Why is farming expensive?

There are a lot of things involved in farming that require a lot of spending. Fuel, feed and fertilizer are the biggest cost factors in a farming operation. Machinery repair costs, veterinary costs, not to mention utility bills and taxes, among many others, all must be incorporated to farm expenses. When expenses get higher than income, this often is a sign that another enterprise must be incorporated into the farming business to help pay these expenses, or an off-farm job must be taken by the farmer or the spouse.

The thing is, it's not that farming's so expensive, it's just not the best paying job on the world. For all the work that's done, the end product that is sold to the consumer is worth less than it really is, and farmers only get paid a tiny fraction of what is sold on the supermarket shelf.