Young farmers throughout Pennsylvania are breaking into the notoriously closed-off farming industry through organic food, writes Katie Park for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Among them is Kimberton CSA, a 10-acre organic produce farm run by 28-year-old Frank Kurylo and his business partner.

Kurylo considered other careers while studying at West Chester University, but he decided to give farming a try.

“We’ve got 100 million acres of U.S. farmland expected to change hands in the next five years,” he said. “We don’t have enough people to take over and continue to steward it in a sustainable way.”

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Kurylo, who founded the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, is part of a national movement toward organic agriculture. This is in response to the increasing number of consumers willing to pay extra for organic produce.

However, there are several obstacles for young farmers entering the industry. Agriculture is still dominated by an older generation of people who are reluctant to transfer their farms to outsiders.

“There’s definitely been an increase in the number of young people getting into farming, but the national average age of a farmer is still 58 years old,” said Kurylo.

Read more about young farmers in the Philadelphia Inquirer here.

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