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The power of a pig bellyBy Trent Loos As you may have noticed, I am usually quick to write about major news outlets that do not portray an accurate or positive image of American agriculture. Consequently, when this week's Newsweek hit, an article with a title of, "How pigs saved our bacon," caught my attention. I ultimately had no choice but to share with you the basic concept that author Daniel Gross put in the article. The one line that really got me interested was: "While it's fashionable to say that the United States doesn't manufacture anything except debt and Disney movies, Americans do produce bumper crops of stuff the world needs: scrap paper, pharmaceuticals, coal, airplanes, wheat and livestock, to name a few." To me, his words are a big deal. I continue to see elected officials and media reports suggesting that we overuse the resources in our care; when in fact, those of us on the land recognize we haven't even scratched the surface of its potential. I am truly concerned that far too many American citizens have the vision that the United States should be the world's largest theme park. Maybe we'll promote it as, "Look at all the available resources the United States has, while having no desire to utilize them." This is the mind-set that has created our dependence, first on energy and now in every other sector of our lives. Oh yes, we have cotton fields in the United States but start driving around town looking for a shirt that says, "Made in the USA." The Newsweek article continues: "The result: last year exports from the United States rose 12.2 percent, to $1.62 trillion. And while they accounted for about 9.1 percent of total economic output in 2002, exports last year were 11.7 percent of gross domestic product--'probably an all-time record,' says Edward Gresser, director of the Trade and Global Markets Project at the Progressive Policy Institute. 'In the last quarter of 2007, without foreign sales we would have been in recession.' One measure of the growth: in January 2007 at the Port of Los Angeles, 61.7 percent of the outgoing containers stacked on cargo vessels left the port empty, after the imported goods had been dropped off; a year later only 51.5 percent of containers left empty." I still think that one of the toughest things for an American farmer or rancher to get his mind to understand is that less than 3 percent of the world's population lives in the United States. We must recognize that, for us to continue to improve our economic stability, adding value to the farm products we produce for the foreign markets is the best option we have. The developing nations around the world, particularly China and India, are adding citizens to their middle class at accelerated rates. But we cannot sit back and proclaim that just because we are the American beef producer that they will have to come to us for their beef supplies. We must not forget that we have not been granted a special right to be the world's leading meat producer; we must earn it year after year. Consequently, I am extending a sincere challenge to everyone in American agriculture to adopt the mind-set that we must continue to earn the right to feed the world. We can accomplish that by being better than anybody else globally in the efficient conversion of natural resources to human consumable products. Secondly, we must remind our leaders on a daily basis that the resources we have here on U.S. soil are to be utilized and not simply preserved. Again back to Daniel Gross's words in the Newsweek column, "last year agriculture exported $90 billion worth of products." But he also reminds us that we still import far more than we export. While the trade deficit dropped by 6.2 percent last year, it still comes to $711.6 billion. To use an old cliché that seems tremendously appropriate here--the first step to recovery is admission. To me this article is the first step in bringing a greater awareness to 300 million Americans that farming is not simply a romantic past time of rural America but a real part of the future economy of the United States of America. Thanks, Mr. Gross! Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com. 3/17/08 Date: 3/13/08
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