Have you ever thought about how many farmers we have compared to how many we had 17 years ago? This statistic shows the total number of farms in the United States from 2000 to 2017. In 2000, there were more than 2.16 million farms in the United States. In 2016, the amount of farms in the U.S. decreased to 2,048,000 (“Total number of Farms”) . This is crazy how many farmers there are now compared now to just 17 years ago. We are going to need so many more farmers in the future. If we keep decreasing we are going to starve. I believe that we are going to definitely need more food for the 7.5 billion people on Earth. New technology is helping our fellow farmers, for example, GM (Genetically Modified) crops are helping them to get better yields. New tactics allow farmers to not repeat mistakes like the “dust bowl”. Let me explain why we should start promoting farming again.
We need more farmers to produce more food for the 7.5 billion people. I think we need more food because now we are feeding more people than ever. I think it will also be necessary because we are slowly losing farmers and it is becoming harder to feed the people of this very diverse world. Based on current trends, the authors calculated, the world would need to produce 56 percent more calories in 2050 than it did in 2010. If farmers and ranchers met that demand by clearing away more forests and other ecosystems for cropland and pasture, as they have often done in the past, they would end up transforming an area twice the size of India(Plumer). In the United States, the average farmer is older than 50.(Walansky)“Many people still have an impression of farmers as older men wearing overalls that work from sunup to sundown, make very little money and are uneducated,” said Jeremiah McElwee, senior vice president of merchandising and product development of Thrive Market, an online retailer that sells natural and organic food products at reduced costs. “Having worked with hundreds of farmers, I can tell you there is nothing further from the truth with modern farmers. Just like any other profession, you meet all kinds of people with an amazingly diverse set of educational backgrounds in the farming community.” McElwee added.
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New technology is helping our fellow farmers. As remote satellite imaging has become more sophisticated, it’s allowed for real-time crop imagery. This isn’t just bird’s-eye-view snapshots but images in resolutions of 5-meter-pixels and even greater. Crop imagery lets a farmer examine crops as if he or she were standing there without actually standing there. Even reviewing images on a weekly basis can save a farm a considerable amount of time and money. Additionally, this technology can be integrated with crop, soil and water sensors so that the farmers can receive notifications along with appropriate satellite images when danger thresholds are met.(7 Emerging Agriculture Technologies) The soil and water sensors mentioned earlier have set a foundation for traceability. The industry has only begun to realize this infrastructure, but it’s taking shape quickly. These sensors provide information that can be associated with farming yields. It may seem like science fiction, but we’re living in a world where a bag of potatoes can have a barcode that you can scan with your smartphone in order to access information about the soil that yielded them. A future where farms can market themselves and have loyal consumers track their yields for purchase is not far-fetched.(7 Emerging Agriculture Technologies).
There is also new tactics allowing farmers to make their lives easier. The biggest thing that has changed, especially after the dust bowl, is the No-Till method. The most important advantage of conservation tillage systems is significantly less soil erosion due to wind and water. Other advantages include reduced fuel and labor requirements. However, increased reliance may be placed on herbicides with some conservation tillage systems. There is a concept called Conservation tillage. Conservation tillage is any method of soil cultivation that leaves the previous year's crop residue (such as corn stalks or wheat stubble) on fields before and after planting the next crop, to reduce soil erosion and runoff. ... Ridge-till involves planting row crops on permanent ridges about 4-6 inches high. I my opinion is not tilling at all. Many Iowa farmers have chosen to practice no-till farming because it does have many positive benefits to the environment. Most farmers don't actually 'plow' their fields. They either use conservation tillage methods or do not till the soil at all.
Out of all of these reasons I hope that I have changed your mind and made you think more about farming. I think that we do need more farmers because slowly we aren’t going to be producing enough food for the world and it’s going to end badly. We are going to need so many more farmers in the future. If we dont we are going to starve. I believe that we are going to definitely need more food for the 7.5 billion people on Earth. Also the new technology is helping our fellow farmers, for example, GM crops are helping them to get better yields. There is also new tactics allowing farmers to make their lives easier, like an example would be the Dust bowl.
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