Modern farmers have to be efficiency experts, engineers, scientists and marketing gurus. Life down on the farm is not what it used to be.
"The face of agriculture is changing--more rapidly now than ever before," says Sam Moore, president of Kentucky Farm Bureau. "From a team of horses and a good memory in the early 1900s to tractors with the power of 300 horses and computer-controlled cropping systems today, American farmers provide consumers with better quality food at a lower price."
That's the message of National Ag Day, which is being celebrated March 20, 2005, the first day of the Spring season. Kentucky Farm Bureau is asking all Kentuckians to join in celebrating the abundance provided by today's progressive farm families.
U.S. consumers spend roughly 9 percent of their income on food compared with 11 percent in the United Kingdom, 17 percent in Japan, 27 percent in South Africa and 53 percent in India. Today's farmers work nearly three-and-one-half times more land than their predecessors from 1900.
Their needs are different, the crops are different and the rules governing production practices are different. In fact, one farmer now supplies food for about 129 people in the United States and abroad compared with just 25.8 people in 1960.
Today's farmers understand the importance of improving the quality and quantity of food available to the world. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it is estimated that there will be 7.5 billion people in the world by the year 2020 - it is currently at 6.2 billion.
It is agriculture's job to find a way to feed that expanding population. Advancements in crop technology, equipment and information management will make that possible. Kentucky farmers and others involved in the agriculture industry have met and will continue to meet this challenge again and again.
