American Agriculture

US Agriculture Can Feed The World
By J. Scott Angle, UGA Jun 23, 2009

It is crystal clear that rising population and growing nutritional demands will require food production to double by 2050. Yet, land available for food Where the increase in food production will occur depends upon geopolitics, climate or climate changes and environmental considerations.

Europe isn’t likely to adopt new technologies to increase food production. In the United States, agricultural patterns are changing with climate changes. Climate change will likely exacerbate drought conditions in western United States. California’s current drought may become permanent.

The Southeast has a long growing season, abundant sunlight, good soils and reasonable amounts of rainfall and groundwater. Agriculture in the region must grow to meet world food demand.
For years, Malthusian predictions were that mass starvation was inevitable as populations grow. The evidence has been just the opposite. Food production has kept up with population and improved nutrition of less-developed societies. In fact, there is a worldwide food surplus. But there are still starving populations. Most often the situation isn’t lack of food, but an inability to move it to where it’s needed, often due to local political instability.

There is every reason to believe that rising yields and improved nutrition in agriculture will continue for many years. Most yield increases have come from new technologies from the U.S. system of agricultural research and education. Read More

There is no doubt that American agriculture can meet the challenge of increased food production if we are allowed to. The problem is that politics may prevent that from happening. Right now, there are many people in this country that seem to think food production shouldn’t be a priority. These same people continually push to hamstring our ability by supporting increased regulations that force farmers and ranchers to exit the business. Nothing else will matter in this country if we don’t have enough to eat. On this planet, we are literally never further than a few weeks away from running out of food. Agriculture is the foundation upon which everything else is built.