At the end of the day, farmland is going to earn a similar basic return to whatever other capital asset, and while farming labour isn't unskilled the amount of people raised in it means it earns like it is.

Nobody who says this is picturing manhandling half-dead chickens, and it's usually someone white who isn't going to move to the mountains of Ethiopia to farm subsistence crops and cocoa. That pretty much leaves something land-intensive.

I did talk to someone here who made it work with ranching, but ranching is definitely not a good earner right now, and a lot of people are leaving the industry. Modern crop farming seems a lot like a desk job on wheels. Mainly, I think people just want space and fresh air, and have no idea what rural life is actually like.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It's always a balance of what you can afford, what you want to do, and what your market can bare. You may love raising chickens, but eggs will almost never pay off. I love hot peppers. But I can't get by growing just that. It is skilled and complicated for sure.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 1 points 49 minutes ago (1 children)

I don't know where you live but round here if you want to raise chickens you gotta first buy some chicken quota (I am serious).

So you are in the hole before a bird lays its first egg.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 1 points 40 minutes ago

I'm in Japan. It's not worth it on my scale to even try. I do plan to get chickens for our eggs (and bonus bug eating and compost helping), but otherwise I'm just in the veg business. I have full English support and website which helps me find my market