Action needed to secure agriculture's bright future

Farm and Ranch December 24, 2010 Jay Lehr, economist and science director of the Chicago-based Heartland Institute says U.S. agriculture has as bright future.

Lehr: “It is a bright future because the world‘s food demand is growing. There is increasing affluence throughout the world. With the internet people know the terrific diet we have here in the United States and want to feed their kids the same. So there is a demand for more and better food. The population is still rising around the world. We really are going to have to double our food supply and there are not better farmers than in the United States.”

Lehr, who spoke at a convention in the northwest this fall, says however, there are obstacles to overcome to secure that bright future. He says those are the anti-agriculture groups, usually environmental zealots.

Lehr: “The environmental zealots paint a picture that farming is bad for the environment. We are taking up green space. We are raising three times the food on less land today than we did in 1960 and we are under using most of the inputs not over using them.”

Lehr says everyone has to tell that story, beginning even in rural areas.

Lehr: “We have to do it at our social events, at our dinner table, at our athletic events and we have to use social media to tell our story.”

Lehr says there isn’t a better profession than agriculture and young people should stay on the farm.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.