He has a solution for abuse of this system!
@sarahtaber The Japanese farms there all seem to be focused on landscape type plants more than commercial food growing and they tend to be modest businesses.
But I think anyone going into farming *now* has money and probably has some kind of high paying job to fund it all... you just can't start off as the American stereotype of a farmer these days.
@sarahtaber The area I grew up is around the Salinas, California area. Tanimura and Antle is one of our biggest agribusinesses (a former "family farm"). They even got their name on the library of CSU Monterey Bay because they shoveled money at the university.
The Kitayama Brothers started a cut flower business in the 50's and it's a major cut flower grower near Watsonville (mostly Gerber Daisies). The Kitayama family still runs it but it's not a hardscrabble farm for them even with downsizing.