By Pinal Central
I graduated from college in 1980 with a degree in agriculture and the intent of becoming a farmer like many generations of McCarvilles before me. My father, a lawyer who spent over 50 years here helping local farmers in trouble, counseled me against it.
He said he knew a lot of rich farmers but none that got rich from farming. Their wealth came from holding farmland until a higher and better use came along. Farmland was relatively easy to hold, so I borrowed $300 from him and was in real estate before I knew it.
Farming has always been a tough business in Pinal County. The survival rate was low even before the drought. After a few successful years of brokering distressed or bank-owned farmland, demand slowed — especially when it became clear Colorado River water would not be available long term. Even institutional investors, typically eager to include farmland in their portfolios, were nowhere to be found.
