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What Does this Mean to Me?

Food. It's a matter of survival. If you eat right, it also can be a source of great pleasure.
Like most Americans, you probably pay little attention to where your food comes from. You buy it at a store, order it at a restaurant, expect it to be safe, nutritious, affordable and ... mostly ... to be there.
That's why the following message should concern you.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture 
Design: American Farm Bureau Federation
U.S. farmers and ranchers are the world's most efficient food producers. As a result, Americans have more variety to choose from — and spend only 10.7 cents of every dollar earned on their food bill, compared with over 51 cents in India, 33 cents in Mexico, 21 cents in Spain and 18 cents in Japan. That gives us more money to spend on houses, cars, college educations and the things that bring us pleasure.

Moreover, the average U.S. farmer feeds almost 130 people every day. That means that, for every farmer, 130 other people can be doctors, lawyers, teachers, business managers, entrepreneurs, artists and students.

But we are losing our farmers and ranchers. Rapidly. In Florida alone, almost 150,000 acres of productive agricultural land are converted to another use each year. That's over 17 acres an hour — or one acre every three and a half minutes.  

As a result, we are relying more and more on food from other countries. From countries where, in many cases, our own State Department warns us to not eat the produce when we travel there.

We eat 3 times a day, thanks to the farmers who grow our food. Yet our food could very well become more expensive and less safe in the very near future, because of current government attitudes toward our farmers and ranchers. As populations skyrocket in the developing, high-birth nations that currently fill our supermarkets with cheap imports — and we lose our farms and ranches — we will be competing for the first time with the world's hungry billions for every meal we eat.

 We eat 3 times a day. Yet we forget where our food comes from, because we are blessed with the world's most sophisticated food production and distribution system.

The world’s population passed the 6 billion mark in October 1999. It is projected to grow to 9 billion in the next 30 years, then begin to level off. That’s 3 billion new mouths to feed! 

photo by James P. Blair
©National Geographic Society

Yet there are huge unmet nutritional needs in much of the world. A statement prepared for the 1996 World Food Summit reported that 800 million people were underfed — and 2 billion were insufficiently nourished. That’s almost half of the world’s population! (In fact, in 1996, it was half of the world’s population.) 

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization also reports that arable land (that which is fit for cultivation) is diminishing at a rate of 10% per year in some developing nations because of soil erosion and spreading water scarcity. 

According to the FAO, food production will have to DOUBLE just to maintain current rates of malnutrition in the world. To adequately feed tomorrow's people, it is estimated that food production will have to increase by 174 percent — almost THREE TIMES! Plus, food distribution must be greatly improved.

These changes will have to occur in the span of just one generation — at a time when we are losing our farms ... and our farmers, who know how to grow safe, affordable, abundant food. At a time when the rest of the world is losing the land it needs to farm.

As one environmental leader recently noted: "Who is going to worry about a clean environment if there is no food on the table?"

We have taken our food — and our farmers and ranchers — for granted far too long. This is more than a business problem or tax problem or regulatory problem for a few farmers or ranchers. We eat 3 times a day! The loss of our farms and ranches is an matter of national security. It also could very well become a matter of survival.

Agriculture is more than just another business venture — it is our food supply. It is more than just a value that enhances our quality of life — it is our life support system. Agriculture is the cornerstone of our civilization and society.

Unfortunately, our government — at all levels — is driving farmers and ranchers out of business. Not on purpose. More by default. The effect, however, is the same. Every day, government policies, estate taxes and regulations whittle away at our farms. Profits disappear, competition for land and water intensifies, families are forced to sell land to satisfy estate taxes, farms are taken out of production to protect wildlife habitats and urban sprawl devours fields.

That’s why each of us needs to:

• Help others to understand and appreciate importance of agriculture;
 • Identify government policies that are working against agriculture; and
• Do everything we can to change these policies – and put new ones in place that will promote and encourage a viable agricultural industry.

For more information on what is being done by the creators of this site, and how you can help, please contact us.

For more information on sources for all the statements on this page, see downloads, Excerpt #3, "What Does This Mean to Me?"

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