| By 2025, farmers need to double their food output to feed an estimated global population of eight billion. That’s a startling statistic and what it means is something we all need to start thinking about. I came across it in a report on the Colorado Ag Classic, a convention of Colorado wheat, seed, corn, sunflower and sorghum producers that was held this past week. Ag experts from the United States Department of Agriculture and Colorado State University talked about the challenges farmers will face in trying to meet future food demands. Continue reading Feeding the world without destroying it?  Corn uses too much water and too much fertilizer to produce, its critics often charge, making it a bad environmental choice.
Yet millions of people around the world depend on corn as a staple of life - as food for themselves, as feed for their livestock and as a renewable fuel alternative. And that demand is only expected to grow in the decades to come. Continue reading New corn to be better for environment Farmers sometimes get a little upset at how their livelihoods are depicted in urban media and on the Internet. They feel their side of the story isn’t being told, which leads consumers to have unfair or incomplete notions of food and farming. For the most part, farmers are too busy farming and often, activist groups are leading sources for journalists – because they’re available, accessible and eager to tell their tale. Continue reading Upcoming presentation to focus on agriculture and activists  The world’s demand for food and food-based products is set to double – if not triple – by 2050 and farmers must speak up for their right to meet that demand using conventional farming methods combined with new technologies.
If they don’t, a US researcher told delegates at the Beef Industry Convention in London ON recently, we will experience higher food prices, destroy sensitive ecosystems as they’re pressed into food production and hinder the development of new, “green” energy sources like ethanol. Continue reading The right to farm and feed the world I keep reading the same messages over and over again lately – and from different parts of the world. Agriculture, it seems, is under fire from government. Continue reading Regs, regs and more regs for farmers The following article was printed in the Ontario Corn Producer, December 2008. By Lilian Schaer These days, it seems hard to predict what may happen with any degree of accuracy three months from now, let alone three years into the future. But although we live in volatile times, there are some fairly safe bets on what may lie ahead for farmers on the environmental front. Continue reading The green crystal ball | |
