Larger than passion, the impact of the agriculture industry is truly important to this world. I’m sure you all know the saying, “Without agriculture we all would be naked, hungry, and afraid;” well that isn’t supposed to be taken lightly, folks. The agriculture industry truly provides many products to consumers all over the world. There are products made from crops and livestock that you do not even realize. The industry really provides a huge amount of various products for citizens all over the world.
That isn’t all that agriculture has to offer, though. Sure, farmers and ranchers from all over are a part of raising crops and livestock, but the industry also grows youth up to be exceptional individuals. For students and other youth, there are so many opportunities along with being an agriculturist. FFA sparked my love for Ag. I am now attending the University of Wyoming where I am a part of the Livestock Judging team, as well as the Horse Judging team. My peers and I compete in different contests that help us develop different skills like leadership, communication, and teamwork, which are three things I see diminishing in the youth as the years go by.
Being an agriculturist also means watching crops and livestock start from the very beginning, tending to the needs of the crop or animal to make sure that high-quality products for consumers are continuing to be created, and then seeing the resulting product after all of the hard work is said and done. Many youth also tend to their livestock all year long to make sure they are in tip-top shape to be shown on the local, state, and national levels. These showmen are hardworking individuals who are dedicated to succeeding in the show ring and also producing livestock that are going to be functional in the process of producing food for the consumers.
Feeding, clothing and housing the world is hard. I mean back-breaking, heart-wrenchingly, hard. It is a 24 hour a day, 7 days-a week job. Failure is most certainly not an option for the people who are feeding the world. One bad year could mean the loss of a farm and a way of life. People who are involved in agriculture aren’t doing it because it is easy. They are doing it because they love it. They wouldn’t want to do anything else, and many of them have tried.
Everyone needs to eat. However, the distance between the farm and the plate has grown so vast that it's impact on the average American's daily life seems smaller and smaller, day by day. Is knowledge about agriculture still relevant for 90 percent of America (the percentage of the workforce which has no interaction with agriculture) when so few are actually involved in food and fiber production? Agriculture and its related industries provide nearly 10 percent of U.S. employment, but the number of students graduating with degrees in agricultural fields is not meeting industry demand. Agricultural education needs to attract a diversity of students and keep pace with the increasingly complex nature of agricultural innovation needed to address global challenges. Falling behind in agriculture is a threat to national security and must be addressed as such.
Less than 2% of the current U.S. population is involved in agriculture, but let's take a closer look at what the government classifies a "farmer". Just to be classified as a farmer, a farm or ranch needs to only make $2,000 dollars in a year. That's gross income, not profit, which means that this percentage includes hobby farms, youth projects, and other small operations which make no significant impact on the supply of the industry. The percentages of farms and ranchers that actually produce the majority of food are much smaller. Basically, only a minuscule amount of the population has a major impact on American food production; the rest of the country relies on manufacturing and higher skilled jobs for their annual income. Good, bad, or indifferent, we can all agree that there's a huge disconnect between the producer and consumer. This is, above all, the biggest threat to making agriculture relevant to the consumer. How can we make people care about ag when it's not something they see or connect with on a daily basis?
The simple answer is that if they don't care, they don't eat. This seems like a logical answer, but in the end, that ends employment for American agriculturalists and starves the people we serve. To make consumers care more about the industry that feeds them, we must first evaluate what they know. Consumers surprisingly care more than producers think they do; a study by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance said the "Consumers are constantly thinking about food" and that nearly "72% of consumers think about farming and food production while buying groceries". This means that agriculture and its advocates have the chance for an open dialogue, where we provide more information to the American people and spark a passion and awareness of the industry that fuels the world.
How, then, can we, as producers, and agriculturists, make agriculture more relevant in dinner table conversations? The key is providing more information for the general consumer. The same survey quoted above stated that while over 70% of Americans were interested in learning more about their food, only 42% thought that's the industry was headed in the right direction. The remainder believed that agriculture was regressing, namely as in being damaging to the environment, despite the fact that most sub-industries of agriculture have decreased their environmental impact by over 70%. They've decreased inputs and detrimental outputs so while increasing production by over 200%. At the end of the day, it comes down to the producer winning over the majority in how to safely and efficiently they're producing enough food to supply the world.
Although there is a lack of information and communication between the farm and the rest of the country, that hasn't eradicated the relevancy of agriculture in daily conversation. The goal now is to create open communication between the producing minority and the consuming majority, to create a healthier, safer, and, ultimately, more consumer-based (yet producer happy) industry. Let's keep America Clothed, Full, and Brave and not regressing to being Naked, Hungry, and Afraid.
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