Overheard at a farm show:
First retired farmer: “These big yields they’re getting today are just incredible. Is it because the farmers are smarter than we were or because they have better tools?”
Second retired farmer: “I’d have been a whole lot smarter - and had a lot better yields - if I’d had all the fancy technology they have today.”
Today, on National Ag Day, U.S. agriculture trumpets, and rightly so, its ever-increasing productivity. In 1960, an average U.S. farmer produced enough food and fiber for 46 people; today, that number is 160, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures.
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The seed that goes into the ground, the fertilizer that provides nutrients, the chemicals that protect, the equipment used to plant and harvest - they're all getting better. Argue, if you want, that the new tools come with negatives: for example, they’re expensive and encourage big farms at the expense of small ones. Whatever the negatives may be, however, the benefits are undeniable.
The reality is, U.S. farmers today are better than ever. It’s not because they’re smarter, work harder or are more dedicated than their parents and grandparents. It’s because farmers today utilize better tools and technology than their parents - just as their parents had better tools and technology than their grandparents, just as the farmers of 2037 will have better tools and technology than the farmers of today.
Read more of Knutson's blogs at http://agright.areavoices.com/2017/03/21/are-todays-farmers-better-than-... .
