Ryan Jacobsen, manager of the Fresno County Farm Bureau in California. “Statistically, it’s still probably a blip on the radar. But it’s crazy that it’s actually happening.”

Farmers cite several reasons for moving: seeking less-crowded places; political concerns; COVID protocols; estate taxes, regulations and associated costs; opportunities for expansion; “climate migrants” fleeing drought; and farmers seeking more-secure water supplies.

The common thread is that farmers and ranchers are moving to places where they believe their businesses — and families — can better thrive.

The tax and regulatory climate on the West Coast has made it increasingly difficult for family farming operations.

Carbon policies have made fuel more expensive. COVID regulations have reduced the availability of labor, and thus have reduced yield while increasing costs.

State legislatures have grown openly hostile to agriculture, proposing gross receipt tax schemes that would turn the already precarious economics of farming on its head.

They have adopted alternative energy policies that encourage converting farmland into wind and solar energy facilities. They’ve proposed increasing riparian buffers. They have restricted common pesticides, herbicides and fumigants.

Most farmers can’t pick up and leave. But, they can sell out to bigger operations.

Through increased regulation and legislation, state governments will hasten the consolidation of the industry, and the ruin of the rural communities that depend on a viable population to thrive.

—Capital Press