Farming in America

SEPTEMBER 2016 | IMPACTINGOURFUTURE.COM

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An Independent Supplement by Mediaplanet to USA Today

Farming in America Farming advocates Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Neil Young share why it’s so important to support America’s farmers.

When we shop with our hearts, everyone wins. Welfare-conscious purchasing decisions can mean better lives for farm animals. Learn more at

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Animal Warmth Learn how to balance humane treatment of livestock in farm production with these resources from the ASPCA. Page 4

Playing Chicken Von Miller may be a champion linebacker and dancing star, but his deepest passion is poultry farming. Online

Sprouting Careers Is it possible to find a field where jobs outnumber grads with degrees? You might just find it in agriculture. Page 5

American Farming and the New Meaning of Efficiency As food demands continue to increase while the population of farmers shrinks, the landscape of agricultural work is changing radically.

T

oday’s farmers are doing more with less — producing more crops on less land, raising more animals with a smaller workforce, feeding more people with less waste. And the world, which is growing and evolving daily, demands even more from this dwindling slice of the population.

A changing industry In the years shortly after the country’s founding, farmers made up 90 percent of the American labor force. Yet as industrialization and digital developments overtook rural roots, that percentage has shrunk drastically. Today, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, just 2 percent of the U.S. population is made up of farm and ranch families. As fewer young people drive tractors, sling bales of hay, or learn to milk cows, the connection to what was once an essential part of the domestic landscape becomes foreign. It has made it ever more

critical to share the stories of agricultural communities and to convey how science and technology help farmers feed a global population — one that the United Nations expects to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050. What’s easily unnoticed in many discussions of the landscape is the scale needed to make modern agriculture a viable profession. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service points to the likelihood of low profitability among smaller farms and the fact that they are often not viable as ongoing businesses when compared with their larger counterparts. Family ownership For a farmer who is hoping to pass the family farm onto the next generation, longevity and stewardship of the land become critical. Of the more than 2 million farming operations in the U.S., the American Farm Bureau notes that 97 percent of them are operated by families, whether by individuals, family

Ryan Tipps

Managing Editor, AGDAILY.com

…the nation’s farmers are forecasted to spend $10 billion more on livestock feed in 2016 than they did in 2010.

partnerships or family corporations. And most farmers want to keep their business that way. The task isn’t easy. Ten- to 16-hour shifts every day of the week are commonplace, technology is an ever-adapting asset and price fluctuations have a significant ripple effect on the operation, particularly when acreage is measured by the hundreds or the thousands. The large scale of the majority of farms that feed the nation means that business and marketing savvy factor into their future health. New costs As an example, the nation’s farmers are forecasted to spend $10 billion more on livestock feed in 2016 than they did in 2010; $5 billion more on seed; and even $1.4 billion more on electricity. Furthermore, 2013 and 2014 saw significant spikes in these agricultural expenses — spikes whose impacts continue to linger. Scalability of farming isn’t the only thing saving many in the industry. Technology helps today’s farmers

produce 262 percent more food — with fewer pesticides, fertilizer and labor — when compared to 1950. Moving forward Versions of the government’s Farm Bill have been around for decades. While the current iteration, passed in 2014, funnels nearly 80 percent of its money into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the remaining portions help crop farmers with insurance or guard dairy farmers’ margins. Still, that’s less of a safety net than in years past, when the Farm Bill offered direct payments to farmers despite whether losses were incurred. The risks of today are real. Farmers are caught between the public romanticism of their role and the complex realities of market trends, unforgiving weather and cutting-edge technologies. The agriculture industry is doing more with these tools, but with global expectations higher than ever, the other thing they have less of is room for error. n

Publisher Daniel Pinkston Business Developer Jourdan Snyder Managing Director Luciana Olson Content and Production Manager Chad Hensley Senior Designer Kathleen Edison Designer Marie Coons Copy Editor Dash Lunde Production Coordinator Tiffany Kim Contributors Zoe Alexander, Charlie Arnot, Daisy Freund, Sangeetha Sarma, Jill Smoots, Ryan Tipps, Megan Troise Cover Photo Marc Hauser All photos are credited to Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve USA Today.

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2 | IMPACTINGOURFUTURE.COM | IN THIS ISSUE

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Animal Warmth Learn how to balance humane treatment of livestock in farm production with these resources from the ASPCA. Page 4

Playing Chicken Von Miller may be a champion linebacker and dancing star, but his deepest passion is poultry farming. Online

Sprouting Careers Is it possible to find a field where jobs outnumber grads with degrees? You might just find it in agriculture. Page 5

American Farming and the New Meaning of Efficiency As food demands continue to increase while the population of farmers shrinks, the landscape of agricultural work is changing radically.

T

oday’s farmers are doing more with less — producing more crops on less land, raising more animals with a smaller workforce, feeding more people with less waste. And the world, which is growing and evolving daily, demands even more from this dwindling slice of the population.

A changing industry In the years shortly after the country’s founding, farmers made up 90 percent of the American labor force. Yet as industrialization and digital developments overtook rural roots, that percentage has shrunk drastically. Today, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, just 2 percent of the U.S. population is made up of farm and ranch families. As fewer young people drive tractors, sling bales of hay, or learn to milk cows, the connection to what was once an essential part of the domestic landscape becomes foreign. It has made it ever more

critical to share the stories of agricultural communities and to convey how science and technology help farmers feed a global population — one that the United Nations expects to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050. What’s easily unnoticed in many discussions of the landscape is the scale needed to make modern agriculture a viable profession. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service points to the likelihood of low profitability among smaller farms and the fact that they are often not viable as ongoing businesses when compared with their larger counterparts. Family ownership For a farmer who is hoping to pass the family farm onto the next generation, longevity and stewardship of the land become critical. Of the more than 2 million farming operations in the U.S., the American Farm Bureau notes that 97 percent of them are operated by families, whether by individuals, family

Ryan Tipps

Managing Editor, AGDAILY.com

…the nation’s farmers are forecasted to spend $10 billion more on livestock feed in 2016 than they did in 2010.

partnerships or family corporations. And most farmers want to keep their business that way. The task isn’t easy. Ten- to 16-hour shifts every day of the week are commonplace, technology is an ever-adapting asset and price fluctuations have a significant ripple effect on the operation, particularly when acreage is measured by the hundreds or the thousands. The large scale of the majority of farms that feed the nation means that business and marketing savvy factor into their future health. New costs As an example, the nation’s farmers are forecasted to spend $10 billion more on livestock feed in 2016 than they did in 2010; $5 billion more on seed; and even $1.4 billion more on electricity. Furthermore, 2013 and 2014 saw significant spikes in these agricultural expenses — spikes whose impacts continue to linger. Scalability of farming isn’t the only thing saving many in the industry. Technology helps today’s farmers

produce 262 percent more food — with fewer pesticides, fertilizer and labor — when compared to 1950. Moving forward Versions of the government’s Farm Bill have been around for decades. While the current iteration, passed in 2014, funnels nearly 80 percent of its money into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the remaining portions help crop farmers with insurance or guard dairy farmers’ margins. Still, that’s less of a safety net than in years past, when the Farm Bill offered direct payments to farmers despite whether losses were incurred. The risks of today are real. Farmers are caught between the public romanticism of their role and the complex realities of market trends, unforgiving weather and cutting-edge technologies. The agriculture industry is doing more with these tools, but with global expectations higher than ever, the other thing they have less of is room for error. n

Publisher Daniel Pinkston Business Developer Jourdan Snyder Managing Director Luciana Olson Content and Production Manager Chad Hensley Senior Designer Kathleen Edison Designer Marie Coons Copy Editor Dash Lunde Production Coordinator Tiffany Kim Contributors Zoe Alexander, Charlie Arnot, Daisy Freund, Sangeetha Sarma, Jill Smoots, Ryan Tipps, Megan Troise Cover Photo Marc Hauser All photos are credited to Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve USA Today.

KEEP YOUR FEED FRESH. FOLLOW US @MEDIAPLANETUSA

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4 | IMPACTINGOURFUTURE.COM | NEWS

How Animal Kindness Can Improve All of Our Lives Improving the welfare of farm animals isn’t just the right thing to do. It can also give consumers and farmers a better quality of life. “Chicken TV.” That’s what the farmer I knew called it when he pulled up a lawn chair in the pasture with his birds at dusk to watch them go about their chicken business. There was nothing more satisfying for him after a long day than to watch “the ladies” peck, scratch, socialize and explore, curious about his presence. This told him that he was doing his job correctly. More humane farming is not just gratifying to farmers and better for animals. It also creates safer

working conditions and makes economic sense as savvy consumers increasingly reject the premise of cruel factory farming. A brutal habitat Today, billions of farm animals live in crowded, inhumane facilities in conditions that no member of the public could stomach – never mind enjoy observing – if they saw them first hand. In these sealed warehouses, animals are unable to perform any of their natural behaviors and live on top of their own waste, causing lameness, skin sores, infections, and extreme psychological distress. This is no way to live, but it’s also no way to work. Farmers breathe this stinking, burning air, and

interact with fearful, frustrated animals who, as a result, can be more prone to aggression. Health risks Poor farm conditions can have serious health implications for farmers, too. In 2014, Johns Hopkins University scientists tested 22 people who worked on confinement pig farms in North Carolina and found that 86 percent carried staph bacteria associated with livestock, and almost 50 percent had strains that were resistant to one or more antibiotics. Whether it’s MRSA, salmonella or E. coli, crowded, stressful conditions on farms cultivate diseases that are highly transferable and increasingly resistant to the drugs

we’ve always used to treat them, putting farmers at severe risk. Kindness profits The financial incentives for more humane farming are growing steadily. Healthier animals mean less suffering and reduced mortality, as well as reduced need for expensive medications. As the public becomes educated about the unethical, unhealthy reality of factory farming, they are seeking alternatives. A 2016 ASPCA survey showed that 77 percent of consumers are concerned about the welfare of animals raised for food, and 76 percent would purchase verifiably higher welfare products even if it resulted in price increases.

A humane future This is why meaningful independent welfare certifications like Certified Humane, Global Animal Partnership and Animal Welfare Approved are growing and now collectively audit and certify the welfare of more than 400 million farm animals. These audits, verifying that animals have the space and enrichment to satisfy their natural behaviors and maintain physical and emotional well-being, should not be confused with unverified and undefined claims like “natural” or “humanely raised.” Over the next decade we expect to see more and more farms and companies committing to these higher standards because it’s right, it’s what consumers demand, and at the end of the day, it’s a way of raising animals that a farmer can be proud of. ■

By Daisy Freund, Director, ASPCA Farm Animal Welfare Program

Drones Provide the Potential for a Rich Harvest By Jennifer DeMeritt SPONSORED

Like crops need water, farmers need info about those crops, and drones are helping fi ll-in important gaps in farming data. “Agriculture is one of the riskiest businesses,” says Nathan Stein,

a commercial farmer who works for the drone manufacturer senseFly. “Not knowing if an issue developed in the field or if a fertilizer pass got skipped, you could be stuck at harvest time, costing you a significant amount of money. Knowledge is power.” Harvesting data Many farmers gather this knowledge through satellite imagery, which can track drainage patterns, nitrogen levels, and a host of other crop-related data. Currently, remote sensing can be performed with drones, which allows farmers to quickly pinpoint specific areas for observa-

tion, rather than waiting for a scheduled satellite pass or hiring a manned aircraft. “If a crop is at a critical state, I can get that information quickly with a drone in the next two days,” says Brent Johnson of Labre Crop Consulting. He adds that drones can’t cover as many acres as satellites and are unlikely to replace them anytime soon. But because drones provide more detailed images — where and when farmers need them — they add a new level of precision to agricultural data. Broader acceptance In June 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration released new reg-

…remote sensing can be performed with drones, which allows farmers to quickly pinpoint specific areas for observation… ulations for commercial drones such as specifying when they can fly and maximum speed and altitude. “Now that the regulations are in place, there’s a clear direction and there’s going to be broader adoption of drone technology,” Stein predicts. Farmers can choose from a vari-

ety of agricultural drones, from a small quad copter for quick inspections costing $500–$1,000, to a fixed-wing model such as senseFly’s new eBee SQ, which provides longer flight times, extended radio links, and multispectral cameras, for upwards of $11,000. A timeless business Stein emphasizes that even the best drones won’t solve all of a farmer’s problems. “Nothing has changed in agronomy,” he says. “It is still the science of plants, only now we have a new tool that can help us better understand them. We have more information, and that’s super powerful.” ■

INSIGHT | MEDIAPLANET | 5

Why You Should Consider a Degree in Agribusiness By Megan Troise

Whether on the farm, or in the city, with nearly 60,000 job openings, agribusiness may just be the breath of fresh air you need.

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he U.S. job market is now more competitive than ever, and college students need to know about the industries that are expanding and offering opportunities for various careers. One of those growing fields is agriculture. With nearly 60,000 job openings annually within food, agriculture, environment and

renewable resources fields, and only about 35,000 qualified graduates to fill them, the door is wide open for students who pursue an agribusiness MBA degree. Room to grow In order to keep up with the country’s population growth, the United Nations says farmers will need to increase food production by 70 percent by 2050, driving

companies to focus on food technology and innovation (think drones, self-driving tractors and remote data on soil temperature) and create more opportunities for plant and food scientists, water resources engineers, ecosystem managers, crop advisors and more. With more companies (like Granular and other startups in the Silicon Valley) aiming to provide cloud computing software

and mobile apps to farms, agriculture graduates have the potential to join an exciting shift in how the industry operates. What’s more, 45 percent of companies are expected to increase recruiting at colleges and universities over the next five years, making it even easier for students to enter the workforce. From plant and soil sciences to seed and biotechnology, there is a wide array of options within the industry. But with almost half the job opportunities projected to fall under business and management, those with an agribusiness MBA

“…to keep up with the country’s population growth, the United Nations says farmers will need to increase food production by 70 percent by 2050...” will be in the highest demand. It may be an unexpected path for some, but farming could be the career students never knew they wanted. n

94% Job Placement Rate An average of 22,500 agricultural-related jobs go unfilled each year. The University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) is working to fill those jobs with well-prepared graduates who are ready to meet the challenges of a changing world. CALS averages a 94% job placement rate for new graduates and our alumni find careers with top international companies such as Simplot, Land O’Lakes, Glanbia and Chobani. Our students are able to focus on becoming the best employees due in part to scholarship support. CALS awards nearly $1 million in scholarships each year... more than half of our students receive scholarships.

There is a growing demand for graduates with a degree in agricultural related fields… Are you up for the job?

#UICALS | www.uidaho.edu/ag

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Nelson, Mellencamp, Matthews & Young: the Supergroup That Chairs Farm Aid We sat down for a roundtable with the music icons behind the fundraising music festival Farm Aid to learn about their personal connections to American agriculture. Mediaplanet: We appreciate you taking the time to tell us about what Farm Aid means to you and what family farmers should mean to America. We’d like to start with you, Willie. What did you experience in 1985 that made you launch Farm Aid? Willie Nelson: Farming is in my blood. I grew up picking cotton with my family in the summer. I raised pigs for the Future Farmers of America (now called FFA) when I was in high school. I understand how difficult farming is and how hard farmers work to make a living and grow good food for us. In 1985, we were in the middle of a farm crisis in this country. Farmers were struggling to keep their family farms intact. John, Neil and I wanted to do something to help them, use our voices to make a difference in farmers’ lives, so we decided to do it the best way

we knew how: We invited our artist friends to join us and we played music. John, what made you come on board when you got that call from Willie? John Mellencamp: In 1985, the small towns I had grown up in were collapsing. I didn’t have to dig very deep to find out it was because family farmers were going out of business. So when Willie called me about doing something to help, I immediately got on board because I wanted to make a difference. And do you see the difference you’ve made? John Mellencamp: Well, when we first started Farm Aid, I thought it would be a one-time thing and we would make a huge difference. 31 years later, we’re all still at it, fighting for family farmers and their

way of life. Change takes time and I think we are seeing progress. We’re beginning to think about the food we eat and the people who grow it. We see more demand for local, and more demand for organic. There’s still a lot more work to do. And as long as I think I can help the family farmer, then I will do so every year. If you want a better world, it starts with you. Neil, you’re known for being one of the most outspoken advocates for farmers in the country. When you first got that call from Willie, what was it about the issue that spoke to you? Neil Young: The countryside is where I come from, it’s easy for me to relate to people who work the land. I understand their way of life and believe in it. At Farm Aid I get to be honest with our audience about the state of our farms, the corporate

controls farmers are subjected to, and the problems they face. I take my responsibility very seriously, to make sure we celebrate the successes, but also that we don’t lose sight of why we do this every year. Dave, you played at Farm Aid for the first time in 1995, and became such a committed and thoughtful voice for American agriculture that in 2001 Willie personally asked you to join him, Neil and John on Farm Aid’s board. Why was this movement important to you? Dave Matthews: About the time I joined, I became more interested in the quality of food my family and I were eating. So becoming involved in the larger picture of what it means to have healthy food from healthy farms was a natural progression of that interest. It’s an issue that affects every single person in our country and one we need to pay very close attention to. You personally own farmland in Virginia. What have you learned from that experience?

Dave Matthews: I believe there is a sustainable way of farming we can pursue that benefits the farmer and the environment. And from experience we know that one of the best ways to preserve that ideal American vision we have of a farmer working the land is to bring more young farmers into the fold. We need to fi nd creative ways of supporting young farmers, either by helping them lease land or developing systems that give them financial stability. One of the organizations I work with is Local Food Hub, in Charlottesville, Virginia. It connects farmers in Virginia to eaters by distributing their products to local restaurants, grocery stores, colleges and hospitals. I’m really proud of the work we’re doing and ways we’re helping farmers navigate around issues of supply and infrastructure without adding additional costs to their operations. ■

Read the full conversation at impactingourfuture.com

“WE GROW ALMONDS, AND A WHOLE LOT MORE.” Almond farmers in California grow a food that’s rich in nutrition— And really, they’re growing more than that. • Like almond trees that capture and store carbon, a greenhouse gas. And almond hulls and shells that are used as livestock feed and bedding. • Like leading adoption of water-saving micro-irrigation, and aggressive research to more efﬁciently use, manage and protect water for crops and communities. • Like 100,000 jobs and an $11 billion contribution to California’s economy. And that’s not all. Grow what you know about almonds at almondsustainability.org

Good news about fat. U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend that the majority of your fat intake be unsaturated. One serving of almonds (28 grams) has 13 grams of unsaturated fat and only 1 gram of saturated fat. Kendall, A., Marvinney, E., Brodt, S. and Zhu, W. (2015), Life Cycle–based Assessment of Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Almond Production, Part I: Analytical Framework and Baseline Results. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 19: 1008–1018. doi: 10.1111/jiec.12332.

University of California Agricultural Issues Center. The Economic Impacts of the California Almond Industry. December 2014.

IS PROUD TO SOURCE

100% U.S. GROWN RICE

In Northern China, where the Chiang family has roots, rice was, and still is, an important source of food and tradition. Today, as we share Asian-inspired recipes in America, we must celebrate rice and the hard-working families who honor it.

MEET THE FARMERS farmtowok.pfchangs.com #FARMTOWOK

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