Looking at Ag Improvements

Looking at Ag Improvements. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. A new government report drives home a point farmers and ranchers have been making for years – that they are careful and caring stewards of our nation's natural resources. The report is called the National Resources Inventory. It is a compilation of 50 years worth of information on the environment, land use, productivity, water consumption and more. American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman says, after further analysis of the data, the organization's economists found clear examples of how much more efficient U.S. agriculture has become...doing more with less. STALLMAN: Total U.S. crop yield in tons per acre has increased more than 360 percent since 1950. That means for every acre we're growing crops on we grow 3.6 times more crops from that same acre than we did 50 years ago. Another good example in the report is with regard to milk production. Since 1980 the amount of feed that a cow needs to consume to produce 100 pounds of milk has decreased by more than 40 percent. That would be the same thing as having a car today that uses 40 percent less energy to run the same amount of miles. And there were plenty of other examples, from lower fuel and fertilizer use to an almost 50 percent drop in erosion. But why should a non-farmer care? STALLMAN: Today America's consumers are more interested in where their food is produced, how it is produced, what it means for the environment and these findings from this report clearly indicate that U.S. agriculture is doing a great job in providing food while using less resources and in a more environmentally-friendly way. Stallman says the NRI report backs up farmers' and ranchers' environmental claims. STALLMAN: This report substantiates all the hard work that farmers and ranchers have done over the years to be more environmentally conscious, to be more efficient at what they do in producing this nation's food and fiber and fuel and it gives us something to point to when our critics talk about how bad agriculture is. Stallman explains why more efficiency is so important. STALLMAN: U.S. agriculture needs to become more efficient. It's going to become increasingly important as the world's population increases, as demand increases for higher-valued foods and to accomplish that on basically the same amount of land we have to be more efficient and productive and still at the same time do a good job at protecting the environment. This report clearly indicates that we're up to the task. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.