This is the essay that I wrote for my application to the Youth Ag Summit. Enjoy!
I am a beginning farmer
located in Middle Tennessee. I have spent the last eight years actively
involved in and studying agriculture, farming, and feeding the world. I am just
now beginning the journey of starting my own farm, which I have spent the last several
years preparing for. I understand my role in the food chain, and that role is
to provide the food that helps feed the world. By 2050, the world’s population
will have reached 9 billion people, and the job of providing food for all those
people will fall squarely on the shoulders of us, the farmers. The question is,
how will we do it? American agriculture is currently in turmoil. Farming is
split into two groups, and they are going to have to unite and find a common
ground to utilize new technologies, practices, and resources in order to feed
our growing population.
Organic.
Grass-Fed. Industrial. Factory Farms. Local Food. Farmers Markets. 155 People.
Natural. Whole. Precision Ag. No-Till. These are just a few of the buzz words
that identify some of what is going on with agriculture in America. There are
two distinct groups: The first is the large-scale farmers who strive to produce
food in the most efficient and economical way possible. The second is the
local, organic-based movement whose goal is to produce a higher quality product
using more natural, organic practices. For some reason there is a very distinct
rift between these two groups, which is leading to both sides fighting over who
is right and which is wrong. Both sides have good and bad.
The
biggest challenge facing large scale industrialized agriculture is the
exponentially rising cost of energy. It affects them in nearly every way
imaginable from production costs to equipment costs to storage costs to
transportation costs. It could very well soon not be feasible to operate heavy
equipment, store crops for long periods of time, or haul crops across the
nation and world. However, these operations are very productive. They keep
raising the bar in production yields every year. They are cranking out huge
production quantities per acre. This is a big deal when you consider the rising
number of people and the declining amount of farm land.
The
local, organic based food movement is becoming bigger news every day. It is in
its own way a resurgence of the traditional small family farm. These producers
are striving to produce a sustainable operation using very little energy and
infrastructure. They are trying to produce a safer, healthier, higher quality
product. There are all types of production practices implemented from high
tunnels to deep mulching to rotational grazing that help them produce their
crops. While these practices are sustainable and sorely needed, the production
levels are low for these operations. It would not be feasible to depend upon
small operations like these to feed the coming 9 billion people.
Along
with these issues, America is coming out of a recession, and people are having
to spend a higher percentage of their smaller income on food. America is very
blessed to have the lowest percentage of income spent on food in the world, but
we could do better. There are still people who are hungry every day. There are
kids who only get a quality meal when they are in school. There are families
who cannot afford to buy healthier food when McDonalds has a dollar menu. This,
along with general changes in society has lead to an obesity epidemic. Farmers
receive a lot of the blame, and while not all of it is theirs, they do share
part of it. It is our product, and we should do a better job representing and
marketing it.
The
image of the farmer in the United States has become somewhat tainted. The
average person is generations removed from the farm, and their idea of a farmer
is someone who mistreats his land, animals, and families, and cannot be trusted
with producing the food the world eats. This is a harsh image, but we the
farmers are the only ones to blame. We are the ones who let our image become
this without standing up for ourselves. The average age of the farmer is
getting older, and there are fewer youth who are stepping into the role of
feeding the world. It is going to be our responsibility to reverse that image.
While
this is what is going on in the United States, I know that there are huge
problems with food availability in the rest of the world. The rest of the world
is in financial turmoil just like the United States. There are countries where
people are spending three quarters of their income on food, and are having an
extremely hard time finding enough food to keep their families from going
hungry. Some places simply cannot feasibly produce enough food with the current
practices, and in others governments prohibit using advanced technology to
increase production. There are starving people everywhere from the superpowers
like the United States to the third world countries.
Feeding
the coming 9 billion people is going to be a huge problem and responsibility. I
personally will be responsible for it, along with the rest of my farming community
spread across the world. In order to feed the world, I have to start by feeding
my community. My farm will start small, but it will grow. There is coming a new
way in which we will produce, process, sell, and buy food. I intend to be at
the forefront of that movement. There is a middle ground between the two main
groups in the United States in which true food sustainability will be found.
The combination of the best practices of each, along with new ones will result
in producers being able to economically, safely, and morally produce the food
required to feed our population.
It
will also take the people of the world to get behind and support us, the
farmer. We will need everyone’s help in order to do our jobs. We will need a
huge, dependable, skilled labor supply. We will need the land base and
resources in which to produce. We will need the research to find the new
practices to use to produce more food safely. We need the freedom to produce
our product. It is going to be a world-wide effort that will involve every man,
woman, and child on this planet is one way or another.
I
have attended many gatherings and conferences involving agriculture, and leap
at the opportunity to attend more. There are many people out there who are more
knowledgeable about different things than I, and the only way I will learn is
to meet and talk with them. However, I have never attended a conference with
people from all over the world, and I cannot imagine what I will learn, or what
I will have an opportunity to share. The 120 people who will be at this summit
will be at the forefront of feeding the world. We will all learn new things and
meet new people, and we will be able to share our stories with each other. The
youth is dwindling in agriculture, which means that we must become tighter-knit
and support each other. Alone, I cannot feed the world, but if we stand
together, know where we stand, and rise up to meet this challenge, We Will
Surely Be Successful!
