I would agree with Stuart. The increase in the cost of production over our lifetime has been outrageous.
Something that strikes me as a very significant difference is the globalized economy we're dealing with now that I think didn't exist in my parent's generation quite as it does today. It puts a lot of pressure on agriculture as an industry, rather than just the everyday ins and outs of a farm.
I also would suggest that farmers have been competing against each other much more than they ever were. In the 1970s, when I was a child and when I was growing up, there was a real sense of community. That still exists to an extent, but there is an overabundance of competition among farmers and a huge lack of competition in all other parts of the industry. That creates a really bad feeling about the future.