Farm Bureau President Looks at World Population Changes

Farm Bureau President Looks at World Population Changes

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett
The California Farm Bureau says farming and ranching will be increasingly misunderstood as more Americans move away from small towns.

California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson told California Ag Today that by 2030, 70 percent of the world’s population will live in an urban area. He says the challenge comes with a huge opportunity.

Johansson: It’s a radical change. It’s a change we saw in 2008 when for the first time the urban population . The challenge is having a consumer based population that doesn’t understand what’s happening on the farm. So removed from the farm. They have no idea what we’re doing the technologies we’re implementing and why we’re implementing them. But conversely as people move to the cities and they make a bigger income, you’re seeing the rise of the middle class around the world the likes of which we’ve never seen. And that middle class wants to get its protein somewhere else beside a bean. They’re going to start looking for other protein where that’s almond or beef or pork.”

Johansson says it will be increasingly the job for agricultural groups such as the Farm Bureau to explain to consumers where their food comes from.

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