we do.

I don't particularly like doing the same thing every day.

which was kind of silly for me to marry a dairy farmer because that's what you do every day twice a day, is milk.

But I love this man.

- [Michelle] A self-described city girl, Jane Escobar says she long dreamed of working on a farm.

- [Jane] Come on, don't you know you're on camera?

- [Michelle] A life in the country became a reality when she met her husband, Louis Escobar.

The two married in 1986 and have been working on Louis' family farm in Portsmouth ever since.

- I was born on a dairy farm, one of six children, and I had a love for the cattle and what dairy farming was all about.

And I have lived my life's dream to have my own and to be able to keep the family farm in existence in my lifetime.

- [Michelle] In 2015, he was involved in a tractor accident on the farm that left him seriously injured.

Still, he remains active.

Jane Escobar says her husband calls the shots from his wheelchair.

- He's in charge of everything, and I do what I'm told for the most part.

(laughs) - Louis Escobar's father bought the farm during the Great Depression.

Over the years, Escobar Farm has grown to 98 acres.

Was it harder than you thought it would be to keep the farm running?

- It has become more difficult every year, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

- What do you mean by that?

- More challenges where people drink less milk.

- [Michelle] Fluid milk consumption in the United States has been on the decline for more than 70 years according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

It's made it increasingly difficult for the Escobars to make ends meet.

They're one of 10 remaining dairy farms in Rhode Island.

- And I can remember one year where were losing about $7,000 a month, and we were getting to come out here and work 12 and 13 and 14 hours a day and losing $7,000 a month.

- Are you still losing money?

- We're still losing money, yes.

- The dairy farmer does not generally control the end price of his or her milk.

It's controlled by the federal government.

That's far different than almost every other crop that is grown, and that's a big part of the equation.

- [Michelle] Ken Ayers is the chief of the division of Agriculture and Forestry at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, or DEM.

- Rhode Island as well over the past, you know, 40 to 50 years show a sharp decline in the number of farms in the state driven by a bunch of other reasons.

Development pressure in the state is credibly intense.

The average cost of farmland in Rhode Island is the highest in the country, and typically that's the case year after year as measured by USDA.

(birds chirping) - [Michelle] On average, an acre of farmland in Rhode Island is worth $17,500, and not only is the land expensive, but it's also hard to find.

- Land access is probably one of the biggest barriers to farming here in Rhode Island.

- [Michelle] Andrew Morley and his wife Laura Haverland run a small dairy in Little Compton.

They say their biggest stroke of luck as farmers came when they spent time with the family that owns the land, which was once a dairy farm.

- And it took maybe a year and a half of driving up to Rhode Island and meeting with them to talk about our visions for the future and what we were gonna do with our lives as dairy farmers for them to get comfortable with the idea of them leasing their family's dairy farm to us.

And we are so grateful to them for that.

- It's a life they dreamt of while living in New York City.

Laura Haverland worked in marketing, Andrew Morley in finance.

In 2011, they decided to move to Rhode Island and pursue a life of greener pastures.

You both are living in New York City, working, have, I can say, comfortable jobs in New York City.

- Yeah.

- Why leave that behind to go become dairy farmers?

- That's a good question.

(all laughing) - Well, we both of us knew we didn't wanna sit behind a desk for our whole lives.

I think we were just drawn to doing something more active, and we were both especially interested in food, like from an eating perspective, mostly.

Prima.

(clicks tongue) - [Michelle] At Sweet and Salty Farm, the husband and wife team is raising a herd of grass-fed jersey cows.

They have a creamery on site where they process their milk into yogurt and cheese.

- We saw that there was this different wave happening of people's interest in like handmade and artisan foods and that the American cheesemaking scene was kind of starting to explode but that there really wasn't much going on in Rhode Island yet.

There were a lot of new, like, great farms in New England, but Rhode Island in particular didn't really have anybody doing what we are doing now.

- [Michelle] Laura Haverland oversees the yogurt production.

She works with a small team that makes the farm's plain whole-milk yogurt.

And Andrew Morley is the cheesemaker.

He creates a variety of artisan cheeses that are sold at farmers' markets and to restaurants in the region.

- I think both of us really love having the connection to our customers and seeing them really enjoy our cheese and yogurt and hearing about that.

- Yeah, I mean, it's all a lot of hard work, but it's all really satisfying when it goes well.

And when customers appreciate your hard work and your products, it makes all the hard work seem like it was pretty easy.

- [Michelle] They say one reason for their success is avoiding commodity pricing by not selling milk.

- We would stand no chance at having a viable business if we were farming the way we farm and selling our fluid milk to the commodity market.

We didn't grow up on farms.

Were not multi-generation knowledge recipients.

Yeah, the folks that are still dairy farming in Rhode Island have like a ton of our respect because what they do is really difficult, and we would be huge failures at that.

- [Michelle] Ken Ayers of Rhode Island DEM says the future of dairy farming in the state looks similar to what Sweet and Salty Farm is doing.

Nationwide, cheese and yogurt consumption are on the rise.

- I don't see fluid milk being the basis of the survival of dairy farming in the state.

It would be part of it, but I don't think it's strong enough to just keep dairy farms in itself without a lot of diversification of product.

- The Escobars say diversification is the reason their farm is still in business.

A corn maze every fall brings in much needed revenue.

Why do you think your farm has managed to survive when hundreds of others have not?

- I was so determined that even in the most difficult times that we could survive, and many other farmers chose to give it up and tremendous pressure by developers.

To sell the land to a developer would be like a parent selling one of their children.

That's how close I feel to this farmland.

- But certainly you've had those offers?

- Many times.

- [Michelle] Before much of their property became protected farmland, They say they were offered more than $10 million.

- And so I now have the development rights that have preserved it for perpetuity.

So you can do, it doesn't have to be dairy, but any other form of agriculture or anything, it's open space, and I'm happy I've done that.

- [Michelle] Louis Escobar is 83 years old.

He doesn't dwell on his age but acknowledges the mental and physical drains of life on the farm.

Have you guys talked about how much longer you plan to work the farm?

(Jane snickers) Why do you laugh?

- Till we both give our last breaths.

- That's probably it.

- Farmer Louis Escobar died last October.