Rising land prices are pushing farmworkers out of rural Connecticut

Will O’Meara, a farmer in Connecticut, highlights that escalating land prices—an acre now at $14,400 and a nearby ranch sold for roughly $400,000—are forcing farmworkers to seek housing far from their jobs. Claudia Kenny of the American Farmland Trust points out the near-absence of rentals in rural areas, while Colburn Field, a graduate student at the University of Idaho, says low commodity prices prevent farmers from raising wages.

Luis Jimenez, who leads New York’s farmworker group Alianza Agricola, explains that undocumented laborers cannot provide the social-security or credit documentation landlords demand. Harris Freeman of Western New England School of Law adds that mortgages remain out of reach for many. Although USDA data show farm payrolls steady at about 2.2 million workers, the average $20-per-hour pay falls far short of the $110,000 income needed to purchase a median home, according to Redfin. Some farms are turning to mechanization or family labor, but small operations lack the resources to offset the shortage.