--- title: "Millennial Farmers Make More Money on YouTube Than From Farming" description: "A number of millennial farmers in the U.S. are making more money talking about farming on their YouTube channels than from farming itself." date: "2019-07-24" modified: "2019-07-24" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/millennial-farmers-money-youtube-crops" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "Farming" - "online videos" - "the digest" - "YouTube" --- # Millennial Farmers Make More Money on YouTube Than From Farming ![A number of millennial farmers in the U.S. are making more money talking about farming on their YouTube channels than from farming itself.]() *\Image: Courtesy of MN Millennial Farmer\* ## Farming YouTube A number of millennial farmers in the U.S. are making more money talking about farming on their YouTube channels than from farming itself. Farmer Zach Johnson, owner of the YouTube channel MN Millennial Farmer, [told *Bloomberg*]() that he and his wife made five times more on YouTube in 2018 than from his family farm. Johnson also sells merch on the side, speaks at public events, and features endorsed products in his videos. “Yes, we use GMOs, we use pesticides, drain tiles and irrigation and there are real reasons why we use those things,” Johnson told *Bloomberg* — a lot of his videos are in response to criticism that modern farming practices often face. ## Hit That Subscribe Button According to the University of Illinois' Farmdoc project, an initiative that provides local farmers with marketing and management know-how, more and more farmers are reshaping themselves as content creators. "Farm organizations and commodity groups have encouraged producers to be part of the conversation on social media," Keith Good, Farmdoc's social media manager, told *Bloomberg*. And there's an audience for the videos. Some American farmers are racking up hundreds of thousands of subscribers. **READ MORE:** [Farmers Earn More From YouTube Than Their Crops]() \[*Bloomberg*\] **More on YouTube:** *[YouTube’s Autocomplete Feature Has a Huge Spoiler Problem]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()