by Westley B. Drake

During the week of March 19-25, 2017, Americans will recognize National Agriculture Week. The week also includes National Agriculture Day on March 21. This week is becoming more important every year, as Americans continue to move out of rural areas, and become farther disconnected from the agriculture industry. In fact, over 85 percent of all Americans are at least two generations away from the farm.

Throughout the coming week, many Americans will be presented with a lot of facts and information about the U.S. agriculture industry. One of the most intriguing facts is that 3.2 million Americans are farmers and ranchers, and they collectively produce enough food for all 324 million people in the United States. In addition, about 23 percent of all farm commodities grown in the U.S. are exported to foreign nations.

Even though the United States does import some food from foreign nations, that amount is far less than the amount that is exported. Not only are America’s farmers the most efficient in the world, but they also produce the largest and safest food supply in the world as well. This large supply of food is the main reason why Americans enjoy the cheapest food in the world. In fact, the average U.S. citizen only spends 9.8 percent of their disposable income to pay for food, which is the lowest of any country.

The U.S. agriculture industry is facing the toughest economic situation that it has seen since the 1980s. Farm income has dropped 46 percent over the last three years and the USDA predicts it to drop another 8 percent in 2017. The current drop in farm commodity prices is due largely to the high commodity prices that existed between 2010 and 2014. That period was a result of several major adverse weather events across the U.S., combined with high world demand for farm commodities. Also contributing to that period was a weak U.S dollar value, which made American-grown commodities more affordable in the world market.

During those years, a lot of farmers and industry experts predicted that the level of farm income would not always be as good as it was then, and they were correct. Agricultural commodity prices often follow 6-10 year cycles as a result of supply-and-demand situations. Between 2010 and 2014, supply was low and demand was extremely high, which resulted in record high commodity prices. However, since 2014, farmers worldwide have produced record or near-record yields in all of the major crops.

Most recently in 2016, U.S. farmers produced record amounts of both corn and soybeans. This success is due largely to advancements in crop genetics, but also the lack of a major adverse weather event in important agricultural regions throughout the world.

Like anything in nature, agricultural production is susceptible to weather conditions and natural disasters. Unfortunately, in the near term, it will be hard for commodity prices to bounce back until a major weather event happens somewhere in the world that ultimately contributes to a decrease in the world supply of agricultural commodities. The future of the agriculture industry is bright, but it will include overcoming obstacles along the way.

As mentioned before, around 23 percent of U.S. grown commodities are sold overseas. In the near term, trade negotiations with foreign countries and especially with those who charge tariffs on U.S. agricultural commodities, will be extremely important. Opening new foreign markets will create more demand for the agricultural commodities that are currently in oversupply.

In the long term, the preservation of productive farmland will also be extremely important. The United Nations predicts that the world population will reach 9 billion people by year 2050. As a result, farmers will need to produce 60 percent more food than is being grown today.

The easiest way to ensure that the United States will have the upper hand as the world food supply tightens is by preserving productive farmland. Over the past 67 years, U.S. farmers have increased their productivity by 262 percent while reducing their amount of inputs by 2 percent. The next 60 percent increase in productivity will be extremely challenging for a variety of reasons including; excessive government regulations, access to irrigation water, increasing demand for less productive non-GMO crops, and a decrease in the amount of arable farmland in production. Throughout the majority of the previous 67-year increase in productivity, these same factors did not exist; however, each will need to be addressed going forward. 

In closing, I would like to thank you for trusting American farmers, like myself, for providing you with the largest and safest food supply in the world!

Happy National Agriculture Week!

WESTLEY B. DRAKE is a local framer in the Newsoms area  is a passionate advocate for agricultural . He can be reached at peanutfarmer9@yahoo.com.