We owe a big thanks to the American farmer and the American agriculture industry.
Why? Because of its efficiency, production and innovation, the world is the beneficiary of the highest level of food security and lowest level of malnutrition in history. The industry is also rapidly responding to the issues of climate change.
The last 50-100 years of productivity have resulted in these amazing feats:
- U.S. farm output tripled between 1948 and 2017 growing an average of 1.53-percent.
- In the same time when output tripled, labor use has declined by 75-percent and land use has decreased by 24-percent.
- In 1900, farming required 38% of U.S. labor to feed and clothe 76 million Americans. By 2017, that number declined to less than 1%. In other words, one American farmer feeds 159 of his fellow countrymen.
- Rising global food production has reduced malnutrition from 2 in 3 people in 1950 to 1 in 11 by 2019.
The miracle of American farm productivity is unique and the world continues to look to America for leadership in global Ag productivity. U.S. productivity has allowed the US to export a huge share of their food and fuel production (grains, oilseeds,meats, ingredients and biofuels), allowing us to feed more people with the least amount of effort per person.
Why is this so impressive? Because in spite of the fact that farming is difficult and a farmer receives only 14.5 cents on the dollar for food spent in the USA, the industry is still aggressively innovating and succeeding.
The farmer has to decide how to prepare the soil, what hybrid to plant, how much to fertilize, when to plant, what pest prevention to apply, should they side-dress, and more. Then, after putting hundreds of dollars in the ground, the farmer sits back and watches for the biggest input to act on which he has no control: the weather.
In addition, the farmer has to toggle the complex finance and labor side of the business.
The same is true for Agribusiness, yet it also continues to innovate, market, expand, research, and operate in a way that creates seeds, fertilizers, equipment, logistical supply chains, processes and further manufactured products that deliver that food and fuel to the World. .
The world would not be able to have the food and security available at the price today without the successful efforts of the farmer and agribusiness.
Here’s to American Agriculture.. There is nothing else like it in the world!!
