Future Challenges for Agriculture Identified by FB

NASHVILLE, Tenn., January 9, 2006 – American agriculture 15 years from now will be a vital, more profitable sector of the economy, successfully competing with foreign commodities, according to a new report released by the American Farm Bureau Federation today.

The report said tomorrow’s farmers and ranchers will receive greater recognition for their efforts to conserve natural resources and use environmentally friendly technologies, while still providing consumers with the world’s safest and most abundant food supply.

These assessments are among the highlights of a report produced after two years of study by members of Farm Bureau’s Making American Agriculture Productive and Profitable Committee. The 23 farmers and ranchers on the MAAPP committee were asked to develop a vision of what American agriculture should look like in 2019, when Farm Bureau celebrates its 100th anniversary.

“This is a long-range plan that gives our members a look at where agriculture is headed in the next 15 years,” said William Sprague, MAAPP committee chairman. “We believe these recommendations will make the industry more productive and profitable.”

The committee identified several trends that will most affect agriculture in the next 15 years. They include:

• Government support for agriculture will look very different – the farm bills of the future will be nothing like the farm bills of recent years.
  
  
• Global trade will drive agricultural profitability, because more than 96 percent of the world’s population will be outside the U.S.
  
  
• Farmers will be more dependent on nearby rural communities, but these communities will be less dependent on agriculture for their economic stability.
  
  
• America will have fewer farms producing a larger percentage of U.S. food and fiber, but there will be more small farms than today.
  
  
• More farmers and ranchers will have learned to produce what they can sell and not simply sell what they produce.
  
  
• Market forces will drive the implementation of environmental practices.
  
  
• Research and technology will be global in scope rather than focused nationally.

“Education, training and technology are going to be even more important for the next generation of farmers and ranchers,” said Sprague, who raises corn, sorghum and soybeans in Kentucky. “Technology used to change every 15 or 20 years, now it changes in just two or three years. Our farmers are going to have to be flexible and willing to change to take advantage of opportunities in the next 20 years.”

According to Illinois farmer Ron Warfield, the MAAPP committee’s vice-chairman, “There will be a role for government to be involved in agriculture policy in 2019, but that role should change. In 2019 the government's role should be: to regulate open and competitive markets but not to over-regulate the industry; to provide risk management but not eliminate the risk; to invest in research but let the private sector market the technology; and to provide infrastructure and incentives for rural economic growth but not own or operate the resources.”

Better marketing and knowledge of consumer needs are crucial to future success, MAAPP members said. Marketing “will shift as farmers and ranchers learn to produce what they can sell, not simply selling what they produce,” said Tim Dunn of Arizona.

American agriculture is a “powerhouse producer,” said Edwin Raak of Michigan. However, our farmers and ranchers “must begin to incorporate marketing as a crucial part of their business plans,” Raak said.

The MAAPP committee is not a policy-making entity, and its report does not replace Farm Bureau’s established policy-making process. “MAAPP members put together a large body of information for our members to consider as they work on developing policy for the future,” said Bob Young, AFBF chief economist. “They’ve put together a broad set of information on the importance of rural economies to agriculture, to the challenges of the environment, from the opportunities of trade to the challenges of restructuring agricultural policy here in the U.S. But it will always be up to the Farm Bureau membership to set the path for the organization,” Young said.

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