My name is Fred Kirschenmann and I am a farmer from North Dakota and since November 2000, I have been the Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Current situation in agriculture Over half of farm income comes from direct government payments. Costs of production exceed the market price for most commodities. There more farmers over the age of 65 than there are under the age of 35. Environmental problems persist and worsen.
Rural communities are in a state of decline.
Many in our society would argue that while the environmental problems noted above are indeed critical, the declining farm numbers are not. The brutal truth is that if all we expect from agriculture is that it produce sufficient quantities of food and fiber as efficiently as possible on a global scale, then we should get out of the farming business altogether. This is a legitimate scenario, but not without great risks. The tightly coupled, complex systems needed to accomplish this end are subject to catastrophic failures in safety and health. I see this system promising unprecedented prosperity and economic growth and providing a reality of degraded farms and watersheds, polluted air, food safety fears, failing farm families, and perishing communities.