Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century

1
Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the
21st Century
2
(No Transcript)
3
Drivers and constraints

• Biggest driver Industrialization of Agriculture
  over the last 40 years

4
Decreased diversity and crop rotations
5
Vicious Economic Circle for farmers

• 1969-2009-Farmers have doubled productivity
• 2009-Earned 40 Billion less than in 1969 in net
  cash income
• Net cash income in 2008 (the best year farmers
  have had since 1974) was lower than in 1929
• Net cash income in 2009 was near zero essentially
  the same as in 1932
• Source Ken Meter, Crossroads Resource Center
  Minneapolis, MN

6
What kind of food system do we have today?

• 60 of the food comes from only 2 of the farms
• Only a handful of corporations control the input,
  processing, and marketing of most of what we eat
• The producers share is down to 19 cents of the
  food dollar

7
Transformative Changes

• Transformative change the last 40 years towards
  two kinds of agriculture and a shrinking middle
  class
• The new transformative change of the next 40
  years
• Largely driven by Consumers
• Includes all kinds of agriculture, the foundation
  of which has been certified organic and locally
  grown

8
Transformative change

• Health impacts and true costs of a cheap food
  system
• Emerging research implicates pesticides,
  hormones, antibiotics, food additives, bio-tech,
  commodity crops, compromised food safety
• Human Diseases- Obesity, Diabetes, Cardiac
  disease, Cancers, Reproductive and Developmental,
  Endocrine Disruptions, Asthma and Food Allergies,
  Attention Deficit Disorder, Early Puberty, E.
  Coli, Salmonella and a host of other not
  understood ever- increasing health risks

9
What transformative changes do we need in Rural
America

• From the view point of a farmer for 37 years
• Negatives
• Loss of farmers, businesses and population
• Drain of financial resources off the farm and
  rural communities
• Industrial Agricultural removes much of its
  profits from rural America
• Confining livestock under one roof
• The kind of agriculture we have now only
  financially benefits the few and the very large
• Bigger is still considered better by many farmers
  and people in general- 120 ft wide planters and
  combines that can harvest 5,000 bushel/hour, 1
  million bushel grain bins at the Farm Progress
  Show

10
Transformative Changes that we need

• More young Farmers
• More Credit and entry opportunities
• More Rural Infrastructure
• Small Meat and animal product processing plants,
  food processing plants for fruits and vegetables,
  etc. community kitchens, Institutional food
  service, development of local and regional food
  economies
• Job opportunities- Iowa could create 6000 jobs if
  we provided our own fruits and vegetables for our
  state alone.

11
Transformative change

• Farm program reform- reward green practices of
  all kinds including energy, CSP is the best
  example
• Tax carbon at the source
• Get the livestock back on more farms and spread
  out with ownership by the farmer not the packer
  and food retailer.
• Get Beef and Dairy cattle back on Grass,
  recognizing the world-wide climate stability
  value of grass and consumption of animal
  products.

12
Transformative Changes

• Public Research for the public good
• One of the best examples being public plant
  breeding not the holding hostage of our worlds
  seeds by a few companies
• Access and competition in the market place and
  Seeds and Breeds
• More science-based on-farm research in complex
  farming systems with universities and
  researchers-Practical Farmers of Iowa
• Transformative change in what college students
  are learning about how food is produced
• Transfer of farming skills, knowledge, and
  experience from farmers like ourselves to the
  next generation of farmers

13
Who will feed the World?
14
Who will feed the World?
15
Who will feed the world?